L'Heure Bleue
Eau de Parfum, Guerlain (1912)

I can see how this has it's own mystique, but I actually dislike wearing this personally. It's quite a lot to digest at once, and it's very likely that I need to revisit it at a future time. Still, it's evocative and beautiful for that.

Immediately I get the vanilla with this, which is interesting, because it doesn't wait until the drydown to reveal itself. It also has the tone of *aged* tonka (I have a tonka bean from a friend in a jar, and it almost smells like alcohol). It's also dusty in tone, verging on stale.

Everything is so blended, soapy, and smooth, that it feels...environmental. I really can see how people claim this is pensive. I sometomes struggle with carnation in perfume (I love them in a vase). The carnations in here are wilting. The blooms are dry, but the stems are still seeping in old water. Yes, it's actually melancholic.

This fragrance makes me a little sad, but instead of blueness, I get deep maroon, brown, waning daylight and abandoned spaces. Liminality - a space that should be occupied, but is now vacated.

I quite honestly cannot rate this appropriately one way or the other. I like it, and dislike it. It's unsettling, but fascinating. It's otherworldly, but somehow...earthy.

Comparison of new batches of L’Heure Bleue Extrait, EdP, and EdT.

This enthusiastic vintage hunter curiously doesn’t own a vintage L’Heure Bleue, an oversight I hope to correct in the near future with a bit of good luck (and quite a bit of cash). This legend is coveted for good reason. Fortunately, I haven’t found a critical need to chase after one since Guerlain has kept LHB in solid shape. Gratitude and commendations to them and Thierry Wasser for that. There are some differences to the vintages, of course, and there should be, but LHB’s DNA and identity are firmly intact in new formulations. The biggest differences between the new and the old is the precision of the floral heart, which is clearer and sharper in new formulations, and the vintages are more generous with animal musks lending them to a sweeter and more civety feel in the dry downs.

Sticking strictly to the new formulations, here are the key differences between them. The first, no surprise, is the speed with which they progress. The EdT being the fastest, it reaches its dry down in a couple of hours - which is quite a bit faster by at least a couple of hours compared to vintage EdTs. It’s cheap, so don’t worry about it; lather yourself in it and you’ll get an on-par experience for today’s EdTs. The EdP is the second fastest, reaching its dry down in about four hours. This is on par with vintage EdPs and what you should expect from today’s EdPs. Finally, the extrait is the slowest, reaching its dry down in about 8 hours. This is definitely quicker than vintages, which took about ten, but it is on par with today’s extraits. Notably though, the top notes of the extrait dispense very quickly, within an hour; this is unusually quick for an extrait of any period.

While we’re on the subject of top notes, there lies the most perceptible difference between the three new formats. The EdT is mostly bitter and sour bergamot, with a fleck of anise. The EdP gives the same bitter and sour bergamot but better rounded and cooled off by tarragon, sage, touches of coriander, and the citrusy floral of orange blossom. The extrait is the most bracing of the three. The sour and bitter bergamot is virtually the same but the anise note is turned way up. This makes the extrait stand out quite a bit from the other two as darker, spicier, and woodier. This experience aligns, I believe, with vintage versions I have tried and are recalling to memory, but that is likely irrelevant since the age of vintage versions will mean most of those top notes have died off to some degree.

In the heart they are virtually the same, and smell like LHB has done for a very long time. The quietly beating heart of LHB is what makes this perfume so special. Red and fleshy roses; creamy and spicy carnations; powdery and dry orris and violets; benzoin of the base and the carnation harmonizing to a quiet note of cinnamon like a thread running through the perfume. The EdT’s heart is more monodimensional than the extrait’s or the EdP’s, opting for more of the creamy and spicy carnations and a white floral amalgam in comparison to the extrait’s and EdP’s less abstract and more dynamic presentations. Very good nonetheless. The extrait pushes a bit more jasmine to the front than the other two. Every time I smell LHB’s heart I get vivid images of a bouquet in a very old and dusty home that has seen more than its fair share woeful tales. The heart is eerily quiet and dark, but yet gentle and affectionately soft at the same time.

Near the end of the day, the EdT is long gone from my skin, having moved to a skin scent of earthy tonka, sweet and woody benzoin, and powdery orris many hours ago. Simple and very pleasant. The EdP just tucked in about a couple hours ago, having gone in quite a different direction. Creamy sandalwood, peppery cedar, sweet benzoin, and a good dose of green vetiver. The extrait is finally at its skin scent, with its base comfortably between the two, most notably with an absence of green vetiver, opting for more warm woods and orris. Though the extrait and the EdP are a bit different in their dry downs, they have enough in common to be called the same, and for me this dry down is one of the best in perfume history. It’s gorgeous.

So there you have it, new LHB in a nutshell, quick and dirty. Which one you prefer is entirely up to your tastes and need for practicality. All three are wearable any time and any place, even the extrait - though bigger, louder, and richer, it is never too much for any particular setting. However, practically, it’s likely cost prohibitive for the vast majority of us. Your choice, and there’s no better or worse choice. It’s L’Heure Bleue after all, one of the best of all time.

L'Heure Bleue is more than one hundred years old! Created by Jacques Guerlain in 1912
this wonderful scent has lost none of its magic. Though doubtless tweaked to conform
to modern industry standards, its soft, flowery warmth is the very essence of femininity.
The top and middle notes of neroli, carnation and (unobtrusive) iris hover over a subtle
foundation of vanilla, which knits the whole together into an entirely coherent whole.
Tired of Shalimar (and it can be more than a little tiresome!)? Give this a go and melt
into the timeless enchantment of a blissfully romantic warm summer evening.

Simply gorgeous.

The current "Legendaires" EdP gets a 9/10 from me. A striking blue-flower combination lingers (iris, heliotrope, violet). It is perhaps more flower-forward than the vintage versions I've experienced, but it is a winner. The dry-down is more complex than the straight-up Guerlinade endings of other Guerlains.

I myself find the floral heart too focused for my own usage, but my partner loves it, and I love smelling it on him. Bravo Thierry Wasser.

Vintage L’Heure Bleue was a 3D perfume, the actual eau de parfum is 2D at the most.
It smells good, but what made L’HB so striking and unique is gone : the contrast between head and base, the complexity and depth, all sadly flattened.
And by vintage I mean 15 years back, it was probably even better in the 90’s and earlier.

According to the batch code on the new bottle I just got of LHB, it was made in January 2022, and is from Guerlain's Les Légendaires collection. I loved LHB until the IFRA forced Guerlain to massacre it ~ and just about every other perfume I wore. Whenever I wore it, I had this overwhelming, but beautiful feeling of melancholia. Sadly, all I got from this current version is powdery smelling licorice. Well, I can cross another perfume off my list of favorites thanks to the IFRA!