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Top Review
In Honor of the Daring Aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry!
A challenging fragrance, complicated and hardly definable. Everything resonates: a bit of ‘Jicky’ (Fougère), a bit of ‘Mitsouko’ (Chypre), a bit of ‘Shalimar’ (Oriental), along with a good dose of galbanum and plenty of ‘Guerlinade’.
Imagine the interior of an old two-seater propeller plane around 1930: polished wooden instruments, leather seats, a dashing pilot, beside him an elegant lady holding a bouquet of daffodils, on a flight through the night, over dark forests and pale, colorless meadows illuminated by moonlight. Despite the darkness, the various aromas blend into a unique fragrance: ‘Vol de Nuit’ - herb-leathery-woody (masculine) and soft-floral-powdery (feminine) at the same time.
Jacques Guerlain created this fragrance in honor of the then-famous Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his 1930 novella ‘Vol de Nuit’ - the story of a mail pilot who battles the elements of nature and his own life during a nighttime storm over Argentina. Saint-Exupéry himself was a gifted aviator who met his end in 1944 during an aerial battle near Marseille. He was never found. Just like Fabien, the pilot over Argentina, who cannot escape the storm, yet enjoys the stars and contemplates life as his fuel tank runs low and communication with him eventually ceases - he disappears forever into the cloud-covered, raging sky.
This fragrance is similarly melancholic, held in dark notes. Nothing shines, nothing radiates. While ‘L´Heure Bleue’ was the scent of twilight, the blue hour, ‘Vol de Nuit’ is the scent of the night. ‘Vol de Nuit’ shares the spicy heart notes with ‘L´Heure Bleue’ and ‘Mitsouko’, which has led to these three often being mentioned in the same breath in assessments of Jacques Guerlain's fragrances, as the most closely related. ‘Vol de Nuit’ is the youngest of the three, the only one from the post-‘Shalimar’ era that has survived - only recently have ‘Sous le Vent’ and ‘Vega’ become available again.
The survival of ‘Vol de Nuit’ is not only due to the more than convincing quality of the fragrance but also its enormous influence on the works of many well-known perfumers. Thus, ‘Vol de Nuit’ subsequently became the starting point for two new categories: the oriental chypre and the green chypre. ‘Vol de Nuit’ itself is both: an oriental, green chypre.
The galbanum-rich ‘Vent Vert’ by Germaine Cellier was inspired by it, as was the famous Miss Dior. Edmond Roudnitska even claimed that ‘Vol de Nuit’ was Jacques Guerlain's best perfume, his legacy. Yet it was never as popular as Shalimar or Mitsouko; it led more of a shadowy existence, hiding behind the prominently marketed bestsellers, but still had a steady, loyal, albeit not overly large fanbase. Its lack of spotlight may have favored its survival - fashions passed it by, it remained as it always was. They didn’t even bother to launch a parfum de toilette or Eau de Parfum version, as they did with other great, old fragrances by Jacques and Aimé Guerlain, like ‘Jicky’, ‘L´Heure Bleue’, ‘Mitsouko’, and ‘Shalimar’. It remained with a perfume and an Eau de Toilette. This fate, of being somewhat on the sidelines and not in the spotlight, it shared with another great outsider: ‘Après L´Ondée’ - like ‘Vol de Nuit’, particularly cherished by many fragrance lovers, but little noticed by the masses.
However, the fragrance did undergo some modifications, out of necessity. In the early 90s, the softer oakmoss was replaced with the sharper tree moss, as it could still be used in higher quantities. Fragrances with a strong chypre base like ‘Mitsouko’ and ‘Vol de Nuit’ retained their fundamental character, and the small change was hardly noticeable. Since 2003, however, tree moss has also come under the IFRA's ban, and is now treated as restrictively as oakmoss. Since 2010, both have been virtually banned, as they may only be used in very small amounts, far too little to shape a perfume and achieve the famous chypre effect. Thus, ‘Vol de Nuit’ was also reworked and recently relaunched. I have not tested it yet, but it is said to have suffered less than ‘Mitsouko’, which many now only refer to as a shadow of its former self.
Just before ‘Vol de Nuit’ disappeared from the shelves, in the middle of last year, I managed to acquire another bottle of Eau de Toilette, as well as two bottles of perfume via eBay - so I stocked up for a good while. To anyone who wants to experience this fragrance in its full glory, I can only recommend the perfume - it is far superior to the still-great Eau de Toilette: richer, fuller, darker, velvetier, more animalic, and, and, and...... it is simply breathtaking! And on top of that, this wonderful Art Deco bottle, imitating a plane propeller - a legend in itself!
Luca Turin summed it up: ‘Good bless Guerlain for still doing this stuff.’
I can only agree!
Imagine the interior of an old two-seater propeller plane around 1930: polished wooden instruments, leather seats, a dashing pilot, beside him an elegant lady holding a bouquet of daffodils, on a flight through the night, over dark forests and pale, colorless meadows illuminated by moonlight. Despite the darkness, the various aromas blend into a unique fragrance: ‘Vol de Nuit’ - herb-leathery-woody (masculine) and soft-floral-powdery (feminine) at the same time.
Jacques Guerlain created this fragrance in honor of the then-famous Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his 1930 novella ‘Vol de Nuit’ - the story of a mail pilot who battles the elements of nature and his own life during a nighttime storm over Argentina. Saint-Exupéry himself was a gifted aviator who met his end in 1944 during an aerial battle near Marseille. He was never found. Just like Fabien, the pilot over Argentina, who cannot escape the storm, yet enjoys the stars and contemplates life as his fuel tank runs low and communication with him eventually ceases - he disappears forever into the cloud-covered, raging sky.
This fragrance is similarly melancholic, held in dark notes. Nothing shines, nothing radiates. While ‘L´Heure Bleue’ was the scent of twilight, the blue hour, ‘Vol de Nuit’ is the scent of the night. ‘Vol de Nuit’ shares the spicy heart notes with ‘L´Heure Bleue’ and ‘Mitsouko’, which has led to these three often being mentioned in the same breath in assessments of Jacques Guerlain's fragrances, as the most closely related. ‘Vol de Nuit’ is the youngest of the three, the only one from the post-‘Shalimar’ era that has survived - only recently have ‘Sous le Vent’ and ‘Vega’ become available again.
The survival of ‘Vol de Nuit’ is not only due to the more than convincing quality of the fragrance but also its enormous influence on the works of many well-known perfumers. Thus, ‘Vol de Nuit’ subsequently became the starting point for two new categories: the oriental chypre and the green chypre. ‘Vol de Nuit’ itself is both: an oriental, green chypre.
The galbanum-rich ‘Vent Vert’ by Germaine Cellier was inspired by it, as was the famous Miss Dior. Edmond Roudnitska even claimed that ‘Vol de Nuit’ was Jacques Guerlain's best perfume, his legacy. Yet it was never as popular as Shalimar or Mitsouko; it led more of a shadowy existence, hiding behind the prominently marketed bestsellers, but still had a steady, loyal, albeit not overly large fanbase. Its lack of spotlight may have favored its survival - fashions passed it by, it remained as it always was. They didn’t even bother to launch a parfum de toilette or Eau de Parfum version, as they did with other great, old fragrances by Jacques and Aimé Guerlain, like ‘Jicky’, ‘L´Heure Bleue’, ‘Mitsouko’, and ‘Shalimar’. It remained with a perfume and an Eau de Toilette. This fate, of being somewhat on the sidelines and not in the spotlight, it shared with another great outsider: ‘Après L´Ondée’ - like ‘Vol de Nuit’, particularly cherished by many fragrance lovers, but little noticed by the masses.
However, the fragrance did undergo some modifications, out of necessity. In the early 90s, the softer oakmoss was replaced with the sharper tree moss, as it could still be used in higher quantities. Fragrances with a strong chypre base like ‘Mitsouko’ and ‘Vol de Nuit’ retained their fundamental character, and the small change was hardly noticeable. Since 2003, however, tree moss has also come under the IFRA's ban, and is now treated as restrictively as oakmoss. Since 2010, both have been virtually banned, as they may only be used in very small amounts, far too little to shape a perfume and achieve the famous chypre effect. Thus, ‘Vol de Nuit’ was also reworked and recently relaunched. I have not tested it yet, but it is said to have suffered less than ‘Mitsouko’, which many now only refer to as a shadow of its former self.
Just before ‘Vol de Nuit’ disappeared from the shelves, in the middle of last year, I managed to acquire another bottle of Eau de Toilette, as well as two bottles of perfume via eBay - so I stocked up for a good while. To anyone who wants to experience this fragrance in its full glory, I can only recommend the perfume - it is far superior to the still-great Eau de Toilette: richer, fuller, darker, velvetier, more animalic, and, and, and...... it is simply breathtaking! And on top of that, this wonderful Art Deco bottle, imitating a plane propeller - a legend in itself!
Luca Turin summed it up: ‘Good bless Guerlain for still doing this stuff.’
I can only agree!
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1 Comment
Lakshmi 13 years ago
I think it's the more pleasant Jicky...
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