Guerlain Muguet 2017, Oud Essentiel e L'Homme Ideal Sport - Fragrance Reviews
Autor: Henrique/Rick | Publicado: 2017-04-17T20:12:00-07:00




From the most classic French brands Guerlain has been the one that year after year has been running like a steady machine, operating in the different price and concept levels of expected luxury. You can certainly say that the brand is very far from its past lately (and it certainly is, for my sadness sometimes), but you cannot say that they have stopped on time. And for more that some of their choices might be questionable, as you'll see on my analysis bellow, the scents still show a good consistency and enjoyable developments on skin. Certainly many of them if launched by other brands would be better appreciated, but we are passionated from Guerlain (well, i certainly am) and expect the best if possible, so the demand level is very high.

Starting from the most collectible and expensive launch of this year we have the traditional Muguet, a fragrance that the brand has been exclusively launching every May 1st to celebrate the worker's day. Its price certainly reflect the very limited cirulation, but this year the brand opted for a quite questionable presentation: even that beautiful, the very minimalist bottle resembles the design they opted for their bath and body line and for their line of room's spray. I think that the choice was to match the interpretation given to the Muguet theme here. It's not so far from previous 2013 version i had the chance to own but it seems a more straightfoward incarnation of it. It gives us a muguet accord that sounds slightly waxy, citrus and fresh, with a flower aroma that strongly reminds you of a green jasmine. The base seems to rely on a soft sandalwood aroma with subtle incense/resin hints. I'm not fond of Muguets but this one i could see myself wearing it - if i could find it for a more suitable price (a 125ml bottle costs 430 euros).

Still on the luxury side of the brand but navigating in more affordable waters we have a new addition to the Absolu d'Orient series, one that seems to offer a quite reasonable price per ml on the arab thematic. Oud Essentiel is not that far from the previous scents Santal Royal and Ambre Eternel, but it's not exactly a surprise since this has been the approach for scents with an Arab Thematic. Even that not novel. Oud Essentiel is very well balanced: it seems to put more emphasis on a velvet slightly crude leather, which acts in the background for the sweet fruity spicy theme of oud, rose and saffron. As expected, the projection is great and the sillage is very good, but it's something kind of given with oud scents. I say that Oud Essential is not a fragrance that will make you love or hate Oud, but it's something you can appreciate if you already don't have enough in this aisle.

Finally, we have a curious mainstream creation with L'Homme Ideal Sport. This one seems tailor made for the global expansion plans that the Brand started to unfold this year. Sport scents still sell well with the masculine public and it's an easy path for Guerlain to become more known. So the choice of adding a sport fragrance with an acquatic is not hard to understand. Still, i remember that when i first tred L'Homme Ideal Sport, i hated it a lot. The acquatic note seemed strong, unpleasant and very like all the rest. But, as a curveball, trying L'Homme Ideal Sport again was a kind of a surprise, one hard to define exactly. The "sportish" thing is still there, but very light. In its place there is a curious choice of a fragrance which seems to oscilate between masculine and feminine. It smells a little bit floral and nutty a first, almost like a sport version of la petite robe noire. But then the almond merges with the coumarin and the more fougere part of the fragrance takes stage, producing a subdued but refined merge of herbs, woods, musks, hints of spices and green-coumarinic nuances. It's an odd orchestration, which is a good surprise for a Sport thing. But it certainly one that I personally wouldn't use on very hot days to avoid the distortion of the acquatic part.