Vol de Nuit (1933)
by Guerlain

I loved the book vol de nuit. So this should have been tried. but not fascinated as did while reading Saint Exupery. The opening is bitter heavy and dries down spicy amber. I have enjoyed the iris and oakmoss a bit but they are not heady and the fragrance on the whole is too old and spicy and too heavy for my fair skin. Compared to her elder sisters mitsouko and le heure bleu this is more wearable. But may be it should have worn in a costume ball and when you dress in the way the grandaunt of your grand mother does. May be a darker skin and a man should carry this better. but no way thump goes up...

My all time favourite perfume.So different and unique to all the similar smelling perfumes on the market.On first spray i did decide it wasn't me and purchased Apres L'Ondee instead.An hour later husband asked what the lovely smelling perfume was...it was Vol De Nuit!I thought so too and have worn it ever since.

This fragrance was launched in 1933, the same year as Air France, which is not as tenuous a link as it might at first appear. In French, Vol de Nuit means 'night flight' which is also the name of a novel from 1931 by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, famous pilot during the war. Saint-Exupéry was killed in action over France in 1944 and his body was never recovered. The French Air Force College cadets still give out Vol de Nuit with their emblem on official foreign visits. The perfume bottle's design imitates a propeller in motion. Together, L'Heure Bleue, Mitsouko and Vol de Nuit are often referred to as 'sister fragrances’ because of their shared powdery spicy-floral qualities. Yet, Vol de Nuit is the darkest, most subtly spiced of the three, and consequently some people find it to be a 'unisex' fragrance, just like Jicky.

Family: oriental, woody, spicy. Top notes: bergamot, galbanum, petitgrain. Middle notes: jasmine, daffodil, spices. Base notes: wood, iris, vanilla, amber notes, earthy forest note.

Begins with a warm and complex guerlinade waft but then in fairly short order it all goes terribly flat and thin and then something horrible happens; the return of Old Lady vintage 1933. Some fragrances simply do not last the distance despite my attempts to believe in them. Try it and ask someone who isn't a perfume addict what they think...you will get an almost universal thumbs down.

This starts off wonderfully tangy, like Tabac Blond, but then it simmers down very quickly to a vanilla scent that seems to characterize all the final stages of the Guerlain perfumes to some degree. Vol de Nuit's finish is a little spicierm, though. Not as sweet as Jicky, not as vanilla as Shalimar, and not as sharp as Mitsouko. I still like it, but not as much as Tabac Blond or Shalimar.

I bought this fragrance following the rave reviews from this site and feel quite inadequate, as I must be missing something. Yuck.I am 46 years old and feel like an old lady wearing this. It makes me feel as if I should be knitting and drinking cocoa.IMHO, this is just too powdery and sickly sweet for anyone other than some sweet 90 yr old granny. My colleagues have told me they will pay me to get rid of this one as it makes them feel unwell. I have half of a 100 ml bottle left so if anyone wants to pay P&P they can have this for free.