I am going to try not to talk about the weather to start my posts for a while. The weather is what one talks about here frequently when chatting to neighbours or talking to someone in a shop. The topic is just always … there. So, let’s try something different.
As I finish this post up it’s the late summer bank holiday weekend here. Schools return next week; life resettles. I did the farm shop early to avoid the tourists and walked up the hill to have a look at the beautiful view. A small grumple at grown men: you look silly in flip-flops when you’re in the world (rather than near the beach). And, please, don’t drive in them.
I’ve made noises about trying this a number of times but couldn’t find a bricks ‘n mortar shop with it in stock. So, as one does, I gave in and ordered a sample.
I came to Shalimar late, having stubbornly refused to try it for years. When I finally did (the eau de toilette) I metaphorically kicked myself for waiting so long. The best, most beautiful lemon floor wax ever. Then, for a self-birthday gift a few years ago I bought an ounce of parfum. Impossibly glorious.
I’m not big on flankers but when I read about L’Essence, released in 2025 to mark the 100th anniversary of the release of Shalimar perfume I thought well, that’s worth a look.
The nose is Delphine Jelk, Guerlain’s current head perfumer, the juice is EdP Intense, and the notes list includes the following: almond, incense, bergamot, iris, ethylvanillin, amber, opoponax, rose, Madagascar vanilla, musk, Tonka bean, benzoin and leather. (Contrast this with lists for EdT and parfum: bergamot, floral notes, iris, jasmine, rose, vanilla and Tonka bean / bergamot, lemon, mandarin orange, cedar, and citruses, iris, jasmine, rose, patchouli, vetiver, vanilla, incense (frankincense), opoponax, Tonka bean, leather, sandalwood, musk, civet, and ambergris.)
The back-story of Shalimar is apocryphal: Jacques Guerlain dumped a load of ethylvanillin in a bottle of Jicky and Shalimar was born. Then there’s the Ernst Beaux comment: “When I do vanilla I get crème anglaise, when Guerlain does it he gets Shalimar”.
So, yes. I own an older (probably 30 years) bottle of EdT and a newer one of parfum. I adore both but reach for the bottles in different circumstances: the EdT when I want more floor wax, the parfum when I’m after weird pongy vanilla floor wax – way more boudoir.
So, what about L’Essence?
Yes, it’s Shalimar – but a very different iteration.
The opening of this on me is lemon drop candies modified by musk and vanilla. The almond drops in after about a half hour on skin. Musky almond lemon. There is not one iota of floor wax in this.
As it warms, the almond is very present. So, it’s trajectory is different than either of the Shalimars I own. Soft in the middle, approachable. A bit pillowy.
(Jordan Almonds. If you haven’t tried them a great combo of hard shell candy and crunchy
almond. I can’t eat them any longer — too hard — but have great memories from childhood.)
This doesn’t last terribly long on me and the drydown is strongly almond with a whisper of leather. I had hoped for more leather, and I think someone with a different skin chemistry might get that. For something labelled an EdP Intense this is remarkably quiet. My EdT is much stronger and longer-lived.
I did this next to the parfum one day and the EdT another. Regarding the former, I get a lot more rose and jasmine, a less candied lemon note, definitely more indolic, that brilliant wax aspect. Far darker. L’Essence isn’t remotely as challenging. Unsurprisingly, I guess. As to the EdT, it’s a dialled down version of the parfum, but much more floor wax. Not remotely sweet.
The L’Essence bottle is nice: The curved shouldered one but with Shalimar written out on the front in gold letters (I couldn’t find an image I was happy using without permission).
In the end I decided L’Essence was more a tribute band than a proper flanker. Like it sang the same songs but the pacing was just a bit off, the emphasis in the wrong places. Victoria in the blog Bois de Jasmin puts it well: “Not a revolution, but a gentle, sweetly polished homage”. I would use ‘polite’ rather than polished. And I’m afraid I don’t think Shalimar was ever meant to be polite.
Jelk has been with Guerlain for a fair while. I looked up her oeuvre and to be honest, bar the time with Guerlain, it isn’t much of a much.
So, glad I did that, but I will be fine with my 3ml sample vial.
Anyone else tried this – and are there Shalimar flankers you like?
Pics: mine, pexels
OUCH! Flip Flops are the BEST. No, you’re wrong Cinnamon. We spend about ten months a year in them. Only in Mid Winter do we wear UGG boots. How else can a man show off his perfect pedicure?!? This is the hill I will die upon.
Shalimar L’Essence is very nice. Tried it a couple of times. I wasn’t going to buy a bottle BUT Jin reminded me how annoyed I was with myself not getting the CHANEL No 5 red bottle or one of the earlier Shalimar flankers. It sits here BNIC and I like to look at it.
Portia xx
Afraid big beefy men not wearing flip flops here … well, they shouldn’t. Especially the ex-military guys who should know better. So, you have a bottle and it … sits?
Yeah, I have a bottle. It sits. Still in its cellophane. Maybe one day.
I did use up my sample.
I do like the bottle graphics — those letters in gold. Looks really nice.
The Shalimar that I have loved was the Madagascar Ode a la Vanille and I am kicking myself for not getting a bottle when I had the chance. I came into the Initial after it has been long discontinued. Shalimar is nice enough but not quite my thing.
I am going to have to get myself to some place where there’s more Guerlain to check out. Next time I’m up country.
I actively dislike Shalimar in all its OG iterations. Initial, Essence & the Millesime flankers I enjoy very much. Essence is supposed to be a rerelease of the Millesime Vanille Planifolia version from 2021, my least favourite. I much prefer Essence with its smooth almondine notes. Millesime VP had the harshness of AA Bosca Vanilla.
Do you like Jicky and l’Heure Bleue?
Yeah, somewhere I read that L’Essence was her having another go at another flanker for whatever reason.
Jicky was my first grown up perfume, bought with my very first salary. The current version is excellent.
L’Heure Bleue is too miserable. I want to tell her to cheer up.
The Guerlain I feel fits me best is Mitsouko
You describes this so well I don’t even need to try it. I’ll stick with my scrab (props to Musette) of the original.
And flip-flops hold be banned. They’re ugly and useless. A pair of canvas espadrilles will hide my weird spidery toes, allow my feet to “breathe” and won’t go flying off if I need to run to catch a bus.
I guess if you find yourself in a shop that stocks it, might be worth a go… Just to see.
Yeah, you’d think a grown up guy could make the effort. We might be holiday land but the farm shop is not the beach.
Huh. For all my loving Guerlain, Shalimar has never been on my wishlist. This, though. The way you’re describing and comparing it, I’m going to get ahold of a sample. This might be “my” Shalimar, even if it’s not very Shalimar at all.
First time I tried it I thought of Dior Hypnotic Poison. So, indeed, not very Shalimar.
Delphine Jelk came up in a recent Posse post, but now I cannot find it. Looking at her oruvre, though, I am inclined to agree with you, cinnamon. She’s the manager of the excellent Guerlain tribute band . (That’s not an insult, btw…but )
Yes, the manager. I don’t think L’Essence was a misstep — just nothing to shout about.
Dear Cinnamon,
There are many Guerlains that I love, but Shalimar isn’t in that group. I’m not much of a vanilla fan. I’ve read that long ago Shalimar was meant for blondes, and Mitsouko for brunettes. Sales associates would direct potential customers to the scent that was meant for them. Which makes me wonder what were redheads and silver-headed gals supposed to wear? I put on some Mutsouko edt this morning since I mentioned it. So beautiful.
Mitsouko is glorious!
I love smelling Shalimar, but not wearing it. It’s one of the very few perfumes that I feel wears ME, possibly because it was my mother’s scent (?)
I’d not heard that — about the blondes vs the brunettes. Interesting marketing.
Shalimar and Mitsouko are definitely ‘my Guerlains’. Jicky, L’Heure Bleue do not work well on me though I can admire them.
Well, I’m a medium to dark ash blond (according to Clairol) gone silver. And I wear both.
Maybe redheads wore Jicky.
Or hoarded bottles of Attrappe Coeur…