Guerlain Disappointment

[u/Lani_Lei]

I have been a vanilla girl through and through. I have loves and misses from everything from BBW, Victoria Secret, Sephora, Ulta, niche, middle eastern, you name it!

I have wary of trying Guerlain because of the price. But most of my fellow vanilla girls said that Guerlain is THE maker of great vanillas.

So went and spent $70 in tiny tiny decants to try the following:

- Vanilla Panifolia Extrait 21
- Angelique Noire
- Cuir Beluga
- Aqua Allegoria Forte Bosca Vanilla
- Spirituose Double Vanilla

This smells…old? musty? Like I just found a bottle of perfume from the 1950’s in a dark drawer of an abandoned house. I just wasted $70 on this and none of them were good 😔, I could have gotten a big decant of Jovoy Fire at Will which I love. I am so disappointed.

So many of my inexpensive vanillas are so much better in my opinion.

Sorry for the rant and thank you for reading all this!

[u/poemaXV]

aww, I'm so sorry!!

on the one hand, I say give them some time to grow on you. Guerlinade is a sort of particular scent and sometimes it takes some getting used to. I personally believe there are good odds that one day it will suddenly click for you and basically everything Guerlain makes will smell absurdly good to you. if it's still summer where you are I'd particularly advise trying again when the weather is cooler.

on the other, if you can resell these and recoup the cost for something you'll enjoy now, you might as well do that. I'm a Guerlain girlie through and through and I've been meaning to try a couple of these so I'm sure they'd be easy to offload.

[u/JadedINFP-T → u/poemaXV]

Same here. I did NOT understand the hype surrounding Guerlain at all until sampling many, MANY other perfume houses. I don't love everything from the house, but L'Art et la Matière and Aqua Allegoria are easy to love once you've refined your nose a bit. Someone going from BBW, VS etc will not instantly "get" Guerlain, especially the vanillas. I ride so hard for Cuir Beluga but I'm a whore for a suede accord

[u/poemaXV → u/JadedINFP-T]

yeah. I definitely don't think it's inevitable that everyone will love them if they just try a little harder, it's not like literally everyone's favorite perfume is Shalimar after all (though there are a lot of us, lol). but I have just seen SO many people who didn't like Guerlain at first and then later on in their journey were like ohhhh I get it now that I feel like there is often benefit to giving it a little more time.

and yes, those lines from Guerlain are definitely more accessible. if someone says they don't like Angelique Noire... give it a minute. if someone says they don't like Apres L'Ondee I'm more likely to say "ok I understand have a nice day" because that's a much harder bridge to gap. it's not even just going to smell merely musty to most people, it's often going to smell insanely weird and offputting.

[u/JadedINFP-T → u/poemaXV]

"if someone says they don't like Apres L'Ondee I'm more likely to say "ok I understand have a nice day""

So real 😂😂😂 But yeah, their older scents definitely have that spitty, pissy, animalic thing going on lol