
L’Heure Bleu is another true masterpiece by Jacques Guerlain. I see it as standing hand-in-hand with its sisters Mitsouko and Vol de Nuit. There is certain quality that underlines those three masterpieces and makes them even more than an amazingly beautiful perfume to wear - but truly a work of art.
L’Heure Bleu is sophisticated, dramatic, and yet has a unique melodramatic peacefulness that definitely does not lack reflective, philosophical melancholy.
When you realize, once the last dusky lights are giving themselves away to the first stars, how beautiful the day was, and how wonderful the dark blue night is, and the world is so vast and immeasurable and so full of beauty that it may even make you want to cry.
This moment of beauty is so eternal that it makes you feel your mortality in a painful way. But yet, you are content with yourself and your life that you know if it will be taken from you that moment, you will feel complete and in perfect harmony with the universe.
You breathe in the silent fresh air of your warm, spring garden. The night blooming jasmine is so beautiful and intoxicating. The grass that has been just watered, full of murmurs and insects’ summer-songs. The orange blossom flowers are just folding themselves for a long, peaceful night sleep. You pick a late blooming rose, a deep, velvety-purple rose, her petals already soft after warming up in the sun for a couple of days. You hold the rose and fondle the petals and hold them against your cheeks and sense the warm scent of a mature rose releasing the peak of her last fragrance into the night air...And it is all part of you now, there is no need to hold on to it.
Those beautiful, magical notes interweave with each other so gently that it is hard to tell one from the other. Together they create one impression that in my visual mind reminds me of a very earthy brown colour, though somewhat rich and copper like. I simply cannot see a deep blue when smelling l’Heure Bleu, though the different notes on their own make sense and tell the story of this time of the day:
There are the subtle citrus and anise top notes that are there to accentuate the soft florals, including violet flowers, and link them to the even deeper base notes.
The root of the composition, apparent from first application, is a soft and bittersweet heliotrope, combined with tonka bean that accentuates the softness, yet also possesses the bitter-almond-like undertones. Vanilla and orris root are also present, to support the overall powderiness and soft, mature and philosophical nature of this marvelous perfume.
The drydown is somewhat more smooth and ambery (though it is hard to see l’Heure Bleu as an oriental per se -it has such a unique individuality and perhaps deserves not to be categorized at all.Just like Vol de Nuit and Mitsouko - they don’t quite “fall” into categories I am afraid.)- The drydown is a bit less powdery, with a more vanilla accentuated note. It also has some woody notes in the drydown - I suspect vetiver, but cannot quite pin point it. I will not be surprised to find some oakmoss in it either, though not in a chypre context but an oriental context, and perhaps some underlining spices that are subtle and are not meant to be recognized but rather create a warm undernote to support the rest of the scene.
There is something in it that totally reminds me, surprisingly, of Mitsouko - the fruitiness that is quite dry, bittersweet (dry peach like notes in Mitsouko, and the cherry-like notes in l’Heure Bleu); and a certain dark woodiness at the base that is interesting, mysterious, hard to grasp - but once you get it you are totally captivated!
The fruitiness of l’Heure Bleu lasts much longer though - as it originates in the heliotrope base notes, rather than the peach top notes in Mitsouko (that most people find they fade just a bit too quickly after been exposed.).
Top notes: Bergamot, aniseed
Heart notes: Jasmine, Orange Blossom, Rose, Violet, Carnation, Orris root
Base notes: Heliotrope, Tonka Bean, Vanilla, Vetiver, Woods, Spices