Vol de Nuit

Guerlain places Vol de Nuit among the amber chypres, with floral and woody facets. The eau de toilette opens on galbanum, a green resin, with bergamot essence; jonquil and jasmine lead the floral bouquet, over a base of spices and moss.

Galbanum

Galbanum, a gum resin the house sources from Iran, gives the opening its bitter, slightly rough green. Gaia, on The Non-Blonde, connects it to a phantom leather impression; Victoria, on Bois de Jasmin, pairs it with the citrus of the opening: orange, mandarin, lemon and bergamot.

A jonquil bouquet

At Bois de Jasmin, the heart brings together orange blossom, jonquil and aldehydes. The house speaks of a firework of flowers dominated by jonquil and jasmine; for the extrait, it adds violet, carnation and rose.

The woody base

The base blends moss, sandalwood, iris and vanilla, with spices and musk. Gaia describes a powdery iris drifting toward a slightly leathery vanilla; Victoria evokes a wood-paneled library, beeswax candles and a log fire.

For the current eau de toilette, the house names black pepper, cardamom and pink peppercorns, with an absolute of tree moss harvested in France, which gives the base an earthy, forest-floor depth.

The reformulations

The reformulations have left their mark. Victoria, in 2010, finds the reworked version much weaker, with a flat lemony opening and a pale base; Kafkaesque, in 2022, blames restrictions on oakmoss for a current extrait less green than it would like for a chypre.

What the label declares

The eau de toilette label opens with alcohol, water and fragrance, ahead of linalool and limonene. One UV filter, butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane, protects the juice; the list names coumarin, cinnamyl alcohol, geraniol, citronellol and citral.

It also declares treemoss extract, eugenol, farnesol, benzyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate and alpha-isomethyl ionone, substances that must be declared above a regulatory threshold.