Love Jicky. Love Mouchoir de Monsieur. Love Shalimar?

My personal preference is Shalimar Parfum.

Well...... I love Jicky and Shalimar so I am guessing I would love M de Monsieur. Therefore... on that , I am saying you will probably love Shalimar too.
I found ( this is my personal opinion only ,on my skin ) I found Shalimar most like Jicky in the EDT but the EDT tends to be very sharp and it doesn't have much longevity .
Also , I tried and disliked Shalimar years ago ,like yourself but I do love the new formulation. It's less sweet perhaps especially in the EDP ?
I suggest trying the parfum extrait and certainly every other version so you may choose which you love most. Good luck .

Get the parfum extrait, but get it soon, who knows what the next reformulation will turn it into.

It's most likely that you will love Shalimar, if you already like Jicky and MdM.

Ruggles , please don't tell me Guerlain have not finished reformulating Shalimar ??? Will there be yet another tweak ?

The story about the birth of Shalimar is quite a myth, but Shalimar is more than Jicky plus extra vanilla. Shalimar's strong ethyl vanillin (deep and buttery-black), the floral heart (jasmine and rose), the labdanum and opoponax (smoky-balsamic), the iris (powder) and it's huge amount of bergamot (jumping-spiking) make for quite a different experience than the much fresher Provençal-herb delight of Jicky. But if you have fallen for the latter's earthy-sweet base, it's possible you'll be fond of Shalimar too, just be prepared for a totally different adventure. Maybe you should try the EdT first, it's woodier and less "wild" than the more concentrated versions.

I like vintage edc and longevity is not a problem. Too much civit in the edp for me, but you might like it. I really enjoy the current edt as well. I've never tried the parfum.

I love all three - but I can see after many years of wearing Shalimar, how different it is. I am going to go out on a limb and say you might not like Shalimar, just because you like Jicky and Mouchoir de Monsieur.

Shalimar is sweet. And powdery. It has a resinous, animalic quality to it that immediately apparent when you spray it on.

Try this: Sample Habit Rouge. If you like HR, then most definitely I think you will like Shalimar. I think they are the brother/sister team in the Guerlain line up.

Or try Shalimar Legere (Light) first. Much more lemony, less civet - almost gourmand. But light and less powdery.

Yes, Shalimar has a similar bone structure but is dressed up in layers until it feels like an oriental.

I adore Jicky but I am lukewarm about Shalimar. I can recognize it as a great composition, but it just does not connect with me on an emotional level. That being said, Shalimar can be had very inexpensively (I've seen it on clearance at Walgreen's for 5 or 10 dollars). Buying it blind would not be a terrible risk at that price. You may love it as others here do, or you may respect it enough to want to keep it in your collection for reference. If you did not love it, I would assume that you could swap it easily enough because so many others do.

I love Jicky in all its formulations, but I can't say the same about Shalimar. The EDT smells like baby wipes on me. What works well is the EDP or extrait, both of which are significantly more leathery in the top notes, and the drydowns are much more resinous.

I think that while HR and Shalimar share some similarities HR is much more difficult to appreciate than Shalimar. I also don't believe that Jicky, MdM and Shalimar smell too much alike. The myth of Shalimar = Jicky + ethyl vanillin is untrue, although Jicky + vanillin might have inspired Jacques Guerlain to create Shalimar. Both Jicky and MdM are much fresher than Shalimar which is resinous and powdery, incidentally also the aspects that link it to HR. I think that only with respect to the civet present your liking of Jicky/MdM is an indication of how much you will like Shalimar.

mikeperez23; I agree with your analysis 100%.

I would not classify Shalimar as 'light'. I wear it daily, but I wear it to bed, in an air conditioned house. Not outside. The 'lightest' formula is Shalimar Legere (Light) that I recommended above, because the lemon notes are so sparkling and sharp in the top notes and it manages to ease up on the powdery dry down. Still, if it's a hot day outside, I have to think a second before I'd grab even that version because some days it will definitely not (as the names suggests) wear light. But for occasions where a heavier oriental is appropriate, it fits the bill.

When I first bought Shalimar I had already been on BN for about a year-and-a-half. I purposely avoided sampling Guerlain fragrances (both masculine and feminine) because I had heard so many wildly different comments about the line I felt like I needed to take some time to explore scents that I could easily get ahold of and learn more about fragrances. When I was ready to smell Shalimar I PM'd Mr. Guerlain and asked his opinion about which formula I should try, etc. I finally decided to buy an Eau de Cologne (in the gold 1980-90 box) from my local Walgreens pharmacy that looked like it'd been gathering dust for 10 plus years. I brought it home, took a shower, got dressed and then finally sat down and sprayed some on. I hated it. I mean I almost washed it off. I kept thinking, 'Oh so this, is what everyone's always talking about when they speak about powdery, old-lady fragrances!' [no offense to the old ladies of Basenotes] I tried it every day, for about a week or so - each time, I disliked it but somehow...something else was happening. I was becoming a bit familiar with the Guerlinade and one day I paid attention to the dry down: It smelled...well, it smelled like NOTHING I'd ever smelled before. I researched it here and there on the internet. I learned that Shalimar made a revolutionary use of the vanilla note back when it was created...which surprised me because vanilla is NOT the first thing I thought of when I smelled it. So, the next day, of course my nose honed in on the vanilla...ahh! What a wonderful, subtle vanilla it has. Almost like that old book smell, you smell in old book stores or libraries. And all of a sudden, something clicked, and I found that I couldn't go to sleep unless I put on my nightly spray of Shalimar. I was smitten. Just like that. Moral of the story: test, test, test. Magical things can (and do) happen with repeated wearings of Guerlain fragrances. They are not called 'classics' for nothing.



Oh so sorry you don't like Habit Rouge. What formula did you smell? Eau de Cologne, Eau de Toilette, Eau de Parfum or Extrait? Vintage or new juice? I only own the vintage Eau de Cologne, which IMO is the one you should sample. I hesitate to recommend the extrait...it's just gorgeous, but it's so overpriced.

Oh Mike, I loved your story, it was touching to read! I was first horrified when you wrote that you followed my suggestion and then hated it, but smiled when I read the rest.

I'm like you, Mike, my first few trials of the Guerlains are often like that, "oh-no-newer", and then ending up being addicted to it. I guess one's brain has to "learn" the scent before it can appreciate it. (The downside of this: Your taste grows utterly idiosyncratic so that you stop noticing how wild and how strong you smell!)

That said, the first time I tried Shalimar, it was in my mother-in-law's bathroom LOL, it thought, gosh this is extraordinary, magic! But I also remember the first time I tried Metallica, I thought never-ever, it smells like suntan lotion, and then ending up getting totally hooked on it's spicy carnation and bright vanilla.

I think that we may have been separated at birth -- I agree with you 100%!

the stories about dumping vaniline de synthese into jicky are true--I have this from actual members of the guerlain family--but they added much more to get to shalimar--notably opoponax and many other things they will not divulge: My three favorite parfumes of all time are these three, with Shalimar on top: You might not wear it--but you'll love it. Buy the eau de toilette and use it on your linens, or buy the parfum and layer a tiny dab of it on your base of Jicky or MdM.(it's better with MdM) What it has that the other two don't are unabashedly feminine--and hugely seductive qualities that attract men. By perfumery standards, shalimar is "the oldest trick in the book." it also has a huge dose of grandma--so beware.

For the record, I do not find Jicky similar to Shalimar, except maybe deep in the base. But I do recommend Shalimar. I have a vintage EDC and I adore it. I am not intimately familiar with the other concentrations, particularly the extrait. I can say I did not enjoy the modern EDP much when I sampled it.

You all know how devoted I am to Guerlain fragrances, but I cannot abide Jicky or Muchoir de Monsieur. Shalimar however, is wonderful stuff. It is the civet in the other two that ruin it for me.

I don´t like Shalimar too much...to be accurate - I don´t like it on myself, if some other person wears it, I´m ok with that...

Really? That's awesome! Who from the Guerlain family do you know personally? I don't find Shalimar to be the most feminine of fragrances personally, especially not by today's standards in the masculine oriental category. It's very easily worn by a man. I'm not a huge fan of layering usually, but Spiriteuse Double Vanille is great with MdM.

Only like Mouchoir de Monsieur of the three.

As it happens, I know many people who hold the last name of Guerlain, and I know many people who are considered the greatest noses of the last century. What I didn't know, was that responding to these threads leads readers to respond with catty remarks that could be interpreted as downright insulting. I spent some time last night reacting to several discussions involving fragrances i've worn for years and know by heart, in all of their formulations and versions. Having had the privilege of working directly with some of the perfumers, I feel my observations are valid and of interest, and I give them freely. How surprised I was this morning to find my e-mail in box crammed with people reacting with viciousness and disdain. I greatly enjoy basenotes but i'm afraid this will be my last comment on the discussions panel as being insulted is not at all what i had in mind in freely offering insights gained over 30 years of involvement with the some of the most brilliant perfumers of our time. I'm not an internet junkie, have no facebook page, and, silly me, didn't realize that putting anything "out there" subjects one to jeers. But do believe that Vaniline de Synthese, upon being first delivered to the Guerlain atelier, was unceremoniously dumped into a flask of Jicky, as it was told directly to me, by a Guerlain, "Pour voir ce que ca donne." It was on this unexpected gesture that Shalimar was built: What gave the inspiration--not the actual final composition. And that, Monsieur, will be my final comment: To any and all readers ready to throw stones, start NOW.