Straddles old and new

Many who love Guerlain will doubtless be familiar with the original l’heure bleue which debuted in 1912 and has been adored ever since. That perfume is cold, chilly, at once melancholic and hopeful. It’s a masterpiece and I only mention it because for reasons I can’t comprehend, Guerlain decided to name this perfume l’heure bleue as well. It sets this version up for comparisons which—due to their stark differences—will create confusion and consternation. For some, this comparison will render the new better than the original; the opposite also likely. To my nose, they share a few fleeting sentiments and a namesake…that’s about it. So I won’t judge the new up against the original.

This l’heure bleue opens with a swirl of aquatic essences, fresh, clean. Here I smell neroli and pear but also jasmine comes through prominently. It’s a bit “clean laundry”, ever-so-slightly soapy.

Quickly, the aquatic notes settle and a blanket of dense, sweet powder emerges. The sweetness is from the jasmine (to my nose) and some undertones of vanilla. Here, there’s a brief moment when I glimpsed the original, a fleeting pass of carroty iris and something “blue” (aquatic notes maybe) that felt nostalgic and familiar. This ephemeral waft of notes was the only time I saw the New within the Original.

But, at this stage, the perfume reminded me of an amalgamation of other perfumes I couldn’t put my finger on earlier but have now have come up with three that seem to share a “vibe” with this version: Sur tes levres D’Orsay (sweet powder); Blanc Sada L’Entropiste (sweet powder and clean laundry); and Neh Zeromolecule (aquatic, sweet powder, clean laundry~~closest cousin to this version of the three). If you’re familiar with these and like them, I think this version will fit right in.

Side note: I’ve seen this compared to Musc Outreblanc and to my nose, the similarity lies with clean laundry vibes and the softness to the musk. To me, they aren’t too similar beyond that.

As this version dries down, the thick, sweet pillow of powder softens and thins out into an inoffensive, clean, softly powdery scent.

This does apparently have ambroxan and while I’m hyper-sensitive to it, it’s so well blended I couldn’t detect it in high quantities but it’s presence adds longevity (difficult to do with soft powdery scents so kudos there).

Iris lovers~this version has notes blended in a way that makes separating them challenging. Iris is detectable in the mid (if you squint) but falls away unlike the OG where its presence more heartily felt.

Final thoughts: this is a nice perfume. Soft. Inoffensive. Clean. Lasting. Nothing groundbreaking. To my nose, not a masterpiece and it seems unfair to have given it such giant shoes to fill. Some will find it too old fashioned (the thick powdery notes seem to come off that way to some). Some will find it new, twisting the idea of original’s liminal blue space into something modern. It straddles both. I like this. But the original has a lock on the “blue hour”. This version sticks a toe in it.