Any suggestions about how to spot vintage L'Heure Bleue?

Hey there Strolly,
Wish I could help. I've got a big bottle of edp from about 5 years ago I think. No idea of its comparison to any other formulations or bottles. Agonizingly right in the place where one has to wonder about it no matter what is to be done. With such a famous classic I imagine one would need to worry about reformulation of each or any concentration. I don't even know how old the edp is as an offering. I'd bet the edt and of course the extrait are closer in history to any real stuff.

Strolly, let me return the blessings.

I wish I knew the scent better. I've smelled the edt, but not worn it. I'd have no way to think about its changes or duration in the wearing.

I've only worn the edp two or three times, and it has been a great experience at first, and then sort of mediocre/curious the times after that. The edp is very dense and thick and like cold wet leaves going bad under bushes in the cold weather. There's very great dark florals on top, and they're dense and black hole like, sucking in your nose instead of your nose sucking them in. It's very fun, and sort of like the dense wet leaf quality that I think Van Clef & Arpels PH has, but without a dry rose or small clove quality. Something tells me there's something colored purple in the edp, but I can't remember for sure. I both really liked it and also said to myself what-is-it-I'm-wearing-and-why-can't-I-figure-it-out? Odd. Dense. The edp doesn't unwind like an edt version does, although I'm not talking about the L'HB edt here, which I don't know, but my feelings about edts v. edps in general. (I have both the edt and edp of Jicky, for example, and I like how the edt unwinds and spreads out in a more playful way.)

Now I'm going to have to dig in the still packed boxes and find this stuff for a wearing. Our weather will be good for it maybe.

I hope someone else will chime in too, and Mr. G probably will when he makes his rounds. (Hehehe.)
Very best!

The packaging of the new one is beige. The older one is gold with black square.

Also, the lot number is better if it is a combination of letters and numbers, as opposed to all numbers. If I am wrong on these, I hope somebody else jumps in.


I hope that helps.

So, the vintage L'Heure Bleue bug has bitten you Stroll, eh? Great!

I still remember when I first bought (blind) a bottle of vintage LHB Eau de Cologne and splashed some on at my home desk, in front of the computer. I spent the next few minutes, literally standing still, inhaling my sillage...a bit frozen. It was achingly beautiful juice and it immediately 'clicked'. I remember smiling from ear-to-ear.

I have tested vintage EdC, new EdT, vintage PdT, new EdP and new parfum. Of those, I have (and recommend) you get the vintage Eau de Cologne or the vintage Parfum de Toilette (or EdP). Preferably from the 1960's. How can you tell if it's from the '60's? The box! It will look like this mini Mitsouko extrait box (with the white box / black squiggly lines): http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x...t/IMG_1553.jpg. If you cannot find a box/bottle that old (it's not easy, believe me - when they go on sale, they get snatched up - fast!) then get one of those gold boxes from the 1980's, like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/GUERLAIN-PARIS-L...item5d27e696cd

Personally, I detest the EdT version of LhB (vintage, new, etc) - it is just too, too powdery and it seems to just radiate a clashing of notes, as if there is static on a radio station and the melody gets all full of white noise.

One more thing: Be mindful that LhB does not always age gracefully. Many times when you see old bottles of it, you will notice that the juice has turned a very dark brown. This could be a sign that the fragrance is totally fine, but in other cases it is a sign that the top notes have turned a bit. This was the case with my Eau de Cologne. BUT...and here is the kicker: even though the top notes faded I could still enjoy the middle and base notes and I did enjoy it thoroughly.

In fact, if you ask me what my very favorite version of LhB is, I would have to answer: vintage Eau de Cologne. It has everything I love about the scent (bread-like iris, thick and deep middle-eastern spices, woods, Guerlainade-in-spades) - all in an easy-to-splash transparency that makes it almost impossible to over apply. Unlike the fantastic PdT, which if you aren't careful, one-too-many sprays can really be TOO much, the EdC is the perfect combination of everything I like about LhB without everything that I don't.

Sorry to ramble...but as you can see, I am a big fan of L'Heure Bleue. This is something that Tania Sanchez and I have in common.

Follow Mike's great documentation of the box as sign of levels of vintageness and if you want my comment on that:
The older the edition, the softer is the scent, zig-zag box design (or older) being the softest and most romantic, gold-black box design harder and more dense, and newest even a bit harder and denser.

There are as many opinions about "the best L'Heure Bleue" as there are fans of the scent. Some want it to be extremely soft, powdery and romantic (the very vintage), some like it more direct and dense (newer). Some, even within Guerlain, find the EdP too hard on the clove and prefer the EdT for its more transparent powder, while others won't use anything below the very spicy extrait.

Personally, I can't choose which one is best - I'd say I prefer vintage, but the new is gorgeous too in its spiking spiciness. Some days I prefer the fluffy powder of the EdT, some days I want it dense and wet and take PdT/EdP. Some days I want extreme spiciness, then it's extrait. In general I'm not too crazy about the Guerlain EdCs, except for Shalimar, I find them a bit too boring.

So I guess I can only suggest: Go vintage and - if you really love L'Heure Bleue - take whatever concentration you can find on eBay

Yes that box design (vertical thin line and circular double G logo) is the current edition of anything Guerlain.

I have the same feeling exactly - could not have put it better. I consider L'Heure Bleue as somehow standing aside and away from perfumery as a whole - it's a world unto itself.

A personal aside - Claude Debussy's "La Danse Sacree et Profane" (1904), or any of the "Images" (1905-12) seem to work as my 'soundtrack' for this scent. It seems so appropriate that when Debussy was composing these in Paris M. Guerlain was also composing L'Heure Bleue and that some of those listening to his works in those few magical years (it was the time of The Impressionists, after all) before everything changed in 1914 were probably wearing it . . . what a time to have been alive in Paris.

I so much follow you on the Belle Epoque, also on the Impressionist and Debussy theme. But somehow I find L'Heure Bleue more celebrating and "smiling" than Debussy's intellectual melancholy. So I chose Rachmaninov's 3rd (1909) as the soundtrack - every time I listen to that piece, I always think of L'Heure Bleue... Spicy, brisk, with a melancholy underneath, but grand...

You're welcome Stroll. It's easy for me to wax poetic about such a beautiful fragrance.

If you tried it 5 years ago (at a department store, I suppose) than most likely you have smelled 'new' juice. If you are able to get ahold of vintage juice, I think you will be even more delighted in the 'places' it takes you.

I'm wearing the 'new' EdP today, inspired by you Stroll, and while it throws off wonderful sillage (the Guerlinade surrounds me!) it doesn't quite reach the heights that my vintage PdT does.

I don't have anything to contribute as whatever I had to say has been said by DustB, Mike and Mr. G, and very eloquently at that. I will thank you, Strollyourlobster, for this lovely thread though

Hehe didn't see this comment before now DustB - of course I would chime in on a fave topic, the beyond beautiful L'Heure Bleue. Thinking about it again, I think my favourite editions are the EdT and the extrait, because they are so different, yet so beautiful both. While I don't really think that the EdP adds something really new and extra. Same goes, btw, for Shalimar EdP in my opinion. It's only Jicky and Mitsouko - and maybe also Chamade - EdP (and mainly vintage) that I really cherish on their own...

I love wearing the Guerlain classics and though I've had "what smells like grandma" thrown at me a couple times with Mitsouko and Shalimar (must be a sexy grandma imho), the other day I was wearing L'Heure Bleue (current edp) and a stranger commented with: "Your cologne is so beautiful, it's heartbreaking"--that's L'HB alright.

While I do associate this with an impressionist melancholy (I think of Monet's Rouen Cathedral series, fittingly captured at different times of day and impressions of light), sometimes I get a jazzy, upbeat vibe, especially with the neroli. I think L'HB oscillates from cool to warm (crisp iris and cherry pie) without settling down to ever "be" either.



Like I said, I have the current edp (which I got on the cheap at Kmart of all places), but have been looking around at the vintages. No one has mentioned the blue packaging with the fountain graphic. What's that all about?

That was a 1999 limited re-edition of the "Biscuit shaped bottle" (1916) that was mainly made for American export. This bottle was made for several Guerlain perfumes, each with a different label, and the one for L'Heure Bleue was dark blue with a silvery fountain, quite Art Deco in style and very different from its original romantic Art Nouveau design. For the 1999 reissue, also a 75 ml EdT bottle was made, same as today's but with the blue/silver label...

Thanks Mr. G. I falsely assumed because of the deco style it was older. Good to know.

OK one more thing and then I'll shut up:

It was Mr. G who tipped me off to the rich spiciness of LHB. It's not to say that I couldn't smell the spice all by myself - I could. But wearing LhB, my nose seems to be consumed with a lot of information: It's a very complex fragrance. When I wore it, I felt extremely happy just letting the notes swirl all around me and getting caught up in them. But then when Ulrik mentioned that it was so Morrocan-spice-market oriented, I thought to myself...really!? So, I sniffed my skin very up close (nose to skin) and lo-and-behold he was right - it is extremely spicy up close. Almost like L' Eau by Diptyque or CdG EdP - spice, spice, spice! My nose tickled. But when I pull my nose away, and I catch some whiffs of my sillage, the spice recedes to the background - becoming a much larger picture.

Fascinating. It is this very facet that has always intrigued me about LhB. It's also another reason I am eager to smell the 'vintage' extrait.

Wow, I'm wearing this today. (I clearly have a recent period edp.)

I'm digging this. Mike is exactly right above me--the smell is different depending on where around you you smell it. Complex would be an understatement. This is like nothing else. I'm homebound all day because of a blizzard that has shut down my city, but this scent makes me ache to go out and show off.

Strolly,

i have bought a year a go a 100ml vintage 1920 edt
in teardrop botle of LHB.
it is dark brown juice and it came in a lavender blue box.

it is this one

i think it is still availabble.
it was pricey thoug!

Just so everyone is aware, use of the non-marketplace forums for selling/swapping or suggesting such is against the rules of Basenotes. The marketplace is for this.

Dear Dust B.

i just have showed a picture telling a dear member
that it is still availabbel ON EBAY!!!

i dotn sell mine.
thanx for your nice words my dear man.

Yes yes yes, Moreda. I'm sure about that.

good dear dust be.


anyway..

strolly,

the LHB vitnage is still on ebay..

Thanks for the information. I bought a bottle like this and I had no idea what it was about.

Judging from the discussions about vintage vs new, I'd agree. The bottle of LHB I bought on eBay months ago really does have that doughy iris character that vintage enthusiasts mention.

LHB is one of my absolute favorite fragrances. I was fortunate, or so I thought, to find an unopened blue ribbon box of LHB parfum. After a time, I decided to open it & discovered that the entire contents had leaked (or evaporated). The box smelled fabulous as did the intact string wrapping around the stopper. The difference I noticed between this older parfum & the one I have from the 90's was in the base. Of course, that could just be from the evaporation.
I did an experiment, whereby I took a 1/32 oz glass vial & put the scent darkend string from the older LHB parfum with a few drops of the 90's parfum. Then I let it sit until the string came out clean. The resulting scent, albeit a tiny, tiny amount is far richer than the 90's LHB formulation. Of course it's polluted by the string but as it's just for my own use, I don't mind. It's interesting. I'll wear it most often to bed & true to LHB, it lasts well into the next day. Repetitive applications just intensify the effect. Rich, evocative, like moonlight & clouds.

The only other version of LHB I wear is the edp but not around my husband. He really dislikes the topnotes. I find the edp version "louder", with greater sillage. It has incredible longevity, perhaps even longer than the parfum but it has a huge sphere of influence, so it's not one I reach for often.

Never tried, edc but would like to.

Same here RHM. Ray hates when I wear L'Heure Bleue around him. I usually could care less what he thinks, but I have to refrain from wearing this to bed, for obvious reasons.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your first toe-dip into the LHB water, Snafoo.

Remember, this is one that really needs a light hand, when applied. Enjoy!

Hello,

Sorry for dredging up an older thread, I was searching for methods of dating vintage Guerlain. After scouring the internet I am happy to say that... I am no closer to where I started!

If anyone has any clues I would be happy to listen

--
*EDIT* Nevermind, I found it is a dummy bottle, but it's still a very beautiful bottle. It's going on the shelf!