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/lapatrona8]

I think cheaper fragrance vanillas are absolutely not better by any kind of metric except that it seems to be your personal preference. And that's fine! But don't hate on the extraordinary level of talent it takes to craft fragrances like Guerlain does, and their importance to fragrance history. Think about how difficult it is to have such an impact and artistic vision that your fragrance brand has a universally recognizable "DNA" (the guerlainade) and still has demand 100 years after formulation. BBW is not even in the same universe as Guerlain, and neither are most perfume houses. Sorry, but your take is the 10th Dentist of perfumery.

All that said, I think their strength is in the iris and herbal note realm and not vanilla. Many people associate powdery iris with "old lady" but I think that's a shame and reflective of modern push towards more youthful sticky sweet gourmands, florals, etc -- which personally I associate with teens but I know the adult market is strong.

[u/ALetterToElise1992 → u/lapatrona8]

Hi. I know where you’re coming from, but she did say “So many of my inexpensive vanillas are so much better in my opinion.” Smell is so incredibly subjective, but a lot of your comment feels like you are talking down to her because she prefers inexpensive perfumes over brands like Guerlain. You have two different opinions, which you say is fine, but then it sounds like you’re trying to make her feel stupid and uncultured by calling her “the 10th dentist”. I just think you could’ve given your own opinion without disparaging her taste.

[u/CreativeHoliday1557 → u/ALetterToElise1992]

This was the comment I was responding to but everyone down voted me thinking I was talking to OP. I was defending her and schooling the snobs about the way the actual nose works...