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L'Heure Bleue PdT

post #1 of 6
2/11/09 at 5:43pm
Thread Starter 
I just took part in a bottle split of vintage LHB PdT. This was a blind buy for me, but I'm enough of a Guerlain Zombie® that I didn't want to pass up the opportunity.

On BN and elsewhere on the web my sense is that LHB is more admired than loved. But having worn it twice now, I think it's terrific. Beautiful, complicated and wearable for a guy. Perfect for a warm winter day.

I'm not good at describing scents, especially complicated ones like the older Guerlains. Among the pre-WWII Guerlains I know (Jicky, Mouchoir, Mitsouko, and Apres l'Ondee) it's definitely most similar to Apres l'Ondee. LHB has a prominent carnation note; I'm not sure there's any carnation in ALO, but something similar is going on there (is that the hawthorne?). But LHB's basenotes are much more typically Guerlain, to my nose at least.

What do others who've tried LHB in this concentration think of it?
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post #2 of 6
2/11/09 at 10:43pm
Pre - WWII Guerlains ? I am duly impressed!
Now I hope to get my extrait soon also.
I am already in the process of swapping my EDT away,
hoping the perfume will render it obsolete... (?)
I am glad you like what you got - so far!
I never thought I could perhaps not wear it .
(more to follow...)
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post #3 of 6
2/12/09 at 2:53am
I've generally found that Guerlain's juices age beautifully, so any vintage edition (zig-zag box of extrait or EdT, EdC or the first PdT edition) is almost bound to smell great.

As Mike noted yesterday, L'Heure Bleue's mix of something very spicy (rose, tuberose and carnation) and something pastry-sweet (benzoin, heliotropin, vanilla) gives a Middle Eastern aura, like an old spice shop in a bazaar somewhere in Egypt or perhaps India. I don't think it's a man's everyday scent, at least the extrait (not least the new edition is SPICY!) makes me slightly self-conscious. But I often can feel a sort of crave for smelling L'Heure Bleue (like now, sitting at my office desk wearing the toned-down Guerlain Vetiver 1996-version...
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post #4 of 6
2/12/09 at 6:07am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by narcus View Post

Pre - WWII Guerlains ? I am duly impressed!

Don't be impressed!

I meant Guerlains originally created before World War II, not pre-World War II juice. This LHB is a "vintage" PdT, but I suspect it's from whenever they last made a PdT. I think that would be the '80s or early '90s, but more knowledgeable Guerlanistas will probably correct me.

And I agree with Mr. Guerlain that this would be a bit much to wear everyday. Still I wore it to the office yesterday and didn't feel a bit self-conscious about it.
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post #5 of 6
2/12/09 at 7:09am
Hmm. I personally love love LOVE L'Heure Bleue, but I wish I could get my wife to wear it, because I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing it outside the house. Mind you, this is the more modern EDP concentration - I haven't tried the vintage PDT - but is there a substantial difference between the two?
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post #6 of 6
2/12/09 at 7:19am
I can compare new and vintage extrait, and luckily I can say that L'Heure Bleue doesn't seem to have gone through the much feared reformulation. If anything, the new one has a stronger bergamot top and therefore seems slightly less sweet to begin with, and then it rushes to the very spicy part more quickly than my vintage one, which on the other hand stays pastry-almond-heliotropin-y for a longer time - but all this could just be due to difference in freshness of the juice.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kopah View Post

... this is the more modern EDP concentration - I haven't tried the vintage PDT - but is there a substantial difference between the two?
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