Sabi

This fragrance has two faces.

The opening hits you hard; it is so bombastic, piercingly green, cool, and expressive, as if a greenhouse filled with greenery has exploded and the pieces are flying around you. At this point, I must caution against unfamiliar scents, otherwise, you might end up like me, nearly in a coma...

So why did this fragrance still make it into my collection?
The truly piercing green opening note, which couldn't be more green, settles down and, although still green, becomes calmer, it "sinks to the ground" like swirling smoke in the air that begins to settle.
This makes the PCTG wearable for me; it is now cool, sophisticated, and highly elegant-imagine Grace Kelly.

After about an hour, the tuberose slowly peeks through, making the whole thing a bit softer and deeper, darker, no longer such a dazzling bright green.

However, the very best part is the drydown, after HOURS; the PCTG lasts extraordinarily well, and the sillage is superb, as the world's most beautiful, captivating, creamiest, and most seductive tuberose emerges in all its glory.
At this stage, I desperately searched every time for what smelled so incredibly wonderful until I eventually realized that this is the super green, rather austere scent from the beginning.
What a transformation!

This fragrance is like a lady, rather the classic, sober type, perhaps a bit prim, a very cool blonde. For work, she wears her hair in a chignon and glasses adorn her delicate nose.
But in the evening, she lets her hair down and shakes out her curls, becoming irresistibly sensual, with dark red nails and lipstick.
The prim "teacher" transforms into a vamp; that is how this fragrance is for me.

Fascinating. And so, after testing it repeatedly, being horrified at first and later captivated, I eventually gave in and added it to my collection.

Tomorrow, it will embark on a journey to its new owner. Waiting for the dream tuberose, as beautiful as it is, was simply too exhausting for me.

It was and still is a true crime that this fragrance was discontinued.

This Allegorie is a very special scent for me, and I only wear it during a very specific season; luckily, it is finally back!
The day before yesterday was the first truly cold, foggy day, brown autumn leaves crunching under my feet, the world looks dreary, but I feel embraced by my fragrance. My beautiful Allegorie warms me from the inside out, uplifting with the cinnamon in the opening, it fortifies me against the darkness around me.
In warm, friendlier weather, I don’t like to wear it, as it lacks the counterbalance.
It is lush, dark, velvety, spicy without being truly oriental, woody, never too harsh...a jewel.
Golden like the colorful autumn leaves, made for cozy hours by the fireplace or long walks in uninviting weather - the most beautiful autumn scent.

At first, it reminds me very much of Shiseido's Feminite du Bois, cinnamon and also a bit soft fruity.
Then the heart unfolds, particularly beautifully connecting clove, coriander, and cardamom together; this is my favorite part of this fragrance, I could sing, it is so wonderful...full and spicy, yet not as heavy as FDB. It is more refined and has more edges and corners where one can enjoyably "bump" into it.

It lasts and lasts, enveloping me. As it develops, it becomes softer and rounder, and in the base, I find it again very similar to FDB.

...
I welcome every drizzle, as that is exactly the scenery it needs to fully unfold.


Addendum on 19.8.2016
Today I was fortunate enough to acquire a bottle of this extraordinary treasure at a reasonable price...how wonderful that after years of longing it can finally join my collection!

It is early morning, the birds are chirping, and the sun casts its first golden rays on the white sand. Everything is festively decorated, white and gold, expensive, noble, a little extravagant, and very feminine, just like this fragrance.
J´adore l`absolu - the olfactory wedding dress.

If I were just about to experience the "most wonderful day of my life," there would only be one fragrance for me, namely this one; it is made for this joyful anticipation, this extremely feminine vibe, yet also a bit opulent. Unfortunately, I just wouldn't know when else I could wear it; it would simply be too much for any other situation. What is just right for a wedding, everything a little more, the makeup, the hair, the fragrance, doesn't quite fit into real life.
The Absolu is a scent that envelops me with its overflowing white floral abundance, and the sillage is overwhelming, perfectly suited for the occasion; no one will "overlook" you, you are clearly the star.
The jasmine is intense right from the start, almost suffocating, though very beautiful, nearly overpowering. Phew, a demanding fragrance, just like a wedding day is in most cases.

Like the white wedding dress, it is lush, luxurious, feminine, and it lasts and lasts; throughout the day, a quick refresh is surely enough for the party.

It is a "White Flowerbomb" without being too sweet. Floral, white-flowered, ladylike but for "everyday use" far too much. Almost a "flower overkill," it plays in the same league as Songes, another dreamy fragrance, which I cannot bear to wear.

The beach wedding, the pavilion decorated, the violinists and harpists playing, the bride wearing flowers (preferably frangipani) in her hair, the groom standing before her with tears in his eyes... along with this intoxicating fragrance, perfect!

For a wedding, I would immediately say YES, my absolute recommendation, but otherwise, I wouldn't know when/what for I should wear it.

And if I had to choose, I would prefer the old Absolu; the new one is a bit brighter, more dazzling, while the old one was fuller and more powerful. Someone made the very fitting comparison that the new one is "a pearl necklace, the old one like an amber jewelry."
If it were the "full blast" that unfortunately no longer exists, then I might consider it...

...but nothing more.

A not too sweet raspberry dusted with powder, from start to finish.
With astonishing longevity and quite noticeable.
Someone further down wrote "my raspberry lollipop fell into baby powder," which captures it perfectly.

Maybe I would be less biased if Guerlain hadn't released this fragrance, as you simply expect something different from them. It's like if Paolo Coelho suddenly started publishing comics, okay but somehow disturbing.
Guerlain probably wanted to provoke on one hand, as the name suggests, and then maybe also really just try to leave old paths and experiment with something completely different, targeting a new audience... I guess I don't belong to that audience.

If there has to be such a fragrance, then I think Lolita Lempicka has implemented this theme much finer and more appealingly with her L'eau en blanc.

It is my luck that the sense of smell changes, because today, after two pregnancies (which completely disrupted my sense of smell) and my partial anosmia that has faded by 70%, I can finally perceive "Vol de Nuit".
In the past, I could only vaguely sense it and sprayed entire armadas of scarves and sweaters with it to get closer, but none of that helped, but now...

My title may sound grandiose, but for me, it is the simple truth; there is nothing that can compare to "Vol de Nuit" in terms of scent.

It starts off slightly bitter with a hint of herbaceousness, but the truly incredible heart of the fragrance shines through even there.

I can see it vividly and immediately, a velvety black night sky, a warm night with a gentle breeze, it is quiet, almost meditative calm. Then, one by one, the stars begin to twinkle in the sky. You can hear the rustling of the wind and the steady humming of the propellers, beneath us the desert, endless...infinite, like this fragrance.

That is how "Vol de Nuit" is for me, a calm scent, meditative, to find peace, balancing, it has such a soft vibration. It is dark and velvety, definitely an evening/night fragrance, not a seducer, but during the day I find it, well, wasted, deprived of its true purpose.

I think it is this enchanting and somewhat mysterious blend of iris, aldehydes, daffodil, and vanilla in the heart that makes it so incredible, simply the perfect Guerlinade for me.

Surprisingly, it is the EDT that touches me so deeply. I have also tried the Extrait, but with the modern version, I could not recognize the essence of the fragrance; it feels like a completely different scent to me. The vintage version is a true predator, overwhelming with this mass of galbanum, but after hours, once you have recovered a bit, the base is of dreamy beauty, though the journey there is simply too exhausting for me, hard work!

I will definitely be placing a bottle of this incredible elixir in my perfume cabinet soon, an indispensable part. I now have to downgrade all my other fragrances to 90% to adequately appreciate my "Night Flight".

I wholeheartedly agree with the statement below: "God bless Guerlain for still doing this stuff."