Samsara Guerlain (1991) Eau de Toilette

Bottle Design: Robert Granai

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8.5 / 10 118 Ratings

Samsara (Eau de Toilette) is a popular perfume by Guerlain for women and was released in 1991. The scent is floral-spicy. It is being marketed by LVMH.

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Perfumers

Jean-Paul Guerlain, Gérard Anthony

Ratings

Scent

8.5 (118 Ratings)

Longevity

7.8 (100 Ratings)

Sillage

7.5 (98 Ratings)

Bottle

8.0 (106 Ratings)

Submitted by Venice, last update on 06.10.2019

Variant of the fragrance concentration

Samsara (Eau de Toilette)

This is a variant of the perfume Samsara (Eau de Parfum) by Guerlain, which differs in concentration.

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Reviews

10/12/2018

9.0 8.0 8.0 9.0/10

pudelbonzo
0 Reviews

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pudelbonzo

Very helpful Review 21

Unanimity

Today I felt nervousness in me germinate, and it pulled me - purely therapeutically - into the perfumery.

I asked for a consolation or " harmonizer ".

Besides, I wanted to surprise myself with a blind buy.

The grab bag was Rechs Paris est une Fete - but then I discovered the rare red bottle Samsara.
I simply like this design better than the new flacons - and you can't have enough of Samsara in your house.

Despite my supplies, I sprayed at home, and was amazed.
The scent is beautiful, but a little different?

Oh - I had accidentally bought the EDT - and accidentally done everything right.

His statement is also full and strong - but somewhat more cautious than the EDP.
It first circles me quietly before it lies shining on my skin.
The ingredients are the same, but the Edt comes lighter and more floating towards me.
A trace more transparent - but not thinner.

I feel reminded of Samsara Shine by its consistency, although Shine comes with other ingredients.

But this distinctive " translucent " is similar.

The EDP reminds me of velvet - the EDT of silk.
I wouldn't want to miss either.

The husband adds one more thing by rejecting my hand wetted with right, but gladly reaching for the samsara hand.
I have to agree with him.

The Paris surprise party is good - but Samsara is better.

7 Replies

03/31/2016

WildGardener
100 Reviews

WildGardener

2

Renascence of the Oriental

Where it was Moguls and Harems that inspired the Oriental prototypes of Les Parfums de Rosine, Samsara is a neo-orientalist work that bears parallels to the phenomenon of Indian Haute Couture which emerged in the 1980s.

The style, based on a hybrid of Indian and Western forms and known as Bollywood Ballgown, was a lavishly embroidered Saree style evening dress, created in India using the latest European fashion training and technology. Guerlain, in partnership with outside perfumer Gérard Anthony created their own version of a western - oriental hybrid in 1989. They did this by applying their skills and technological expertise to traditional Indian materials and tastes - emphasising the sweet over the more stereotypical spicy notes.

Samsara uses a range of flavours found in Indian sweet shops: honey, castor sugar and Demerara, vanilla, spice, starch and milk. These sweet notes form the olfactory ground of the construction, which is offset by a synthetic sandalwood and Mysore oil blend. At first the impression is that there's too much sandal, the obviously synthetic note dominates the other more natural smelling materials; but it plays a crucial role in defining the character of the perfume, which it does in several ways. The Polysantol :

1) boosts the Mysore by giving power and edge to the accord,
2) blocks the gourmand tendency of the sweet notes,
3) bouys up a rather flabby oriental profile by linking up with other lighter notes, and it
4) announces that this is not just Shalimar in a Saree.

A stable perfume structure often requires three chords working together like the base of a triangle. In Samsara, along with the sweets and the sandal, the third corner is staked out by a mild rose - jasmin floralesque. This tackles the jagged peak of sandalwood that rises from the pale sugary plain by deploying a large dose of peach C14. It also sustains the excellent bergamot found in the head, and introduces dark spicy tones of opoponax. The aim of the heart accord is to modify the extremes of synthetic sandal and the surdose of sweets to bring them into harmony. Not an easy task. Samsara is nothing if not typical of its time, with an eighties loudness and intensity that verges on the brash, or even at times vulgar.

Benjoin has an odour suppressing quality, and when a formula such as this vanillic variation of the oriental is based on a large dose of it, the superstructure must be powerful enough to overcome this technical problem. Consequently, the initial stages of Samsara's development are a struggle between vibrant high yield accords and the introverted Benjoin. This conflict is, I believe, the reason for the at times strident character of the juice.

A lot of settling is required for this three chord stand off to find its stasis and it takes a couple of hours for the profile to reach maturity; but when it does, it becomes a pale, well constructed peachy, sweet milky, bitter rose, sandalwood spicy oriental, all resting on a powdery vanillic base of Benjoin and labdanum.

Samsara is a perfume of challenges; the challenge of how to re-present a new Oriental relating to what was happening in the fashion world of Bombay. The challenge of using a vanillic base for an oriental with the associated technical problems of using Benjoin. Not least the olfactory challenge of trying to wear this, at times, difficult perfume. And finally, the complex in-house challenges posed by this pretender to Shalimar's crown.

This 1995 vintage juice under review here draws on the traditional Indian forms of sweet making, sandalwood and Attar of rose, to which it adds Western synthetics, French savoir faire and a touch of Guerlainade to create a renewed Oriental.