Héritage (1992)
by Guerlain

Objectively, I know that this scent is like others and is made up of notes, but I don't experience it that way at all. It's a heavenly orange glow like the old Ready Brek adverts. I wear it for work (just a little; it's *strong*), and it feels like it carries me through the day. An odd review, I know, as I haven't mentioned the smell, but with my very favourite perfumes I don't care about that at all compared to the effect they have on me. Heritage makes me calm and happy, so I love it.

As an aside, the intro is utterly bizarre, like having sherbet blown up your nose. It is utterly unrelated to the rest of the scent, and disappears almost immediately. The very definition of top notes being "just for you", they make you laugh out loud. Which is a great way to start a work day.

21st January, 2012.

I ordered the one from fragrancenet, but they sent me a brand new batch in the new box. I was a little irked, but decided to just unbox it and try it on anyway.

This is SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD. It was love at first sniff. This is probably my favorite men's Guerlain scent, beating out even Habit Rouge. I read that Heritage was a tribute to all the great Guerlain scents of the past - a "Greatest hits" collection that plays all the tracks at once. However, there is no dissonance here. This is so well blended, creamy, bright, classy, clean, dirty, and beautiful. It is also unashamedly masculine. The "real man" sort of masculine.

Note-wise, this stuff is as complex as they come!

TOP: Aldehydes, Juniper, Lemon, Bergamot, Lavendar, Violet, Clary-Sage, Petitgrain, and Green Notes.

MIDDLE: Cyclamen, Orris Root, Carnation, Lily-of-the-valley, Rose, Jasmine, Geranium, Coriander, Pink Peppercorn, Patchouli, and Balsam Fir.

BASE: Sandalwood, Amber, Tonka Bean, Treemoss, Cedar, Musk, and Vanilla.

The opening is citrusy, only vaguely, but functions as an opening paragraph to describe the history of Guerlain. Yes, there is Guerlinade. Yes, there is bergamot. Yes, there is iris. And yes, there is Violet. There is a beautiful greenness to the opening, as one could expect from the listed notes, but it stays warm and creamy. The lavendar hints at freshly laundered clothes, but just very slightly, lending a "clean" characteristic to the blend.

After that, I just sort of lose my grasp on the scent. It isn't that it is so busy; it's that it's blended so well that the scents all create this solitary wonderful scent that is rich, beautiful, and yet somehow melancholy. If I try, I can pick out certain notes that I'm looking for, but I could probably pick out something that isn't there if I tried hard enough!

All in all, Heritage is the richest "male" Guerlain scent I've experienced. It is breathtaking.

And right now I can smell Mitsouko wafting in from my bedroom as my girlfriend is getting dressed. Magical.

9th December, 2011.

Heritage EDP is a fragrance that in the initial spray, seems to be a work from the 80's. Overloaded, dense!

A scent based on the chypre theme, a citrus, slightly floral with a ruthless/intense animal chord of musk! Be careful to not use it and left the house 5 minutes later. People will look you strange.

Over time the scent will lose a little bit of this feature, giving space to a very dry vanilla. Lasting 10+ hours on my skin

21st August, 2011.

Im a cook that can hunt and tell scent and flavors but to me this is just a powdery ylang-ylang. Its good, its classic but sorry folks this fragrance reminds me of funeral.


After having l'instant and heritage, i can label guerlain as "the house of ylang-ylang"

8th August, 2011.

04th August 2011 - 20:50
Had my first brush with this classic today. I was disappointed to see reviews mentioning reformulations but never-the-less, the 100ml/3.4 Fl Oz Tall Bottle EDT that I have is rather nice. Strangely, it's what I'd hope Givenchy Gentlemen was going to be like.

It's not Sporty, Aquatic, Fresh or any other similarly "youthful" qualities but it is refined, self-assured and distinctive. I'll take the latter any day of the week.

It does go on a little scary but only a few minutes in it settles and begins to unfold. It doesn't dominated (2 Sprays) but occasionally reintroduces itself gently to remind you it's there.

There are echoes of Gucci Envy in here, undoubtedly but dare I say, Envy done with more class and without that oddly artificial quality that always used to bother me about it.

I'm still adjusting to Heritage so will update my review later. For now, let me say it's a nice Fragrance. It's not remarkable or sexy and would take a hell of -30 year old guy to pull it off with any degree of sincerity.

05th August 2011 - 17:49
The Dry-Down on this is sublime. I had two sprays before work this morning and it has kept coming and going all day. I go back to Givenchy Gentlemen, it's not a mirror but it has hints. I'm also getting echoes of Van Cleef's Tsar, in the early stages.

I'll bet this turns heads in colder weather. Warm, clean, subtle but interesting enough to want to know more.

4th August, 2011. (Last Edited: 5th August, 2011.)

Heritage is one of those perfumes where we focus so closely on the iteration and version. EDP, EDT? Recent formulation? Vintage? Which bottle? What year? For what it's worth, I have the EDP, likely from 2006-2008.

Woody amber? Chypre? Floriental? I'll take any/all of the above. But most of all, it's the spiritual successor to its great-aunt, Shalimar. It has Shalimar's citrus/amber opening, skips its animalic, rather noir tones and then rides out that glorious radiant vanilla, tonka, amber, sandalwood parade-float of a heart and basenotes quite similarly to Shalimar. The difference is that Shalimar's harmonies revolve around a purr and a growl. Heritage's harmony is on a far larger scale. It has fewer low-decibel notes than Shalimar, hence no snarl, and actually doesn't quite hit some of Shalimar's high sweet notes either. But, oh, that large middle range. It is so full, so overlapped on itself. It's so densely composed that it feels as if there is a redundant set of harmonics built-in.

This is a bit of a stretch, but I find the closest analogy that captures the experience of Heritage is a song by George Harrison called, "What is Love?" It was from his first solo work post Beatles and you can just hear the exhilaration at being out from under all the Beatles' drama and infighting. But structurally the song, produced by Phil Spector, was the height of the Wall of Sound recording and production method. Dozens of overlapped horn, guitar and vocal tracks create a sound that has as much a quality of physical force as sound. This captures Heritage as well: exuberance and an almost palpable wall of harmonious aroma.

If Heritage is a spiritual heir to Shalimar, and shows a genetic similarity, it is not retro by any means. A 1992 fragrance might look dated, or at least era-specific from the perspective of 2011, but it was also groundbreaking at its release. Large, unabashedly pretty, neither soft-spoken nor cool/fresh like the bulk of the releases of the early 90s, Heritage was out and proud. It falls in line with that anthem of the era among my people: "We're here. We're queer. Get used to it."

29th July, 2011. (Last Edited: 1st August, 2011.)