L'Instant de Guerlain (2003)
by Guerlain

This is a very pretty scent and I enjoy the citrus/ floral opening enormously... It soon turns to vanilla amber with a floral note above. I like the floral (magnolia? tuberose?) It has sillage in abundance. Unfortunately, for me the vanilla or honey note is too predominant and makes me think "generic modern perfume".

Very light, lovely floral with vanilla base. It dries down to a very sweet vanilla, however, and can become cloying in the wrong weather. The EDT also does not last as long as I'd like. Reminds me very much of Champs-Elysees, as they share much the same feeling: Light, inoffensive florals with a sweet sweet vanilla base. Lacks the pop of Insolence's berries and violet and the powdery melancholy of L'Heure Bleue. Not my favorite Guerlain.

This floral is dusty to me, like perfume on old turn of the century clothes from a trunk in the attic. The scent from an old magnolia tree next to the house comes in thru an open window. Vanilla and honey add sweetness while amber fixes the powdery/dusty florals. I prefer floral scents with a little more zing and sparkle, and green-ness. This old fashioned elegance doesn't just suit me.

L’Instant is an excellent fragrance. On my skin it comes off as quite Oriental. It begins extremely well with a citrus / floral that rather sparkles and glows (but not with aldehydes) for a few minutes, then switches to a honey sweet mixed floral – I don’t get a prominent magnolia. The sweet florals come with loads of sillage – I don’t see how it could be a considered a daytime fragrance. The drydown is a sweet but not cloying vanilla / amber that has somewhat close projection and lasts incredibly. Throughout its progression, L’Instant de Guerlain is nicely refined and it projects a beautiful femininity.

It smells too excruciatingly ‘girlie’ for any wearer of this to be taken seriously. Strictly for clubbing, where being taken seriously is not really that important (especially when everyone else is intoxicated in one way or another)…

I recoiled from the sharp citrus topnotes when I first sprayed it on my skin, but I noticed its wonderful sillage on the drydown (while I was conciously trying to avoid smelling it). The magnolia was very distinguished: big, white, and creamy. I thought I smelled a bit of almond in its sweetness, the citrus began to smell more like Southern mimosa, and I was reminded of Champs Elysee. Then it got deeper, sultry, more "Guerlain-aid"-y, very much like Shalimar. It dried out to a consumation of powdered faerie tea cakes, drizzled in musky honey served in a fresh flower. Enchanting and very much worth the 5 minute drydown!

Head notes : citrus honey.
Heart notes : magnolia inclusion.
Base notes : crystalline amber.