Chamade
Eau de Toilette, Guerlain (1969)

Les Legendairres version - This is a GORGEOUS SCENT. The opening is so unique. I have nothing else like this in my collection. I have a galbanum opener in Chanel Bel Respiro, but this combines galbanum with a beautiful floral note which makes it smell feminine. Beautiful midnotes (something mystical and connected to Nahema drifts in) and drydown (who doesn’t love vanilla and sandalwood). I am very very pleased to have this in my scent wardrobe.

This is a seriously overlooked and under-rated masterpiece. I might need to purchase a backup bottle. Yes- this really is that good. A bargain at its current price.

Warm and comforting on this overcast, cool May morning, Chamade, while classical in its temperament, has a sunny temperament: it's not nearly as melancholy as its forebears, though there is a whisper of wistfulness, or else it wouldn't be a true Guerlain, I suppose.

The aldehydes and verdancy that open this bee bottle have no rough edges; my nose already detects a foreshadowing of an amber current, hyacinth and galbanum with benzoin and balsam hues, rendering an almost shimmering yellow feel. When reaching the core, the florals feel pastel and muted, impressionistic, and Chamade slowly winds down all powdery warm like a light blanket to shield the wearer from the chill.

I am sure I might here from purists, detractors who lament that this is a "shell of its former self" but I allowed my nose to come into this will no bias from smelling any other version, keeping an open mind, and honestly, this is beautiful to me, so you all can keep what you have (or spare a sample of your vintage if you're generous) and for those of you who might find "heritage" fragrances such as this to be perhaps too "dated" for your sensibility, this may just be dialed into your signal, as it isn't loud or brash at all. I am happy that I have added this to my Guerlain family. Thanks to Vanaris Ridari for encouraging me to give this a try.

Chamade by Guerlain (1969) is clearly not the first fragrance made by Jean-Paul Guerlain for the house after he relieved uncle Jacques, but it does seem to be the one that ultimately defined his style. It's a shame really, that Chamade doesn't get more love, and is seemingly relegated to a Guerlain B-side like so many of Jean-Paul's feminine-market scents that fall between his breakout masculines of the early 1960's like Vetiver (1961) or Habit Rouge (1965), and career-capping fragrances like Samsara (1989) or Héritage (1992). Outside of those, exalted unicorns of particularly extinct availability like Parure (1975) or Derby (1985) seem to unfairly define Jean-Paul's career too, as it is so often the case that people in the hobby of collecting perfumes tend to over-value the forbidden fruit of discontinuation while ignoring what's still in front of them. Admittedly, some Jean-Paul exercises were just that, and while nobody will claim Chant d'Aromes (1962) or Jardins de Bagatelle (1983) are anything other than genre exercises wth a Guerlinade twist, Chamade is something that I feel is much more. Reading up on the stuff, it's very clear Jean-Paul was proud of it, as according to Patrcia de Nicholai, he included bits of it in future fragrances like Jacques Guerlain had done, continuing the fragrance within a fragrance trope, which is how we ended up with Guerlinade (1925) the scent, and "Guerlinade" the house note in the first place. Chamade is supposed to be the smell of falling in love, and while I'll leave the validation of that market copy up to the individual wearing it, I will say it is easy to fall in love -with- Chamade itself. For me personally, this is one of the more clever Guerlains because it manages to smell of the house, of its time, and also very forward-thinking in a way that still feels modern.

The basics of Chamade are sharp aldehydes, green notes, vivid florals, dry leafy and mossy freshness, all piled on top of leather chypre base notes with both a Guerlinade and fruity twist. Like so many exceedingly green chypres of the late 1960's and into the 1970's, there is little to no sweetness in Chamade, however unlike most similar chypres such as Estée Lauder Azurée (1969), Chamade makes a really uncommonly-heavy use of blackcurrant that feels like a first for the perfume world. Blackcurrant buds were not new to perfumery, but as it became easiler to synthesize (like so many otherwise unobtainable florals), blackcurrant began to show up more and more prominently. Here in Chamade, the stuff is dosed at levels that would make Creed Aventus (2010) jealous, and maybe Pierre Bourdon's noted love affair with the note also came from smelling Chamade for the first time while he was still at Roure. The bergamot, galbanum, chewy herbs, and aldehyde top notes swim around this and also-prominent hyacinth, the floral focus of Chamade. The oily thick nature of hyacinth in this context blends perfectly with the blackcurrant to dominate over the rose, jasmine, carnation, and muguet heart. The base is very clearly borrowed from Vol de Nuit (1933), a scent Jean-Paul also reportedly admired, so new additions like tolu balasam and benzoin join a mossy castoreum leather and sandalwood base that has a drop of powdery Guerlinade signature with a touch of vanilla. Overall, Chamade is still more green, whilst Vol de Nuit lives in its powdery leather far more. Wear time is pretty good at 7 hours but Chamade is a bit on the light side compared to some other Guerlains, with sillage shy of moderate. Best use for me is spring or summer, but also out of a shower at any time. Chamade is also perfectly unisex.

I'm guessing as many guys loved Chamade as women, since Jean-Paul would revisit the structure and give it a men's counterpart called Chamade pour Homme (1999) as part of the exclusive Les Parisiens collection of rare boutique-only masculines curated by Guerlain himself after being replaced as house perfumer by LVMH. That scent, along with the preceding Coriolan (1998), take DNA from Derby, which itself feels like it reuses the same leather structure Chamade borrowed from Vol de Nuit, connecting them all in grand fashion (or Grand Guignol depending on how you feel about them). The sandalwood structure would likewise live on in Samsara, while Héritage was really the outlier, as Jean-Paul gave the men's market the semi-oriental fougère in 1992 that it probably wanted back in 1985 in place of what ended up as Derby (a doozy of a story there). Chamade moved to the bee bottles like so many lesser-selling Guerlains did into the 90's and beyond, getting reshuffled as an eau de toilette while all its older concentration variants disappeared. As a mostly-unloved but well-curated deep cut of the Guerlain category, Chamade still endures in Thierry Wasser's hands and survived the most recent round of LVMH catalog cuts to see continued life in the new 75ml inverted heart bottles borrowed from early 20th century Guerlains like Mitsouko (1919). Any way you get it, the green retro-futurism and "classic Guerlain" infusion of Chamade is not to be missed. Many people prefer older and/or denser concentrations of vintage chypres, although I take an unpopular stand of saying that lush green scents like Chamade actually smell better when presented lightly in cologne or toilette form, where their garden-in-a-bottle aesthetics feel more natural and ambient. Thumbs up.

The first impression is floral, and mainly determined by the hyacinth that is dominating the initial stages. Soon the blackcurrant buds arrive, but they remain in the background on me. Much more of an impact is had by the jasmine that is added in at around the same time. This is a jasmine that is quite fresh, green but not very night and a touch on the darker side at times.

The next stage sees the development of a vanilla note than is dominant in the second part of the development of this creation, although is does this in a restrained way as primum inter pares, fully integrated into the whole. This vanilla is never intrusive or cloying; and as a whole the whole mix is sweet and discreetly so. Towards the end this is partly due to a sandal impression in the background, which functions as a counterbalance to the floral core.

I get moderate sillage, very good projection and nine hours of longevity on my skin.

A lovely scent for spring, quite simple in structure but not without a touch of originality, and characterised by the high quality of its ingredients, especially in the older samples. Quietly self-assured, traditional but with a touch of dynamic energy - chamade? 3.5/5.

Current formulation.
Very oldschool and sharp at first, a bit bitter/sour, but the longer it goes, the softer and more beautiful it becomes. It starts off punchy and chypre-like and then later becomes this enveloping, welcoming, purring and soft scent. The start is a bit difficult and a bit too loud and intense to me, but later it gets softer, warmer, creamier and very slightly spicy. Overall I really like it.

An agreeable, easy to wear fragrance, relatively soft and muted, a fresh floral.