L'Heure Bleue (1912)
by Guerlain

I am in my late thirtees and classical music is my first choice from the beginning of my twenties. I am none of a modern lady, prefers to wear dresses and have nothing solid geometric in home design. So when i began to read and get fascinated about fragrances, i was intrested in the classicals most. I live in small city so have no chance to try these here so i bought le heure bleu and mitsouko online.
I thought i had no chance to dislike them as i am not a kind of person that would not appreciate a fine Baroque Suite. But the nose does not work as the ear does. At the first try i have sadly noticed that i know that old type neroli too well and i hate it…. Bad and the good thing about smelling is that smells memory is packed together with the limbic recordings of the moments.
L heure bleu is not a complicated fragrance. To my nose it opens with neroli (reminds me the old heavy arabic incense that my grangrandaunt used all together with her friends venerable old men and the pilgrim ladies) then a bit carnation (smell of the white soaps my grandmother used to aromatize the sheets) and then a very bit of vanilla? No vanilla. Neroli murders carnation and does not let even the first breath of vanilla.

Some say the best advice for life ahead that a child can be given is ‘be particular’. It is advice that can be applied to most situations, if you think about it, and had we followed it, the less than auspicious choices some of us made could have been avoided. Not to mention - as an example, I would not have the hundreds of bottles of perfume I now have. I would have stopped with L’Heure Bleue, in the parfum, and that would have been it, which might have been kind of a shame, come to think of it, but, oh my, I’d be so elegant! I did first sniff L’Heure Bleue when I was very young, and was mesmerized to find that my favorite time of day could be captured with a bottle of perfume. Then, evening meant quiet air, night-scented flowers, wood smoke, the first planets in the sky, and being safely home with my parents. My evenings now are very different but the wonderful thing is that a dab of L’Heure Bleue parfum still captures them. Within its familiar and comforting embrace is a metallic blue steel edge that meshes well with city lights, hard rock, and cool companions. It’s an encapsulation of the introspective moment at day’s end when we’re at peace with who we are and are willing to be swept into whatever passions the coming dark brings us.

Its blend of florals and warm notes with the coolness of the heliotrope and iris was genius. I think it’s an anytime, anywhere, anyone, fragrance; it’s a beautiful will-o’-wisp that survives in a world soaked in heavy artificial and cloying sweetness.

Sharp. Medicinal. Powdery. Overly sweet. If I'd stuck with the reviews, I would not have purchased this unsniffed, but I'm so glad I did! I don't even know what made this my first blind fragrance purchase, but the moment I smelled it I knew it was the perfume for me. It is, quite simply, bottled sophistication and confidence. Its unabashed neroli and bergamot top notes are presented without the usual apologetic citrus notes to brighten it. Instead of a lemon- or grapefruit-induced sparkle, this fragrance glides like a snake with hips. It is classified as a floral oriental, but there is an unusual dark, confident, sultry note that removes it completely from the dreaded grandma's-powdered- flowery scent I feared. Vanilla keeps it rounded, but it maintains its character all the way through to the fabulous woodsy-iris drydown. It has depth, subtlety, and presence from beginning to end.

Incredible! A treasure,not easy to love though, but one of those that , once you have tried you can´t live without.A classic,like a jaguar ,like Harrison Ford before he met Calista F,like an artist in Paris,like an old movie you could see again and again.
Very french and chic after so many years,elegant and....mine,mine,mineee.

Time has moved on but truth remains ever the same. This new complicated world only obscures inner beauty The fleeting grasp of contact is lost in the mist.

Some hearts were destined to synchronise across the ages, but only for long enough to feel the pain of eternal separation. Everything now is concrete and steel, the soft touch but a distant memory talked of in hushed tones by the older generation.

I am a man born out of time, and in my time my woman wore L'Heure Bleue.

Deliciously melancholic, this rings of opportunities lost, liaisons missed and unrequited love. I wear it because you don't.

A very early and innovative floral-oriental style fragrance that has become a truly distinctive classic. The fragrance was created by Jacques Guerlain in 1912 as a tribute to the painters of the impressionist paintings he was a keen collector of. In fact, L'Heure Bleue (meaning 'the blue hour') is a reference to the special hour at dusk when the light seems blue and the smell of the flowers in and around the city of Grasse reaches its peak. The phrase is also used to refer to the city of Paris immediately prior to World War I, which was considered to be a time of relative innocence before the horrors that were to follow. Although much akin to Après l'Ondée in its gourmand pastry and almond core, L'Heure Bleue is much less bright and more spicy. Especially the Parfum-version is dominated by the spice-world of ancient Persia. The bottle, often called 'flacon bouchon coeur' for its heart-shaped stopper, were designed by Jacques' nephew Raymond Guerlain as a reference to the romantic pre-war time. Still, L'Heure Bleue is primarily known to be a melancholic scent.