Thursday, May 28, 2009

Les Secrets de Sophie by Guerlain: new fragrance

We had discussed the possibility of a new exclusive feminine Guerlain fragrance when talking about their new Voyage Collection trio as well as when presenting the new mainstream of the house Idylle. Apparently the new Limited Edition is called Secrets de Sophie (Sophie's secrets), a sweet violet-tinged girly white floral and comes in a VERY girly bottle of 60ml Eau de Parfum designed by Sophie Lévy which the ever gracious Karin forwarded to us. The company offers a choice of the colour schema on the flacons, accordingly coded Secrets Noirs (black), Secrets Poudrés (pink) and Secrets Nacrés(ivory) (NB: all flacons containing the same fragrance). I am itching to wonder whether the contents will reflect the Hello Kitty packaging, but I won't for now. Soon though....

Launch is predicted for June at select Guerlain doors and the price will reach 300 euros.





Bottles from top to bottom: Secrets Noirs, Secrets Nacrés, Secrets Poudrés.
Click to enlarge.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: the new Idylle by Guerlain, Collection Voyage

33 comments:

  1. Hello Kitty packaging - that's a very appropriate description! I once had high expectations of Guerlain but have been let down one time too many - so now I don't expect much at all! But I will definitely be sniffing this when it gets to Australia :)

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  2. Wasn't it! LOL
    I have been disappointed too in some things, which is par for the course naturally as they do seem to produce so MANY things (it's statistically inevitable to make a few mehs among them). If I get a decent enough sample I will post a full on review and hope to be disproved. :-)

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  3. Fiordiligi12:48

    Oh! I think I might cry, except, except - a perfumista friend in the US who has sampled it said that is smelled very "old Guerlain" and she thought I would like it!

    I await with the usual baited breath. Thank you, dearest E, for the information.

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  4. Good lord, 300 euros for 60 mL? The little bow and the tiny lock on a chain is hilarious. I do hope that it doesn't evoke ad copy reminiscent of the Elixirs Charnels ("He has had my body, but not the most secret part of me, my Elixir Charnel").

    Still, like Fiordiligi, I am holding out hope that it smells very "old Guerlain"... Thanks for the info, E!

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  5. Anonymous14:10

    I cringe when I see the atomizer cap. The atomizers on their "L'Art et la Matiere" collection were terrible, mostly because they did not actually work. (Full disclosure: My opinion is based solely on experience with the cap on my Cuir Beluga, so it may have been a defective anomaly. Anyway, the bottle is nice under all the gew-gahs, but then everyone is doing little things hanging off their perfume bottles, so why not Guerlain (crying inside for the fall of a legend). Why the different colour schema, though? Don't really get that.

    Natalia

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  6. Alexandra15:21

    Different color schema is probably for gothic, romantic and Kitty personality. Cute, but I always end up thinking what else could be bought for 300E. Like 3 full 100ml bottles of Perfum d`Empire! Easy choice.

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  7. Someone seriously has their head up their a** with the pricing going on at Guerlain. The bottles would be cute if they got rid of the stupid bling.

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  8. I agree with jenavira on the pricing! For 300 euros, I could buy... lessee, 3 100-ml genius bottles of Parfums de Nicolai, plus a bottle of Tauer's new Rose Chypree, and still have some change in my pocket.

    I like the shape of the bottle; without the dangly stuff and the squeeze atomizer, it would be both feminine and architectural. I don't see the need for different colors, either...

    (Here I'm being all whiny and I haven't even sniffed it. I should Get Over Myself.)

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  9. Anonymous16:01

    Mals86,

    Amen to Getting Over Myself! I must also get my head out of my bum and reserve judgement until I actually smell the juice. The presence or absence of bling should not matter.

    Natalia

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  10. SO pretty... but don't those atomiser bulbs cause the perfume to oxidise quicker as not airtight? Am still reeling from grief that "Quand Vient La Pluie" so hard to get hold of, unlike "Quand Vient l'Ete" which I like a lot less. Must get hold of some of this though! xx

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  11. D,

    I have heard that it's very likeable (old Guerlain sounds gooood!) and I also heard someone say she wouldn't buy it even if her daughter was named Sophie, so I don't know what to make of that. That which I do know is that they're making it so very ridiculously expensive to buy unsniffed.

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  12. Hi J! Missed you, hope you're very well.

    You're welcome on the info but who can disagree with your to the point comment? Indeed, one could buy so many lovely scented things for 300euros! And I can't say the dangling things are to my taste exactly. But that pertains to the art/kitsch discussion we had the other day.... ;-)

    Let's see. I hope it delivers. I long for Guerlain to issue something that will have me salivating.

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  13. Natalia,

    I believe all the atomisers in the L'A&LM series have the reputation of leaking/evaporating. Hence mine are "pouf-less" for that very reason (I just use the plain sprayer, works fine)

    Dangling things are getting rather passe, aren't they? It was innovative when Prada put on that robot t" hings on their bags, then everything got some dangles and now this...The bottle is an old quadrilobe design and it's not really that "girly".

    The colour schema is devised to increase the desire to collect all three of them, I'd think, sweetie! ;-)

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  14. Alexandra,

    excellenty said on the price quota on scent!
    And yup, I think you broke down the bottle personalities just fine. Thanks! :-)

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  15. Jen,

    the prices are certainly ridiculous. But as long as we buy they feel validated. I think we should only validate worthy efforts: good juice for decent amounts of money. Otherwise, why bother?

    The design of the bottle is an historic one, it held Jicky, POur Troubler, Nahema...without the blind bling though!

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  16. M,

    yeah....it's not hard to choose to fork out that much on several other business; don't they realise that?

    Re: the bottle design and the colour choices, please refer to my reply above to Alexandra and Natalia.

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  17. N,

    the proof is in the juice, I am waiting to smell myself as well (and afterwards if I like it I won't have trouble with transfering to an un-bling flacon)

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  18. Lucy,

    the bottle is wonderful, but the dangles destract me too much. U'd think that it should come with the option of either the stopper (quadrilobe, you can see one in my review for Nahema or POur Troubler) OR the atomiser. I'd keep the stopper myself, they do let in air.

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  19. I mean "distract" and "You'd think". See, I told you they're distracting!!

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  20. Well allrighty then! Hopefully it will smell more "old" Guerlain, but at that price for 60 ml, I probably won't be buying it.

    Have you smelled Idylle yet, E?

    Hugs!

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  21. Oh, dear.
    Ca coute beaucoup trop cher pour mon sang, ma soeur !

    Jarvis is making me howl again....make him STOP !
    [But WHAT a charmer, E.
    You'd adore him, bigtime !]

    The bottle itself is OK- but the extra bling is just silly.
    Bulbs are awful, I never use them.
    Pure waste, no utility.

    Oh dear.

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  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  23. Elena, thank you for this scoop! First impression here on the kittenish bottle design: when Guerlain meets Gucci!
    I hope these pricey scents will have a little something of Chant d'Aromes and Chamade...

    01:31

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  24. Rappleyea00:35

    A new Jean Paul, smelling of "old Guerlain"?!? Be still my beating heart - at any price! And I'm a poor working girl.

    M. Guerlain (NOT Jean Paul in this case) addressed the bottle and decoration on his blog:

    "French jewellery designer Sophie Lévy has created a small ornament - a cut stone with a padlock and its key as a symbol of love - to decorate a new limited edition Eau de Parfum by Jean-Paul Guerlain."

    I cannot wait until you review, Helg. Bottle splits anyone????

    Donna

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  25. agree with Jen, good basic bottle shape but that chain thing... seriously what were they thinking.

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  26. Ca coute trop cher pour tout le monde, ma cherie I!

    As to J's comment, I laughed out too! That ad copy was cringe-worthy, hope it's not repeated. Ah, how nice it would be if we met up!

    The bottle is great actually, if only they deducted all the non necessary parts :-)

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  27. Hi E!

    You're welcome although I think Chant D'Aromes and Chamade are left in bygone days... *sniff sniff*
    Gucci: now why didn't I think of that? Yup! Think this was initiated with JLO originally?

    Do you think this bling-dangle thing has something to do with bottle manufacturers? I mean, when a bottle is pretty standard, you can add more variety (and perhaps less expensively than redesigning a new bottle) with the little dangles. Change the dangle, hey presto a new design presentation!

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  28. Donna,

    let's keep our fingers crossed (especially since I hear Mitsouko FdL isn't atrocious).
    Thanks for the tidbit from U: a symbol of love then? :/
    I will come back if anyone sends a big enough sample for decent testing. And hope I fall in love...

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  29. K,

    well, the bottle design was there already, the additional dangles...hmmmm....
    Hope you're very well!

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  30. I'm not a great fan of Guerlain anyway and this is just too much. For 300 euros, I could get almost half a litre of anything from Farmacia SS Annunziata, for example, in bottles without little dangly shiny and such crap.

    Lately, I've been exceedingly inclined to blending my own fragrances. Probably I'll stick to it:D

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  31. L,

    it's certainly too much!! One could buy multiple bottles. (I will be posting something about FSSA soon)
    You're much more proficient than I am; my own little experiments have been designated the back of the drawer. The one which rarely opens, that is. :P

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  32. Helg,
    I don't think I'm proficient. I tried something and the very first attempt worked. I played with that Eau du Calvados for a while and although there's something a bit crude about it, I quite like it (Want some? You for sure smelled better things...). There'll be something more, during the weekend trip to Elba, I felt a strong urge to re-create the bitter smell of Genista desolea or whatever there was in the air - not much more grew up there on the top of the mountain (olfactory and botanic experiences are being sorted out and described) and I think that I'm starting to have an Urge:D
    As for FSSA, I have a handful of samples around and I can happily share them, should you want.

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  33. L, honey, how can I resist your botanist-cum-liqueur-connoisseur blends? I'm curious to see what you have made!!
    Genista in relation to Italy always makes me think of Ginostra; it's an etymological sequitur I realise.
    I haven't replied to your most interesting mail too, will do so shortly.

    Hope you're having a great start of the week. :-)

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