Guerlain is such a behemoth of a perfume house and has produced so many classic fragrances that it seems almost sacrilegious that my first official review of a Guerlain fragrance will be for an Aqua Allegoria. Nonetheless, sacrilegious is just the way the cookie crumbles on this blog (I'm mixing themes again), so please read on for my impressions of Figue-Iris. I really thought I'd like this one before I tested it, as fig usually a winning note for me and iris almost always rocks my world. Both have a nice, crisp quality to them, so I was envisioning a nice refreshing summer fragrance, and the combination of fig and iris is kind of unusual, so it sounded like something a bit different. Hmm. Well it was…different. The fig is very sappy—I don't get the impression of fruit at all, rather the green stuff oozing from the tree bark. The iris is quite, quite powdery. It's an odd combination, and it doesn't work for me. Instead of contrasting in an interesting way, the wetness of the fig seems to jar against the dry powder of the iris, and the two notes juxtaposed produce what to my nose smells a bit like a carrot gone off. But of course, your mileage may vary :-). The official notes are: Fig, Iris, Vanilla, Vetiver, Bergamot, Pink Grapefruit. You can buy it at Sephora
I bet if you polled a bunch of perfumistas asking for their favorite leather fragrance, a solid majority would say Guerlain Cuir Beluga. I would have to abstain from such a poll because leather notes almost invariably give me a headache. If I'm going to smell like leather, it's going to be from my leather jacket. So why am I testing Cuir Beluga today? Glutton for punishment, I guess. Also, it features heliotrope along with leather, and I do love me some heliotrope.
My first sniff of Cuir Beluga is dominated by a blast of sweet amber. Yuck. Second sniff, I detect a definite leather note along with the amber. Double yuck. But third sniff, thank goodness, the heliotrope kicks in with a vengeance. The amber fades pretty quickly, and most of this fragrance's life on my skin is dominated by the sweet, powdery, slightly plasticky vanilla, strangely lovable concoction that is heliotrope. But underlying it all is the dreaded leather. For some people, I'm sure the pairing is what makes this fragrance so interesting: it rather reminds me of leather and lace. But for me, it makes this unwearable.
Cuir Beluga is an exclusive member of the L'art et la Matiere collection and nigh impossible to get online. If you call the Guerlain boutique at Bergdorf's in NYC, I believe you can order it for about $200.
