The L’Art et La Matière Collection by Guerlain: Sublimating Rare Essences
The L’Art et La Matière collection has endeavored to make sublime flowers and iconic Guerlain materials shine. Each creation magnifies a precious raw material that flourishes in a confidential and sophisticated fragrance, exclusively sold in Guerlain boutiques.
The Masterpieces of the Collection
Cruel Gardénia (Gardenia Notes)
The art and manner of creating a criminal sillage. Neither heady nor opulent, just overdosed with white musks, it definitively captivates with its murderous sensuality. A solar gardenia that troubles and ends up obsessing.
Rose Barbare (Bulgarian Rose)
A cult material, the most cherished, the most celebrated by perfumers, but also the most hackneyed. A black rose, thorny, indomitable, rebellious, and sensual that stabs right in the heart.
Iris Ganache (Tuscan Iris)
Singular and racy, melting like a praline, this accord invites us to bite delicately into its soft heart: bergamot, cinnamon, iris, white chocolate, vanilla, musk. A gourmand perfume that makes the mouth water. Excellent on the skin, even a man’s skin.
Angélique Noire (French Angelica and Madagascar Vanilla)
The story of a wise and shy flower, which dissipates and frees itself upon contact with the suave vanilla. The shock encounter between the bitterness of an elixir of youth and the sweetness of vanilla perfume. A big bang between green, raw notes and vanilla.
Spiritueuse Double Vanille (Madagascar Vanilla)
An astonishing composition where each material evokes travel, long boat crossings, where the wood of the hull mingles with that of rum barrels and spice crates. A perfume of seduction and light, the gold of vanilla dazzles us.
Bois d’Arménie (Laotian Benzoin)
Let yourself be carried away in the swirls of Armenian paper, succumb to the spell of incense, feel your heart pound under the winks of guaiac wood. Laze on a carpet of benzoin and sink under the ardor of patchouli. All the spicy sensuality of a woody spicy oriental.
Tonka Impériale (Venezuelan Tonka Bean)
A fine blend of balmy smells rich in contrasting facets, honeyed scents, gingerbread, almond, hay, and tobacco. Racy, surprising, the “very Guerlinesque” tonka bean makes an impression.
Cuir Beluga (Soft Leathery Notes)
Like a warm light on the skin, its scent announces the sophisticated depth of the leather note wrapped in the voluptuousness of amber and vanilla, heliotrope, and immortelle. Soft as a pashmina. An oriental that evokes the softness of white suede.
Myrrhe & Délires (Somalian Myrrh)
The ninth creation for the prestigious L’Art et La Matière collection. This collection, dedicated to Guerlain’s fetish materials, this time invites a rare essence that has never been used in any of the brand’s perfumes.
It is, moreover, very rarely used in perfumery; this astonishing, mysterious raw material possesses a lot of depth; it thus deserved a major role in a creation. Dark, mysterious, the idea was to make it smile, to illuminate it, to bring IT the touch of gold.
Like a taste of forbidden delights, this exhaling raw material captivates with its spells and mysterious facets: mossy, vegetal, resinous, aromatic, unctuous, ambery, smoky, balsamic, with a particularity: its licorice facet.
The whole game consisted of blurring the contours of a rich and radical raw material. A difficult exercise: the result: tiny fresh, fruity touches (apricot and pear note) and tenderly spicy (black pepper and pink pepper).
The following inflection is more powerful with a floral heart, iris and rose, on which the myrrh imposes an allure and an amplitude commensurate with their essential charm. A dialogue in which incense, patchouli, and a hint of licorice melt mischievously. A fragrance that can, as often in this collection, seduce both men and women.
Material Focus: The Divine Myrrh
A sacred essence if ever there was one, myrrh has been known since time immemorial; it is mentioned in Egyptian texts dating back to 2000 BC and in those of the Bible. It is also one of the offerings, with gold and incense, of the Magi to the Baby Jesus.
Mainly used in sacred rituals, notably for embalming, it is still used in pharmacopoeia, in the form of ointments or elixirs like kyphi.
This speaks to its historical, beneficial, and mystical importance. Its fragrant swirls are, with incense, at the very origin of perfume, from the time when its mediating vapors sealed the eternal alliance between men and the divine.
Its resin, or rather its gum-resin, is extracted from the myrrh tree, a thorny shrub, one to six meters high, which grows exclusively in the arid savannahs of Somalia, Ethiopia, and the Arabian Peninsula. At the time of its summer flowering, the trunk of the tree swells with knots which must be incised for the resin to flow in the form of small tears.
It is at this moment that they are harvested to obtain the sublime essence of myrrh. The inhabitants of Somalia make incisions in the bark of this tree to activate the flow. This oily juice solidifies into yellow-white tears that redden as they dry.
Greek mythology maintained the myth of the transformation of Myrrha, the incestuous one, into a myrrh tree, before giving birth to Adonis.
History and Origin
From the Burseraceae family. Myrrh had been included in the composition of the potion given to Christ before the crucifixion because it was recognized for its healing effects.
Main Properties and Indications
Myrrh essential oil has a particularly effective antiseptic action. It is tonic and stimulating, healing, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic.
Very effective for soothing sore throats and treating mouth ailments (gingivitis, stomatitis, lesions due to dental prostheses), as well as that of the pharynx, Myrrh is very often used in dental care products. It is also effective in respiratory tract infections.
