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Guerlain Idylle (2009) - A Teardrop from Venus
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Guerlain Idylle (2009)
We know modern ceases to be modern when it stops being progressive. When modern has been overly institutionalized and looks more like neoclassical, postmodern takes the progressive role. This Nariciso Rodriguez for Her accord was new in 2003, but today, it's as mainstream as Fruity Florals and vanillic Gourmands. Guerlain Idylle (2009) compared to these seems ultra refined and perfected - the shiny new "back to the classics" ideal. Something about the bottle doesn't sit well with me. I'm not into gold. It may also be that it looks like a woman's bust. Not her torso but her bust, and, shall I say, it's a bit well-endowed? I prefer my bottles to look sleek and statuesque like, say, Calandre or Ma Dame. No offense, but I don't do curves. Maybe I do, if it looks like an apple, some forbidden fruit like Christian Dior Poison and not a sentimental "J'Adore" tear drop. I feel like something so fluid as a curve should *be* fluid, not controlled, molded into shape. Don't listen to me, though; a good friend liked the Idylle bottle design, and she, being a young artist working for an architectural firm, understands design. She liked the scent, too.
The scent - yes, it's a lot like Narciso Rodriguez, and yes, it's wonderful. I'm as impressed by it as with Lanvin Rumeur; in fact, Idylle resembles Rumeur more so than Narciso Rodriguez for Her. I could also see how people compare Idylle to Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely, because when Lovely came out, I thought it smelled almost exactly like Narciso Rodriguez for Her. Stella McCartney Eau de Parfum and Givenchy Very Irrésistible share elements with these, but because they focus on rose, the base is lightened up and places them in the Floral family (most popular group). Idylle, with an adundance of woody, musky notes, is darkened to a Floral Chypre. It resembles the blood red wine-y Gres Cabaret, through which all roads lead back to Agent Provocateur and Bandit. In my mind, they share the same modernized roses and leather theme. Many are based on a "clean" (soapy but round, like the olfactive texture of a pear) Egyptian musk accord, spiked with the Kat Von D Sinner rose / patchouli combo, and arranged in a modern Chypre style, some with more obvious animalic-leathery aspects than others.
Idylle is, in essence, a squeaky clean Floral Chypre. It's the dry, boozy and leathery kind, not the mossy green, "wet earth" kind. It smells like a perfect Walt Disney production capturing the essence of a 21st century "proper young woman's perfume with an all grown up, slightly masculine and traditionally perfumey edge". Idylle is not the innocent one that wants to be dirty. Idylle is dirty and wants you to think it's clean. I would decribe Idylle as a sophisticated and perfumey scent, but then, I would say the same about the very neoclassical Chypre family in general. But Idylle is a beautiful scent. It smells like a Hollywood party. I enjoy most of all the subtle whiffs of the lilac-y Guerlinade (or the reasonable fascimile of it, the white musk at the tail end of Les Secrets de Sophie), telling me Idylle is ladylike and has an infinite softness, a Guerlain creation after all. So what if it smells like a designer fragrance? I'm getting whiffs of Parure and Guerlinade. I adore it.
Related Articles:
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Kat Von D Sinner (2009 New Launch and Fragrance Review)
Stella McCartney, Stella and StellaNude (2009 New Launch and Review)
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