I have Guerlain Vetiver and I really like it. Wondering if they make any other colognes worth trying? I never hear any others mentioned on this forum except the Vetiver.
Any other good Guerlain scents?
- Thread starter blary54
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Try Habit Rouge.
Habit Rouge (EdC, EdT, EdP), Heritage, Jicky, Mouchoir de Monsieur, Derby, Spiritueuse Double Vanille to name just a few
I didn't "get" Guerlain for quite awhile. I now recognize what masters of scent they truly are. It just required some patience on my part. Their scents are quite refined as a rule, very elegant, subtle and don't reveal themselves as quickly.
Part of the problem is other than their Vetiver, their scents are not easily found in retail. The Guerlain website will list Sephora as selling their scents, but I've only ever seen Vetiver in there. For whatever reason, most of their older scents are kept in the Guerlain section of the women's cosmetics area in my Saks.
L'Instant de Guerlain Pour Homme EdT and EdP
A big favorite of mine.This is their 2004 or so take on a male gourmand. It's impossibly refined and complex with a hint of cocoa (as opposed to chocolate).
A little citrus up top and then a shift into a wonderful mix of notes that make it quite wearable by any man. Not a sensual scent per se, but fairly romantic.
A sweet scent without being cloying.
The EdP version called Exreme is a bit heavier on the cocoa.
Women like both of these on men. I can't advocate more men try this enough.
Habit Rouge
A classic from 1965. A bit of an acquired taste like scotch or perhaps even Kouros. I wouldn't guarantee anyone would love it. Big citrus opening that's fairly harsh. A dry down with leather and vanilla. That description doesn't really do it justice, but that's what it is. I believe it is considered to be one of the first orientals for men. It was the male companion to their famous Shalimar scent from the same time frame.
I'm a bit mixed on the original Habit Rouge. I favor the EdP limited edition called "Beau Cavalier." It has a bit of agarwood (oud) in it that sets it apart from the original. Don't know if it's still available.
Close to being my favorite "comfort" scent. I feel very centered when I'm wearing this. It may have a bit of a "mature" man vibe to it, but it is a classic.
I don't have a signature scent, but if I had to pick one, this might be it.
They also make a Habit Rouge Sport version which is probably an attempt to offer a lighter, more modern verson of HR.
Derby
I can't discuss this in depth as I've only given it a brief test in store. It didn't grab me. But as I've now learned, none of the Guerlains do grab me at first sniff. I would like to try it again. Perfume critic Luca Turin ranks in his top 10 masculine scents. The reissue done recently is hard to find and $$$
Heritage
Another I have not tried that is well regarded.
Then too, as mentioned above, they make some very old classics: Mouchoir de Monsieur and Jicky. Jicky was originally a women's scent that is now probably worn more by men.
Coming soon, two new scents for men under the heading of Arsene Lupin.
I eagerly anticipate "Dandy" which is a combination of violets and leather evidently. I'm hoping for something akin to Habit Rouge.
OP- don't know you're age, but of those I listed, L'Instant is probably the best for any age. Habit Rouge is a must sample for any cologne fan. Very classic, but not for everybody.
They can be hard to find, but if any spark your interest dig a bit. Vetiver is probably their most "mainstream" offering that appeals to the widest variety of men. The others listed are quite distinctive and heads and shoulders (IMO) above the average designer offerings. Other than Vetiver, I doubt any of them are "big" sellers, but they sell enough to stay around.
They are tres Francais, and have a style that will set you apart, that's for sure.
Part of the problem is other than their Vetiver, their scents are not easily found in retail. The Guerlain website will list Sephora as selling their scents, but I've only ever seen Vetiver in there. For whatever reason, most of their older scents are kept in the Guerlain section of the women's cosmetics area in my Saks.
L'Instant de Guerlain Pour Homme EdT and EdP
A big favorite of mine.This is their 2004 or so take on a male gourmand. It's impossibly refined and complex with a hint of cocoa (as opposed to chocolate).
A little citrus up top and then a shift into a wonderful mix of notes that make it quite wearable by any man. Not a sensual scent per se, but fairly romantic.
A sweet scent without being cloying.
The EdP version called Exreme is a bit heavier on the cocoa.
Women like both of these on men. I can't advocate more men try this enough.
Habit Rouge
A classic from 1965. A bit of an acquired taste like scotch or perhaps even Kouros. I wouldn't guarantee anyone would love it. Big citrus opening that's fairly harsh. A dry down with leather and vanilla. That description doesn't really do it justice, but that's what it is. I believe it is considered to be one of the first orientals for men. It was the male companion to their famous Shalimar scent from the same time frame.
I'm a bit mixed on the original Habit Rouge. I favor the EdP limited edition called "Beau Cavalier." It has a bit of agarwood (oud) in it that sets it apart from the original. Don't know if it's still available.
Close to being my favorite "comfort" scent. I feel very centered when I'm wearing this. It may have a bit of a "mature" man vibe to it, but it is a classic.
I don't have a signature scent, but if I had to pick one, this might be it.
They also make a Habit Rouge Sport version which is probably an attempt to offer a lighter, more modern verson of HR.
Derby
I can't discuss this in depth as I've only given it a brief test in store. It didn't grab me. But as I've now learned, none of the Guerlains do grab me at first sniff. I would like to try it again. Perfume critic Luca Turin ranks in his top 10 masculine scents. The reissue done recently is hard to find and $$$
Heritage
Another I have not tried that is well regarded.
Then too, as mentioned above, they make some very old classics: Mouchoir de Monsieur and Jicky. Jicky was originally a women's scent that is now probably worn more by men.
Coming soon, two new scents for men under the heading of Arsene Lupin.
I eagerly anticipate "Dandy" which is a combination of violets and leather evidently. I'm hoping for something akin to Habit Rouge.
OP- don't know you're age, but of those I listed, L'Instant is probably the best for any age. Habit Rouge is a must sample for any cologne fan. Very classic, but not for everybody.
They can be hard to find, but if any spark your interest dig a bit. Vetiver is probably their most "mainstream" offering that appeals to the widest variety of men. The others listed are quite distinctive and heads and shoulders (IMO) above the average designer offerings. Other than Vetiver, I doubt any of them are "big" sellers, but they sell enough to stay around.
They are tres Francais, and have a style that will set you apart, that's for sure.
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I enjoy Habit Rouge very much. StylinLA describes it perfectly. Got the edt on B/S/T and aftershave splash from ebay. Have a sample of Heritage, which I also enjoy, but was too late to get in on the discounter pricing. (Guerlain apparently saw HR was sufficiently popular to make it exclusive to their sales again.) Hence, I got Zino Davidoff instead; semi close smelling.
Shalimar and Mouchoir de Monseiur are my other favorites after Vetiver.
Blary, one thing I have noticed about Guerlain (men and women fragrances), they do all seem distinctive. You will not smell like most of the department store frags.
I hear Jicky is very similar to Pour un Homme de Caron - sort of like Caron with civet. Sounds really, really good. Haven't tried Jicky, though.
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No, I don't think it smells anything like Caron. No lavender, no vanilla. Jicky is suppose to open citrusy, but I don't get that from it either except for bergamont. Civet, maybe, and amber I get. Jicky is quite nice and very Guerlainesque. I have a sample of the edt, and, from reading, the edt is noteably lacking in the civet department. But I do not have a very sophisticated sense of smell!!!
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Uhh...what? Your sample must be bad because Jicky has plenty of lavender and vanilla. While the EdT may have less civet than the PdT and Parfum versions it is still there and rather prominent.Couldn't say, Aaron; it's the only sample I have so it is my only reference. Got it from The Perfumed Court three or four months ago. Really, no lavender and no vanilla. If you think it is similar to Caron PM, get the Caron; half the cost!
I either have, or have sampled, Habit Rouge (a favorite), Heritage, Derby, Jicky, Mouchoir de Monsieur, Shalimar, and one more that I didn't see listed by anyone else, and that is Coriolan, which I like a lot.
I agree with the others, all of these are worth trying if you have the opportunity, as there's a very good chance you'll find something you like. I think the Vetiver is very different from all the other Guerlain scents, so don't expect them to smell similar. To me, the Habit Rouge, Heritage and Jicky are all somewhat similar, like they could be in the same "family", with the HR having more of a lemony citrus open, and the Heritage more of a orange/bergamot citrus open. They both dry down into a similar vanilla/amber with possibly some sandalwood in the mix. Heritage seems to be a little "dirtier" in the open, which I also like. Jicky is even more "dirty" in the open, with the dirtiness lasting longer into the drydown.
I'll probably get flamed for this, but to me, Derby, Mouchoir de Monsieur and Coriolan also seem to be somewhat similar, and are similar to Azzaro pour Homme, although the Azzaro seems to have a little "soapiness" that the Guerlain scents don't have. Of all of these in this group, Coriolan is my favorite.
I've only sampled the Shalimar, also marketed primarily as a ladies scent, once, but believe it is more of a sweet vanilla/amber scent, and could probably be compared to YSL's Opium for Men.
I believe out of all those mentioned here, Habit Rouge and Shalimar are the easiest to find in B&M stores or online. The Shalimar will be with ladies fragrances. I'd recommend trying the Habit Rouge as your next Guerlain.
I agree with the others, all of these are worth trying if you have the opportunity, as there's a very good chance you'll find something you like. I think the Vetiver is very different from all the other Guerlain scents, so don't expect them to smell similar. To me, the Habit Rouge, Heritage and Jicky are all somewhat similar, like they could be in the same "family", with the HR having more of a lemony citrus open, and the Heritage more of a orange/bergamot citrus open. They both dry down into a similar vanilla/amber with possibly some sandalwood in the mix. Heritage seems to be a little "dirtier" in the open, which I also like. Jicky is even more "dirty" in the open, with the dirtiness lasting longer into the drydown.
I'll probably get flamed for this, but to me, Derby, Mouchoir de Monsieur and Coriolan also seem to be somewhat similar, and are similar to Azzaro pour Homme, although the Azzaro seems to have a little "soapiness" that the Guerlain scents don't have. Of all of these in this group, Coriolan is my favorite.
I've only sampled the Shalimar, also marketed primarily as a ladies scent, once, but believe it is more of a sweet vanilla/amber scent, and could probably be compared to YSL's Opium for Men.
I believe out of all those mentioned here, Habit Rouge and Shalimar are the easiest to find in B&M stores or online. The Shalimar will be with ladies fragrances. I'd recommend trying the Habit Rouge as your next Guerlain.
FWIW, Habit Rouge is the men's version of Shalimar
These seem like good notes, although I am not sure I have tried Heritage yet! To me MdM is very dirty and not so far from Jicky. Wonderful scents. Coriolan is an overlooked treasure, for sure. I have a tiny amount of vintage Derby I will have to try again. In sum, one heck of a house!
Jean-Patrick Manchette's noir novel "3 to Kill" captures a certain moment in the lives of an upwardly mobile French couple in the mid-seventies as they turned from political activism to consumer hipsterism. The main character wears Habit Rouge and his wife Jicky. The author makes a point of this, suggesting that their choices say a lot about them.
In my opinion, Eau de Guerlain is a crazy good summer fragrance. An excellent blend of lemony citrus, herbal, woody, mossy and floral elements. There's a lot going on, but blends beautifully, naturally and simply. On me this scent lasts and lasts.
according to Basenotes:
Top Notes: Lemon, Bergamot, Basil, Petitgrain, Caraway
Middle Notes: Rose, Jasmin, Patchouli, Carnation, Sandal
Base Notes: Amber, Moss, Musk
according to Basenotes:
Top Notes: Lemon, Bergamot, Basil, Petitgrain, Caraway
Middle Notes: Rose, Jasmin, Patchouli, Carnation, Sandal
Base Notes: Amber, Moss, Musk
I will give another bump for Mouchoir de Monsieur. It's a scent to which I arrived notionally, first: I was interested in fougères such a Trumper's Wild Fern, and all that reading on coumarin/lavender/oakmoss drew me towards Mouchoir de Monsieur by way of Jicky. (Obviously it also made me yearn for Houbigant's Fougère Royale, but that's another story!).
My baseline so far in terms of scent is Penhaligon's, which happens to be the first perfume house that I have liked. Until I had sampled Pen, my sole interest in scent was to have an aftershave that wasn't too offensive, with Proraso as my standard. After sniffing a few scents (BB, EF, HB, and Endymion), I became terminally hooked to the pleasures of scent.
I stumbled upon Guerlain as an inevitability: it's near-impossible to find any book on perfumes without a reference to them. After an intense tryst with English scents, I decided to conquer France too.
Turned out that it took me a while to make sense of Guerlain, unlike the English scents. I sampled some of their fragrances in a department store, and nothing really caught my attention: Habit Rouge smelled like Coca-Cola, Eau Impériale vanished in an instant, L'Instant bored me, and Vetiver, while the nicest of the bunch, did not satisfy me plenty. So I went to the Guerlain store in Westmount, and decided to put my nose to the test.
Guerlain stores have the whole range of products, many of which you will never find in dept. stores. I spent a whole afternoon sniffing nearly everything, and although La Cologne du Parfumeur was an easy scent to "get", Eau de Cédrat a very pleasing one, and Derby aroused my interest in spiciness, I was left with two enigmas to my nose: MdM and Jicky. Both very close, yet different. The day that I sampled MdM was stuffy and humid: all I got from my wrist was a rather granny-like rose smell, but something undecodable too. Even though I was not won by MdM (I still prefered Hammam Bouquet for anything rose-related), I decided to get a sample, and try it another day, in another weather. I left Jicky aside, since it did not have the heft of MdM. I would love to try Jicky properly one day, but perhaps in a stronger concentration than the Eau de Toilette. I would put Derby next on my list of interesting Guerlain scents, but its higher price forbids my desire to try it properly.
Two days later, I have a cool lazy day at home, and decide to sample MdM. Wow! First it begins with a blast of hesperides: lemon, oranges, limes, bergamot, and whatnot, a nice mixture of sour and sweet. But then, instead of turning cool like a typical cologne, the perfume turns warm. Not warm like an Oriental smell, but warm like skin instead. THEN the rose stopped smelling like a granny smell, and instead mingled effortlessly with the animal smells, and the fougère accord underneath just plays with your nose and tickle you without letting itself be clearly known, a persistent enigma. I felt my heart sink, and erupted in loud, vulgar blasphemies of intense pleasure.
To this day, MdM remains the only Guerlain smell that I "get" (I don't count the colognes, since they're always easy to dig anyway), but it's the smell that taught me about beauty in perfumes. When I came back to Penhaligon's afterwards, I found some of the smells rough, unfinished, and amateurish. MdM in comparison is a beautiful jewel, though not a lifeless one. It's in my mind, the nicest expression of the "Belle Époque". It emanates class, but not ostentiousness; restraint, but of a happy kind; fun of a gentler style.... yet somewhere far, far there is no avoiding the down and dirty, but even this vulgarity has style!
I'm reading (again) James Joyce's Ulysses these days, and because it's set in the same year MdM was launched (1904), I like to put it on to stimulate an Edwardian sense of place in my mind.
Do I still appreciate Penhaligon's? Why, yes I do! But Guerlain has also taught me to love English smells for their Englishness: like an English garden they are meandering, slightly unkempt, rough on the edges, and the fruit of nature rather than art. I couldn't live in Guerlain's well-kempt streets forever, but sometimes art can trump nature.
My baseline so far in terms of scent is Penhaligon's, which happens to be the first perfume house that I have liked. Until I had sampled Pen, my sole interest in scent was to have an aftershave that wasn't too offensive, with Proraso as my standard. After sniffing a few scents (BB, EF, HB, and Endymion), I became terminally hooked to the pleasures of scent.
I stumbled upon Guerlain as an inevitability: it's near-impossible to find any book on perfumes without a reference to them. After an intense tryst with English scents, I decided to conquer France too.
Turned out that it took me a while to make sense of Guerlain, unlike the English scents. I sampled some of their fragrances in a department store, and nothing really caught my attention: Habit Rouge smelled like Coca-Cola, Eau Impériale vanished in an instant, L'Instant bored me, and Vetiver, while the nicest of the bunch, did not satisfy me plenty. So I went to the Guerlain store in Westmount, and decided to put my nose to the test.
Guerlain stores have the whole range of products, many of which you will never find in dept. stores. I spent a whole afternoon sniffing nearly everything, and although La Cologne du Parfumeur was an easy scent to "get", Eau de Cédrat a very pleasing one, and Derby aroused my interest in spiciness, I was left with two enigmas to my nose: MdM and Jicky. Both very close, yet different. The day that I sampled MdM was stuffy and humid: all I got from my wrist was a rather granny-like rose smell, but something undecodable too. Even though I was not won by MdM (I still prefered Hammam Bouquet for anything rose-related), I decided to get a sample, and try it another day, in another weather. I left Jicky aside, since it did not have the heft of MdM. I would love to try Jicky properly one day, but perhaps in a stronger concentration than the Eau de Toilette. I would put Derby next on my list of interesting Guerlain scents, but its higher price forbids my desire to try it properly.
Two days later, I have a cool lazy day at home, and decide to sample MdM. Wow! First it begins with a blast of hesperides: lemon, oranges, limes, bergamot, and whatnot, a nice mixture of sour and sweet. But then, instead of turning cool like a typical cologne, the perfume turns warm. Not warm like an Oriental smell, but warm like skin instead. THEN the rose stopped smelling like a granny smell, and instead mingled effortlessly with the animal smells, and the fougère accord underneath just plays with your nose and tickle you without letting itself be clearly known, a persistent enigma. I felt my heart sink, and erupted in loud, vulgar blasphemies of intense pleasure.
To this day, MdM remains the only Guerlain smell that I "get" (I don't count the colognes, since they're always easy to dig anyway), but it's the smell that taught me about beauty in perfumes. When I came back to Penhaligon's afterwards, I found some of the smells rough, unfinished, and amateurish. MdM in comparison is a beautiful jewel, though not a lifeless one. It's in my mind, the nicest expression of the "Belle Époque". It emanates class, but not ostentiousness; restraint, but of a happy kind; fun of a gentler style.... yet somewhere far, far there is no avoiding the down and dirty, but even this vulgarity has style!
I'm reading (again) James Joyce's Ulysses these days, and because it's set in the same year MdM was launched (1904), I like to put it on to stimulate an Edwardian sense of place in my mind.
Do I still appreciate Penhaligon's? Why, yes I do! But Guerlain has also taught me to love English smells for their Englishness: like an English garden they are meandering, slightly unkempt, rough on the edges, and the fruit of nature rather than art. I couldn't live in Guerlain's well-kempt streets forever, but sometimes art can trump nature.
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One that hasn't been listed is Homme. The newest mens cologne. It is a much more modern scent than the others, but is interesting on its own. It has a mojito accord, and nice vetiver and wood dry down.
I beleive it is intended to bring a younger audience into the fold.
I beleive it is intended to bring a younger audience into the fold.
