Jean-Paul Guerlain (born 1937) introduced a very vibrant and sensual style to the Guerlain repertoire. As his signature, he replaced his grandfather's powdery, impressionistic creations with more straightforward and luscious portraits of nature's smells, and he's in particular renowned as a master of the drydown and for his way of fuelling flowers and wood with various zesty blends of acidulous fruits and citrus oils, often reaching ambrosial heights in his compositions. Like Jacques Guerlain, he didn't hesitate to utilize new aroma chemicals to expand the capacity of nature, like hedione for the amazing white-green crispness in Chamade, damascenones to push Nahéma's insistent rose scent, and polysantol which both lifts and deepens the Samsara sandalwood. "This is the difference between a grand perfume and one that only stays a year: emotion. Inside the elevator that brings a man in love to his girlfriend, he must be touched by the trail of her perfume," he has said. His autobiography Les Routes de Mes Parfums tells about vivid olfactory childhood memories, like the constant cloud of Cachet Jaune in his mother's bathroom, her delectable strawberry pies, and the perfume Sous le Vent which haunted him with reveries of ships and faraway islands. He learned perfumery the hard way, first as unskilled worker at the factory in Courbevoie, later as trainee at the side of his mentor and grandfather Jacques Guerlain. At age eighteen, a decisive proof of his talent was delivered when he passed the test of imitating daffodil aroma for the perfume Vol de Nuit. It won him the title of master perfumer ahead of his older brother Patrick, a title traditionally reserved for the firstborn son in the Guerlain order of succession. Jean-Paul Guerlain is the man behind such classics as Vetiver, Habit Rouge, Chamade and Nahéma. He retired in 2002 as the last Guerlain descendant within the company. Perfumers from outside were hereafter hired to create new fragrances, such as L'Instant de Guerlain, Insolence, the deluxe perfume Quand Vient la Pluie and the L'Art et la Matière line. Still, he continued to make perfumes for Guerlain from time to time.
Jean-Paul Guerlain's most important: Arsène Lupin (2010), Chamade (1969), Chamade Pour Homme (1999), Chant d'Arômes (1962), Coriolan (1998, re-released as L'Âme d'un Héros), Derby (1985), Eau de Guerlain (1974), Guerlinade (1998, new version), Habit Rouge (1965), Héritage (1992), Jardins de Bagatelle (1983), Les Secrets de Sophie (2009), Mahora (2000, re-released as Mayotte), Metallica (2000, re-released as Metalys), Nahéma (1979), Parure (1975), Philtre d'Amour (1999), Plus Que Jamais Guerlain (2005), Samsara (1989), Spiritueuse Double Vanille (2007), Voile d'Été (2000, re-released as Quand Vient l'Été), Vetiver (1959), Vetiver pour Elle (2004).
In 2002, Jean-Paul Guerlain was interviewed by American NPR (National Public Radio) about why he retired from business — and why perfume is more important than clothes!
In 2002, Jean-Paul Guerlain was interviewed by American NPR (National Public Radio) about why he retired from business — and why perfume is more important than clothes!
Personal passions precede PR. Although his role as consultant for the house implied no power to make decisions, Jean-Paul Guerlain was still ambassador of the Guerlain spirit and visited the factory once a week to work on his own creations. Being an old-school perfumer, emotional, romantic and cultured, he has often declared his dismay about marketing tactics. When an interviewer asked him what he felt about it, he said, "I like that for laundry detergent brands. Not for perfumery. You know, Beaudelaire has said, 'There are perfumes as cool as the flesh of children, sweet as oboes, green as meadows, and others are corrupt, rich and triumphant'. That is perfumery." The resistance to commercial temptations has been an inherited attitude chez Guerlain. "Guerlain perfumes are still reassuringly unknown," was the witty headline of an American 1970s ad. Jean-Paul Guerlain wrote in 2010 the book Parfums d'Amour as a diary about the love affairs and passions that inspired some of his perfumes. "This book was born from a desire to share with you the creative Guerlain philosophy which prefers the human relationship to market analyses," his preface explained. Shortly after the publication, an unfortunate remark with racist connotations, made on French television, forced Jean-Paul Guerlain to give up any connection with the Guerlain company.
Luxury is something pretty and discreet. 70-year-old Jean-Paul Guerlain talked in 2007 to Comité Français du Parfum. He tells us here why he was the one to create Guerlain's Vetiver. He also reminds us that "luxury is something pretty and discreet. Luxury must not be something brash."
Jacques Guerlain (1874-1963), nephew of Aimé Guerlain, was creator of abstract, enigmatic perfumes like Après L'Ondée, L'Heure Bleue, Mitsouko, Shalimar and Vol de Nuit. He had a remarkable talent and imagination, finishing his first perfume, Ambre, when he was just sixteen years old, and from there, almost 400 different perfumes left his hands, many of which were variations and alterations of each other, and most long forgotten. In his time, perfumery didn't have the constraints and controlled output as it does today. Almost everything he made was launched with a carefree haste, and he reacted with correspondingly little remorse when any of his less successful fragrances were abandoned. By natural selection, the classic Guerlain catalogue has kept only the six most unique of his perfumes which stand as all the more unforgettable and have earned him a reputation of being obsessed with completeness, polish and detail, constantly striving to improve on both his own and other perfumers' work. Here, he is teaching his young grandson Jean-Paul.
Jacques Guerlain's most important: Après L'Ondée (1906), Bouquet de Faunes (1923), Cachet Jaune (1937), Candide Effluve (1922), Coque d'Or (1937), Djedi (1926), Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat (1920), Élixir (1923), Guerlarose (1934), Guerlilas (1930), Guerlinade (1924), Jardin de Mon Curé (1895), Jasmin (1928), Jasmiralda (1917), Kadine (1911), Le Bon Vieux Temps (1902), Le Quai aux Fleurs (1948), L'Heure Bleue (1912), Liu (1929), Mitsouko (1919), Mouchoir de Monsieur (1904), Muguet (1908), Ode (1955), Parfum des Champs-Élysées (1904), Pois de Senteur (1917), Quand Vient l'Été (1910), Shalimar (1925), Sillage (1907), Sous le Vent (1933), Une Rose (1908), Véga (1936), Voilà Pourquoi J'Aimais Rosine (1900), Voilette de Madame (1904), Vol de Nuit (1933).
Aimé Guerlain (1834-1910), son of the house's founder, took over perfumery in 1865. Aimé Guerlain invented the world's first "abstract" or "emotive" perfume, i.e. not trying to copy a flower but instead to evoke feelings, and named it Jicky after his 15-year-old nephew, Jacques "Jicky" Guerlain. Jicky's earthy-sweet base accord left a trace in almost every subsequent Guerlain perfume.Aimé Guerlain's most important: Belle France (1892), Eau de Cologne du Coq (1894), Eau de Cologne Hégémonienne (1890), Excellence (1890), Fleur d'Italie (1884), Jicky (1889), Rococo à la Parisienne (1887), Skine (1885).
Four generations of conscientious creativity. Founder of the Guerlain tradition Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain (1798-1864) quickly became a renowned manufacturer of custom perfumes, insisting on high quality both in terms of raw materials, composition and presentation. "Make good products, never compromise on quality," he admonished his successors. "Always stick to simple ideas and apply them scrupulously." When he was rejected by a big Parisian department store in 1842, he decided to control the distribution of his products in Paris himself.
Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain's most important: Eau de Cologne Impériale (1830), Eau de Miel (1828), Eau de Cologne Russe (1850), Parfum de France (1840).
The Guerlain Story
Quality that lasts. "Fame is fleeting, only reputation lasts" was Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain's fundamental rule. By this he meant that one should not rest on one's laurels, but constantly seek perfection and quality. This "teardrop bottle" of Véga Eau de Toilette with its "dauphin label" and "banded blue box" was produced between 1936 and the beginning of the fifties, but the fragrant notes of the composition are preserved crisp, radiant and harmonious.
Thierry Wasser (born 1961) was named exclusive perfumer for Guerlain as of June 2008 — the first person ever outside the Guerlain family to be installed in this position. When Jean-Paul Guerlain closed an era with his retirement in 2002, Guerlain stood without an in-house "nose" and instead began to work with various external perfumers. Thierry Wasser was earlier under the fragrance firms Firmenich and Givaudan, and he has worked on Iris Ganache and Quand Vient la Pluie for Guerlain. Guerlain Homme and Idylle were his first big Guerlain fragrances. Guerlain's chief executive officer Laurent Boillot assured that Jean-Paul Guerlain, consultant to Guerlain's creations and raw materials, will continue "guiding Guerlain and its new perfumer to insure the timeless Guerlain signature that is known all over the world since 1828". Jean-Paul Guerlain's role as mentor and authority has been like a father figure to Thierry Wasser who lost his father when he was a child. "Since I found a dad, at almost fifty, I got my childhood back," he confessed in a BBC interview. "To be back in a loving, respecting, admiring relationship is fascinating, and makes me young also. It's very weird. But it's nevertheless how I feel." Read more...The next generation. BBC followed Guerlain around the time when Thierry Wasser worked on Shalimar Parfum Initial — and suddenly found himself alone on the Guerlain throne.
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