L'Instant de Guerlain (2003)
by Guerlain

As the name implies, tutti frutti refers to a dessert of a mix of fruits. A compote, an ice cream or the like made of various fruits where the fruit flavors enhance each other. Tutti frutti in the language of commercial flavor production has also come to mean one particular flavor: bubblegum. L'Instant, while well-composed and well-behaved is a tutti flori in the manner of the latter tutti frutti. L'Instant isn't exactly bland, just indistinct. It's a blur of the sultry floral set: lily, magnolia, ylang-ylang and others, forming a sort of pan-tropical note that flattens out when bolstered by a matter of course vanilla and musk.

Less an idealized abstract floral, or a well-matched bouquet; more an actually loud, but conceptually hazy floral flavor. Lack of evolution over time only exacerbates the problem.

8th September, 2011.

Whenever I think of FLOWER, I think also of Guerlain L'INSTANT. It's surely the vanilla baby powder connection, which lasts so much longer than the stages which mark the two perfumes as distinct that I cannot help but conjoin them in my mind. As this is a twenty-first-century creation of a once-glorious house (pre-Y2K), I never really expected much from L'INSTANT, and what I found was certainly nothing like classic Guerlain, although this perfume is not without its own cuddly appeal.

L'INSTANT edp is creamy and powdery and dreamy like a down comforter sprinkled with fairy dust. (Oh, isn't that the name of a perfume by Paris Hilton?) Anyway, this almond-honey-nougat-down-comforter confection reminds me of the suave and debonaire Morris Townsend [played by Montgomery Cliff] in The Heiress when he tries to woo Catherine Sloper [played by Olivia de Havilland] with this line: “You're everything I ever wanted in a woman.” And, no, he did not lie.

“You're everything I ever wanted in a [comfort scent],” L'INSTANT. Sweet, smooth, creamy, with a safe, dependable, vanilla baby powder drydown, the longevity of which is strictly determined by the wearer's own bathing schedule. Yes, since the dawning of the Century of Snark, the synthetic organic chemists have been working overtime chez Guerlain. But where have all the perfumers gone? Perhaps they, too, have become trapped in Twitter, frittering their lives away with the useless production of flankers and perfectly willing to settle for 140 characters of fame.

[Note on versions: My first bottle of L'INSTANT edp, from the original launch, contains a much darker liquid than the refill bottle which I recently purchased (before I became disenchanted with this house after their disastrous reformulation of MITSOUKO...). It could be a result of evaporation, but the first is definitely richer and more woody than the second, and it also appears to contain discernible flowers. (Not sure whether this is an issue of reformulation or not...) In a side-by-side comparison they definitely smell different enough to make me suspect that different reviewers may be encountering slightly different perfumes...]

5th September, 2011.

You know that diner scene in the movie "When Harry met Sally," when the Meg Ryan character simulates the big O? L'Instant is kinda like that. ;)

I didn't like L'Instant at first. In fact, if truth be told, I hated it, despised it, thought it was cheap rubbish. Then, I tried it again ... I began to warm up to it. Each and every time I tried it, I began to like it ... then love it ... more.

That is the true definition of a grower. And L'Instant has become a fragrance that I will never be without.

* parfum gel & EdP & body lotion *

26th March, 2011. (Last Edited: 30th September, 2011.)

l get a fleeting sharpness from the mandarin in the opening, then this quickly smooths out into a floral that l can't quite identify, but must be the lily or magnolia. There is a sweet, honeyed quality to these florals which is almost cloying, & l suspect there is some mimosa somewhere in here. Suddenly after only 20 minutes there's a sweet amber which somehow comes as a surprise to me. This is one of the fastest drydowns l've experienced, & the sillage is quite soft on my skin.
l love florals, & l love amber. So far l "like" L'Instant. l suspect this will really bloom in warm weather, & l may just fall in love with it. lt's classy, versatile, & apparently men love it on a woman.

Edit; l tried this again today; a hot, humid, cloudy day; & the sillage was indeed much stronger. l also noticed a strange note in the opening phase; salty, black Kalamata olives! Once l'd noticed it, it was unmistakable, & actually very pleasant indeed, as it transported me immediately to a place l love. The honeyed florals didn't really appear this time, but the amber was still as sweet. l've now used up my sample, & think l need to spend more time with this one, so a decant is in order. l have to see if those olives appear again!

13rd February, 2011. (Last Edited: 5th July, 2011.)

Two words that sum up L'Instant de Guerlain for me: floral vanilla. This fragrance is a perfect, harmonious blend of flowers, vanilla, citrus honey, bergamot and amber. It's instantly loveable and a great gift to someone who's a starting perfume enthusiast that wants an upgrade to their collection. Lasting power is about 3-4 hours and sillage is excellent: I was in a botanic garden with many exotic flowers and while I commented on their scent, my companion replied, "Well, I can only smell you."

6th December, 2010.

The opening is nice,
powdery but not overwhelming like Kenzo's Flower a softer more diluted powdery opening but i disagree with the drying
down it does not smell elegant on me it
smells like rotting cabbage mixed with
powder i just think my skin chemistry doesn't balance this scent very well
which is sad because it's from the most
prestigious perfume houses in perfumery.

4th December, 2010.