Omni

If you, like me, like vintage perfumes this is rather lovely. I cut my teeth on Bal a Versailles, older Carons, pungent creatures like Yvresse or Magie Noire. The ecclesiastical perfumes like Bois de Encens just captivate me. It's a softer world now, we don't dominate a room with fragrance anymore. I'm sure I had a little bottle of the original all those years ago and of course the rose isn't as prominent as that one, but it is there. I purchased on line during the lockdown from a discounter. It needs 15 minutes to develop and is best on warm showered skin, it simply won't mix with anything else applied prior or it will smell like SJP's Stash.

I like the current EDP, it seems to have a bit of the magic I missed early on. It is said you are a Shalimar person or a LHB person, I don't own the pillar that is Shalimar but I do have lots of spin-offs (flankers) in Eau de Cologne, Cologne 2015, Parfum Initial, PI L'Eau and Eau de Shalimar. LHB's only, sort of, flanker is L'Heure Nuit, rather obscure now. Recent online conversations with Honey Bees (Guerlain fans) confirm that the current LHB in EDP form may be alarming at first spray, however, it settles into its name very nicely, the blue velvet interlude of twilight, a more perfumey version, less mothbally than in the past, more carnation, a little rosier, less doughy.

The molecule is Styrallyl Acetate, it smells of hints of peach skin & strawberry & rhubarb atop of a musk that is similar to Narciso R and with the animalic content of Khiels Musk. I was given the 9 ml sample by a friend who had been away travelling and I thought that the mcQueen EDP sample would be top of the pops, but it was this. Mathilde Laurent has achieved the most perfect balance and it has knocked Narciso off its perch in this house. It has gentle sillage but excellent persistence. There's a special strawberry I remember going to great lengths to acquire because Beth Chatto (famous gardener) wrote of it glowingly in one of her books. It is incredibly sweet, Fragaria Vesca, the wild woodland strawberry and I think of it each time Legere settles on my skin. I no longer have a large garden but the magic of first reading about it and then trying it returns. The sample is on its death throes and I have ordered a bottle.

If I was Thierry Wasser and people kept banging on about Mathilde Laurent's Eau Legere, Jean Paul Guerlain's assault on it, unfortunate names that suggested a diet Shalimar and now a discontinued Eau de Shalimar I would also restore the fragrance. He has been the 'Great Improver' and those of us who have benefited from his tweaks of MItsouko bow to his artistry. There are great specifics there from Mr Bon Vivant's review; cool iris and thyme made me my knees tremble. And I am indeed kicking myself for missing Eau Legere because I came late to Guerlain; the Dowagers in my family wore Caron, Chanel and very 'Green' fragrances that were the rage. Having tried Cologne today I knew I was undone. Love this and many will think it is a cross between Eau de Shalimar and Parfum Initial

To my nose this perfume is most like 'The Fragrance' by Bill Blass; it is however a superior version and less cloying. The jasmine in it is very similar to Badgely Mischa's "Fleurs de Nuit"

I purchased this perfume to round out my Guerlain classic collection, with a flickering hope of a Tuberose dominant perfume that I might enjoy. There is a masculine undertow in JdB that I revel in, girlie white florals are not my bag, but Annick Goutal's "Songes" (Dreams) is one that I reach for often, so this proves I can have my head turned by a Southern Belle fragrance.

I bought JdB in EDP form at a very good price from an online discounter, and wouldn't have paid boutique prices for it. Some have compared it to Estee's "Beautiful' and YSL's "Paris" but I will point to a more refined version of Vanderbilt and Bill Blass. Heady White floral with a sandalwood masculine base.