Vol de Nuit Guerlain 1933 Eau de Toilette

Vol de Nuit (Eau de Toilette) by Guerlain

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Vol de Nuit (Eau de Toilette) (Guerlain)

Top 68 in Women's Perfume

8.4 / 10347 Ratings

Vol de Nuit (Eau de Toilette) is a popular perfume by Guerlain for women and was released in 1933. The scent is spicy-woody. It is being marketed by LVMH. Pronunciation

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Perfumer

Jacques Guerlain

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Bergamot Galbanum Mandarin orange Orange Orange blossom Lemon
Heart Notes	Aldehydes Iris Narcissus Vanilla
Base Notes	Oakmoss Spices Orris root Musk Sandalwood

Ratings

Scent

8.4347 Ratings

Longevity

7.1250 Ratings

Sillage

6.2238 Ratings

Bottle

8.9233 Ratings

Value for money

7.511 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 27.06.2021.

Interesting Facts

Vol de Nuit ("Night Flight") is a tribute to the homonymous novel published in 1931 and to its author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who is said to have been a close friend of Jacques Guerlain. For the first time, a significant content of galbanum was used. Vol de Nuit is said to be the archetype for other classic fragrances like Miss Dior, Vent Vert and Chanel No.19, which also used considerable amounts of galbanum.

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Reviews

05/01/2021

8.5
Scent 7
Longevity 6
Sillage 9
Bottle

Serenissima

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Serenissima

Top Review 27

successful women and "The Little Prince"

Jacques Guerlain liked to see "Vol de Nuit" as a fragrance for successful, courageous women and as a tribute to his friend, the passionate pilot and writer Antoine de Saint-Excupèry:
More or less self-taught as a pilot and a crash pilot (to the constant chagrin of his employers), as a writer the creator of the enchanting character of the "little prince" who knew that one sees well "only with the heart" .
To him, Jacques Guerlain dedicated his "Night Flight" in 1933.
But also to women, who - according to Guerlain - "proved to be better pilots than men."
(It was the beginning of air transport of mail.)

Even as an eau de toilette, "Vol de Nuit" unleashes the magic of a mysterious fragrance.
So the first impression is quite surprising and slightly tart by Galbanum.
Only now follows the classic freshness of Hesperiden: Bergamot, mandarin, orange and lemon enter the nocturnal airfield; orange blossom beckons them warmly and tenderly.
Instead of the typical floral bouquet of roses, jasmine and violets, spring-like narcissus, proud iris and radiant aldehydes are found here, dancing around all the previous fragrance notes.
Vanilla provides as a transition already for warmth and is interestingly spiced by allspice and cloves.
"Guerlain"-like it continues, because tropical woods, oak moss and of course a pleasant dose of musk support harmoniously as a base and conclude "Vol de Nuit".

Thus, a woody, spicy and iridescent composition: very refined, but yet less "sexy" than, for example, "Shalimar", which seems entirely dedicated to the femininity of women and love.
"Vol de Nuit" appealed from the beginning to a different, modern type of woman and this has not changed until today.
This "night flight" does not take place in lush flowering gardens; it transcends their fences and walls and appeals to women who want to make their way, be successful and yet remain fully woman.
After all, who among us would willingly give up a bit of refined femininity?
"Vol de Nuit" is here the appropriate companion.

In the first moment something falling out of the usual fragrance role, because more tart and mysterious, this creation is also a classic beauty of the Guerlain family.
Certainly even more impressive in stronger concentration, but as an eau de toilette more often wearable and extremely pleasant.
I probably do not need to add that with me this astringency once again for lack of body heat turns out a little more modest: but beautiful it is nevertheless, this flight in the company of the "little prince".

16 Replies

03/29/2021

9
Scent 7
Longevity 6
Sillage 8
Pricing

Enomi5

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Enomi5

Helpful Review 4

Good night cape

I have owned this fragrance a few years ago and then, because I have not worn it often, ultimately sold. As that is so one falls then sometimes, how beautiful but this or that fragrance was and you suddenly get desire to have him again :D
So it was with VDN.

I sniff first at the bottle: Vanillig, fresh (in the sense of "outdoors and nature, not citrus fresh). Look ma times!

I spray: one (or I) immediately suspect that this here is not a perfume "of today"; it smells old, but not stale. On the contrary: this is something different! I find it very green, must immediately think of Jicky. However, I find it less animalic and, what I like very much, green, woody, woody. I also catch a whiff of iris. As it goes on, VDN becomes more and more powdery and develops on my skin into a vanilla-powdery, fine, guerlainesque "second skin". I can't help spraying my mother and friends (with their consent, of course) to compare, and I find Vol de Nuit a very wearer-dependent scent: while it's much more citrusy on my mother, it develops more vanilla on my friend, somehow in the direction of balsamic-benzzy. On myself, I perceive it as very vanilla-powdery, with a pleasant, natural-seeming portion of "green stuff". (here I must note, of course, that I sniff at other people of course not as extensively as at myself and that were of course only snapshots!)

On my clothes, I find the scent sticks closer to the top notes - floral, bergamot and powdery: I smell iris here in particular (I think, anyway) and I get that "clean" feeling.

A fragrance I love to wear in the evening before bed, as it smells best when wrapped up under the duvet.

07/24/2020

8
Scent 7
Longevity 7
Sillage 8
Bottle

pudelbonzo

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pudelbonzo

Top Review 32

Take me through the night

In former times the nights were relatively short, because we were an enterprising girls clique, which hurried from disco to disco, gave us music and dance, flirted uninhibitedly, the alcohol and cigarettes, flirted uninhibitedly silly, but were also often witty humorous - Kurzweil on and on - and suddenly dawned the morning.

After these " night flights " we sailed home, fell into bed and had beautiful dreams.

It's been a long time - and two of our night owls club are already hovering in other spheres.

The nights are long now - and especially the time between 3 and 4 o'clock is endless when you lie awake looking for sleep.

Worries sit on the edge of the bed like lead and you can only dream of an airy night flight.

Vol de Nuit, however, conceals the lightness of the serene nights of those days and awakens memories of them.

Many an amusing episode goes through my mind - and many a dear face turns to me.

I think of Dali's painting : the permanence of memory.

Nobody can take away your memories - and I am grateful for that.
Nothing and nobody is forgotten.

I take the bottle gently in my hands and think :

Take me through the night
Save me through the storm

Music : Land under von Herbert Grönemeyer

10 Replies

03/04/2020

7.5
Scent 2
Longevity 2
Sillage 8
Bottle

Somebody

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Somebody

Very helpful Review

Where are you going?

Does a beautiful story always need a happy ending?
For a love story, I think that would be quite an advantage.
And such a one I had dreamed and hoped for after the many positive comments on Vol de Nuit.

Well, the story is quickly told in this case:
Scent sprayed on, after a greenish-bitter-citric prelude (pleasant) I briefly notice the much praised (and really very beautiful) Guerlinade, then a powdery touch remains and after half an hour everything is gone.
The performance is over so quickly that I can hardly describe anything
I have tried it fifty times, always with the same result, which leaves me frustrated.
Is it my skin? Does she really eat that smell? Or is the eau de toilette simply too weak? Did they accuse me of plagiarism at the end, although I bought it from an online perfumery? Unfortunately, the same happened to Chant d'Arômes Fortunately, there are also guerlains who stay with me.

Be that as it may - I would have loved to indulge in the scent and rave about it, but unfortunately I can only say with regret: le vol est mort...

5 Replies

01/15/2020

9
Scent 6
Longevity 7
Sillage 6
Bottle

FvSpee

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FvSpee

Top Review 44

Friday, December 29, 1933

Louis Dupré, Head of Unit Germany II, Quai d'Orsay

The year's finally over. Tomorrow morning we will go with Robert to the New Year's Eve weekend. I'm gonna put on my new perfume, Vol de Nuit. My collection is getting on in years: Mitsouko, crepe de chine, shalimar. The Orient is no longer modern. Vol de Nuit is completely different: of all my fragrances, the Tosca that the little one from the German embassy gave me is the one that most resembles him. Bergamot and lemon in the top note; aldehydes, narcissus, vanilla: many similarities, almost a Briand-Stresemann pact in perfume form... But the new one is different from everything else: Galbanum and oakmoss until it squeaks, which gives a dark, mossy, abysmal depth; Tosca is much more conventional there and much more feminine through the flowers. I ought to get something together with my perfumes at the Ministry anyway. Anyway, the night flight is irritatingly ambiguous, I like that. There's almost a men's fragrance in it
Politically, it was a terrible year. Five Prime Ministers, that's got to be a record. Boncour has held out all year as minister. My memorandum "Six Months of Hitler" never reached him, the head of department stopped it. Too pessimistic. Since then I've been "Loulou la Cassandra". "Dupré, what do they want, we'll watch him closely and do what is necessary, but he won't be really dangerous to us. His army is a joke, the Rhineland is demilitarized, the Maginot Line almost finished." You make it too easy on yourself, underestimating your energy and malice. Italy is lost, Spain is on the brink and England is tired. So do I, by the way. Tomorrow is another day, and one with Robert!

Ingrid Eide, Secretary International Law Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oslo

My first full year is over, and how colorful it was! When I was hired in the autumn of '32 it was said that the trial in The Hague would drag on, and if we had won it, idealists would be needed to expand the administration in East Greenland. I had flirted with it - Papa and Mama were not very upright. Now it's smashed. The StIGH judgement was already made in April, and Denmark won with fanfares. All of Norway is in mourning, but we bow and go. But what a time for me! Everything was constantly on the move: to the Hague, to Geneva to the League of Nations and where not yet. Because I am the best stenographer and also understand something of the law, I was everywhere. And usually by plane! What an exciting world! The beauty of the shimmering machines with their buzzing rotor blades! And to be able to look at this small world like a bird, with its teeming people who feel so important. Nothing has ever changed my life like this. I hear there are also women who have become pilots! And they say that next year there will be a Norwegian airline of its own. Whether I...

In October were elections; great victory of the Social Democrats. I don't know if I like her. But I know that I hate with all my heart these mean nationalists who raise their cries in Europe. It is as if they come crawling out of them like the Fenris wolf and the Midgard slaughter from our old legends to devour the people. Fortunately Norway is spared; no more than two percent voted for the ugly Vidkun. And Italy and Germany will not declare war on us
In Geneva, I chose a real perfume from Paris, not a boring cologne with lily of the valley, which our Oslo ladies consider to be the pinnacle of elegance. And of course it had to be "night flight". A flyer's perfume! The scent is confusingly beautiful. Also dark and threatening. A little like an animal sleeping in the bottle. But a night flight is not a spring walk. I think Trygve is a little afraid of me when I put on Vol de Nuit. He's just used to lilies of the valley... Not by plane, but at least by car!

Toma Girdauskaite, Cultural Advisor, Kaunas Foreign Ministry

The year comes to a gloomy end. The five years as cultural attaché in Paris already seem like a dream and I realize that much has changed. I detest the Reds, I am Lithuanian with all my heart and in these times the country needs a strong hand. Poland and Russia would crush us if they could. It was good that Smetona ended the party bickering. But it was easier to defend Lithuanian politics than to see beautiful poets with diplomatic passports swarming around the Parisian soirées than to experience them here. The spirit of optimism of the early 20s is over. The old friends from the national movement, who sang of the building of a beautiful, prosperous Lithuania, now murmur with pinched faces about the "Jewish danger". How uninspired, how corny. And as a woman, unmarried to boot, I look like the man in the moon in the corridors of the ministry; the tasks I am given are ridiculous. I cannot wear the new Parisian fragrance that everyone found so adorable about me at the farewell reception ("it goes so wonderfully with your Slavic beauty"; a scientifically not very precise compliment...), here I cannot wear it, it looks like a shrill disguise. Maybe I should go back to the academy; but who knows if it's better there.

Alexandru Rosetti, Head of Policy Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bucharest

Not much more to come this year. How I am looking forward to New Year's Eve and the beautiful hours with Luminita. I brought her a new Guerlain fragrance from Paris: Vol de Nuit! The thought of smelling it on her skin already excites me
It's been a good year! Titulescu is exactly the right person as foreign minister, even if he is in the wrong party. The highlight of the spring was his appearance in Yugoslavia during the reform of the Little Entente. Our alliance with Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia has received a permanent council, the French are happy. He has cleverly stayed out of the turbulence of the second half of the year, so that he remained minister when we national liberals took the helm. I could not believe our good fortune, and no one understands why the king appointed our Duca as interim premier, even though we are his harshest critics. And Duca has cleaned up within a few weeks, the fascists of the "Legion" are arrested by hundreds and thousands. And on 20 December in the elections: 51%! Screaming in the corridor, the office boy calls all leaders to the crisis meeting...

Titulescu has just informed us that Duca was shot after the audience with the king in Sinaia. Three legionnaires arrested who were talking about the fight against the Jewish-Masonic conspiracy. On leaving, Titulescu whispered to me: "Be on your guard, Rosetti, it is rumored that the king smiled at the news of the assassination. And yesterday, they say, Duke's bodyguard was reduced to one man." When I returned to my room, I knocked over the package of perfume, the whole room smelled of it. I'm gonna throw up. My God, my God, where is this going?

29 Replies

10/27/2019

7
Scent 7
Longevity 6
Sillage

Dina

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Dina

No night flight

After so many positive comments I absolutely had to try the fragrance.
The lovers of the fragrance must excuse the comment is purely subjective, but with me no night flight !!
A big sprayer Vol de Nuit.
Tension, uh, what's that? Smells like? I brood at hab´s 4711 .
You know, I give every fragrance its time or second chance. After about 10 minutes the 4711 is gone, lucky.
Now it even smells pleasant. Lightly vanilla and woody, musky, like......brooding, brooding.
It smells like my grandmother! She smelled like a mixture of powder, soap, 4711 and bakery. The smell is fine after 30 minutes. Nothing for me though.

2 Replies

05/24/2019

8
Scent 9
Longevity 4
Sillage 7
Bottle

DorothyGrace
78 Reviews

DorothyGrace

Rather too soft/weak.

I have been wearing Vol de Nuit (2017 edt Bee bottle) for around about a week now and I like it despite it being a complete hodge -podge to my nose, and despite the odd way it wears on me.

On first application it has an interesting flurry that reminds me of the bottle of En Avion (Caron) that I worked my way through. Slightly bitter, oily. That phase doesn't last long and is overtaken by something that reminds me of a cologne, something like 4711, a slightly sweet herbal citrus. Then it's joined by lots of vanilla, a soft sweet vanilla with a Play Dough vibe. Further along it becomes very powdery with a definite baby powder tone, a citrus-floral musky dry powder, maybe orange citrus.

There is hardly any strength or throw . I'm pretty sure it doesn't leave much of a trail (I don't smell anything much entering the room in which I sprayed some 10 minutes ago). My son is pretty hot on noticing what I have sprayed but he said he couldn't smell me (unless I stuck my arm to his nose) and I had sprayed 2 to 3 on each arm and the same on my chest and back. It does, however, seem to last all day sending out wafts of fragrance when I get a bit hot.

Overall I find it rather weak and would describe it as a citrus vanilla powder perfume; I definitely don't get a spicy woody perfume as per the description, and can't smell sandalwood at all.

It's nice in a just out of the bath way, but far too weak. I will enjoy wearing my bottle (safe daytime scent) but won't purchase The EDT strength again. Because of it being so weak I am only giving a 5 rating for the EDT.

04/12/2019

9
Scent 8
Longevity 7
Sillage 10
Bottle

Augusto

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Augusto

Top Review 25

Night sky, green cloudy

First test. AugustA smells: Galbanum - it shines and darkens, it woods and resins. All green.

Vol de Nuit is one of the fragrances with the highest galbanum content we know of. And AugustA loves galbanum. The fragrance is exciting and fascinates me immediately. It doesn't matter whether you find the opening to be somewhat old-fashioned or classically elegant, it attracts you immediately - provided you have the right disposition. An initially very bitter, but then also gentle, penetrating green veil with an elegant classic touch of powder and sweetness.

It's a strong-willed scent, a clear message, a world of its own. Above the clouds in a green uniform. No idea what the postal pilots at St. Exupéry's times wore on their dangerous night flights.
The fragrance dates back to 1933. The experimental game of the 20s is over, the new Europe is darkening. This can also be conveyed by the scent.
The plane rises up into the sky, away from the dark earth, up into the dark night. Towards the stars. Iris and aldehydes in the heart of the fragrance give brightness in the gloom, the goal are just these stars in dark night. Galbanum and further green remains powerful, wild and dominant, almost gloomy. More subtle than attention-seeking. If the smell would not exude such a special grey-green aura anyway, which cannot go unnoticed at all.

I would like to fathom the history of the fragrance still in many attempts. It ends quietly after hours and smells a little comforting with a relatively light vanilla skin note and a touching cool-warm wood tone
A special discovery, this scent. I need to get to the bookshelf.

8 Replies

02/02/2019

10
Scent 7
Longevity 6
Sillage 10
Bottle 7
Pricing

Venusia

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Venusia

Beauty from other eras...

... from another world, hard for the younger generations to understand. Yeah, my beautiful grandma wore that scent all her life. My childhood memories are strongly impressed with it and I find this fragrance the most beautiful in the world. Irresistible, unique, irreplaceable...

12/01/2018

9.5
Scent 6
Longevity 6
Sillage 9
Bottle

SchatzSucher

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SchatzSucher

Top Review 43

Fascinating, contradictory and from another time

I've been thinking about the night flight from Guerlain. This scent is pretty hard to put into words The great classics of the old school from the house of Guerlain fascinate me though.
Because of the many praising and very versatile comments and especially spurred on by the really great commentary by Fabistinkt I ordered Vol de Nuit without any previous test.
Now, this can always be associated with a certain risk and then great disappointment sets in. But in this case I knew that this extraordinary scent will please me. And yes, I think it's great! And yet Vol de Nuit causes some confusion because it is not easy to grasp and offers so many possibilities for interpretation.

Those who expect a sweet-flowery-sugary doll-like water will be disappointed. The few flowers that are used here are not very popular. They are not even particularly sweet, rather a bit stiff and formal.

And so the scent welcomes me. You can already tell the time it was originally from A time with completely different values and manners. A time that is long gone, but from which the fragrance almost looks a little defiant and wants to say "Hey, I still exist! And I want to be noticed!"

Galbanum jumps right at me, it has been used in abundance. It is said to give fragrances a distinct green note, which I can affirm. This green is almost a little bit vegetable-like and dull, but is cheered up a little bit by citrus fruits.
This interplay provides the somewhat old-fashioned, creaky note, which may certainly scare off some people, but it smells a little strange But Vol de Nuit has a lot more to offer, after all it is a Guerlain.

A gush of aldehydes rushes by, accompanied by some floral accents, but kept relatively cool and somehow seeming a bit brittle. The base is also noticeable, mossy, woody, spicy and the whole thing seems very dry to me. And then the typical Guerlain vanilla appears, which makes the scents so distinctive. In my opinion, it only appears in the base and takes some time to develop. But she is there and puts the icing on the cake And yet the fragrance is kept quite dark overall and I agree with the previous speakers, it is well suited for the evening or night.

I get a lot of thoughts in my head when I wear Vol de Nuit. And they even contradict each other partially Vol de Nuit on the one hand looks very masculine to me because of the rather tart ingredients, the rather dry appearance and the lack of extreme sweetness, but on the other hand also very feminine because of the interaction of aldehydes and floral notes.
There one has masculine and feminine but very skillfully combined in one fragrance.
Vol de Nuit is a green fragrance with this distinctly vegetable note but at the same time also floral with chypry notes.
In this respect, too, several aspects have been very cleverly combined into a whole.
Vol de Nuit is a very quiet fragrance, it is not obtrusive, never pungent or prickly, but it surrounds the wearer with its fine presence and I would even say intimacy.
After the somewhat crunchy opening, the fragrance transforms over time into a very pleasant, multi-faceted companion, mature, self-confident and old-fashioned in the best sense of the word. But it is certainly not a granny fragrance The scent is not very long-lasting now, after about 4-5 hours I do not notice it anymore, on clothes it is longer to perceive.
There was certainly more in it with earlier versions. But I can overlook that, most of the quiet scents don't last that long as a rule.

To Vol de Nuit I imagine the great Marlene Dietrich, who in the 30s revolutionized the trousers for the ladies. Hardly anyone else could embody this sophisticated play with male and female attributes in such a way. This caused a sensation, just as Vol de Nuit was sensational in its time and actually still is. And the Dietrich would have stood the smell surely wonderfully.
Because such refined fragrances, which leave the wearer such a scope for imagination, are hardly ever produced nowadays.
Vol de Nuit is for me again an example of successful fragrance art, which is unrivalled.

If there is still a free seat for me on this exciting night flight, I will gladly climb aboard and let myself be carried away!
Small addendum:
I have completely ignored the Saint-Exupéry story when writing the commentary and have only tried to put my own thoughts into words. Hence the small comparison to modern fragrances, which may not seem so absurd.

19 Replies

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