Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Guerlain Carmen, Le Bolshoi: new fragrance

Guerlain has been making fragrance exclusives honoring the famous Bolshoi ballet for the Russian market for some time now. With three editions under their belt, this year's exclusive is named Carmen, Le Bolshoi and comes in this fabulously provocative bottle in red.

The first fragrance Le Bolshoï appeared in 2011 and was timed to celebrate the reconstruction of a historic building of the Bolshoi Theater. A year later, there was a bottle La Traviata, Le Bolshoï with scarlet cameo. The smoky juice inside commemorated the opera by Giuseppe Verdi with notes of orange, bergamot and petit-grain. In 2014, the Bolshoï Theater performed the hallmark of Russian ballet , Tchaikovsky's"Swan Lake." Black Swan Le Bolshoï was the offering Guerlain created with perfumer Thierry Wasser to celebrate it with their loyal Russian customers.

This season for the 240th Bolshoi Theater jubilee, 240th  world famous "Carmen"by George Bizet is the opus in question. It was first staged in 1875 in Paris and in 2015 celebrates its 140th anniversary. Thierry Wasser created a limited edition fragrance for the Russian market, Carmen Le Bolshoï.

For Carmen,Le Bolshoï the formula includes fragrance notes of jasmine, cedar, citrus, red berries and musk. Bright and bold according to Guerlain as is Carmen. On October 1st  it will appear in TSUM and DLT and on December 1st  in select Guerlain corners. The retail price of Carmen Le Bolshoï is set at 22 000 rubles.

EDIT TO ADD: Recent reportage and testing suggests that Carmen Le Bolshoi is a re-edition of the original Vetiver pour Elle by Jean Paul Gaultier from 2004.

pic & availability info via Vogue.ru

13 comments:

  1. A beautiful bottle indeed!

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    1. They do make lovely presentations, that's true. *sigh*

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  2. Miss Heliotrope03:04

    It would be even more fun if there was a small wind-up mechanism or summat & the bottle could dance or play music...

    Or am I perhaps being silly?

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    1. Something tells me you have to discover the Histoires de Parfums line inspired by the Opera. ;-)

      http://www.fragrantica.com/news/Opera-collection-from-Histoires-de-Parfums-5770.html

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  3. Oh, this looks divine!
    jean!
    thank you for the link at Fragrantica as well!

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  5. I'm actually not sure it's red berries. "Baie rose" is often mistranslated as "red berries", while it's in fact pink pepper.

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    1. Hi Ulrik!

      Though it's true that baie rose does translate as pink pepper too, the source I used is Russian, as you might have noticed in the body of the article linked. In fact I have written on pink pepper and baie rose extensively before:
      http://www.fragrantica.com/notes/Pink-Pepper-91.html
      The translation from the Russian does give red berries. The name Googled in Images however gives both red berries and pink pepper. Since pink pepper and red berries are both ubiquitous in modern releases (so could be either), one has to wait for the official confirmation from Guerlain, or even better smelling the stuff to make sure.

      I do have to "blurt it out"/rant to you, since I know you're a dedicated fan: pinkish stuff and white musk for a Carmen concept? Tsk tsk tsk..... :/ Agree?

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  6. Oh that is some bottle!

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    1. They do pay attention to those editions visually, that much is very true. The Black Swan was also lovely looking. (Didn't buy when I had the chance though)

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  7. Anonymous12:17

    I am counting the days! A Russian blogger tells me that it is a perfume for an evening at the theatre or a romantic encounter...Black Swan is maybe the "day-version" as both have jasmine as a (more or less) dominant note.

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    1. Thanks for bringing that information on these pages! It sounds more promising than I would have anticipated then. Surely a Carmen concept should read as highly romantic and dramatic. I wasn't really bawled over by Black Swan to tell the truth. Give me Parure back any day!

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