Guerlain Encens Mythique: Reformulation Done Right

Encens Mythique by Guerlain is a great choice for mid-season as well as wintertime in the north hemisphere, because it adapts so well to a multitude of requisites. I'm talking of the revamped edition in the cylindrical bottle with the gold spherical cap and the cute ribbons on the neck, as the scent originally launched among a trio of Middle Eastern exclusives (later brought into international counters of Guerlain) as Encens Mythique d'Orient. (Reviews of the trio are published on Perfume Shrine as well.) 

The Guerlain perfume bottles of Les Deserts d'Orient were adorned with Arab-cript calligraphy down one side, the French names down the other side. They were the tall, architectural style of the collection L'Art et la Matière with the antique gold overlay on the sides holding 75ml of perfume. The concentration of the fragrances is Eau de Parfum for tenacity.

Encens Mythique i airy and ethereal, yet spiritual and mysterious too, thanks to incense and ambergris which form the base of its alluring aura. It's lush thanks to rose; not the "grandma" version of tea rose, nor the too-engulfed-by-patchouli-middle-eastern-variety, it's just right and delectable. Encens Mythique is only lightly spicy (a hint of rosy pepperiness, a soupcon of medicinal). And finally it's clean no matter how you wear it. I revel in thinking I'm incarnating a medieval monk, a spy from the beginning of the 20th century and someone on a high-seas adventure. Marvelous.

Your "Best in Show" Guerlain perfume: Which Is It?

When erotic authoress Anais Nin reminiscences about her relationship with Henry Miller's wife, June, it is a bottle of Guerlain's Mitsouko she is asked for as a gift by the statuesque yet destitute woman amidst sapphic caresses.

via pinterest

When Séverine, the bourgeois heroine of the cinematic adaptation of Joseph Kessel's novel "Belle de Jour", sets out to work the afternoon as a prostitute, it is a bottle of Mitsouko that she accidentally smashes in the bathroom, immersed in her sadomasochistic reveries.

When Jean Harlow's husband, Paul Bern, allegedly driven by impotence, took his own life, a mere short week after his wedding to the silver screen goddess, it is Mitsouko by Guerlain he was drenched with; her perfume.

Originally meant for brunettes, Mitsouko took the gentle but poignant star-crossed lovers of a Japanese brunette and a Russian naval officer meeting at wartime, to inspire women (and men) of all hair colors and ethnicities ever since. Always implicated in sex in a "screw in the brain" sort of way, Mitsouko, with its tender peach skin heart and troubling inky base, is not just Belle. She's Belle Toujours.


You can find my entry on the Best in Show on Fragrantica. Please share in the comments here (and there, if you like) which is your own pick for Best in Show Guerlain perfume! I'd love to read during the holidays for Orthodox Easter.

Fragrance review & perfume history for Guerlain Mitsouko on this link.