For the centennial of its cult fragrance, Guerlain revisits Shalimar

‘A good perfume is one whose scent corresponds to an initial dream,’ the perfumer Jacques Guerlain said. For Guerlain with Shalimar, the dream was the love story between Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan I and Princess Mumtaz Mahal in 17th-century India, and the scent he created corresponded so well that he not only created a ‘good’ perfume, but one of the most successful in history.

Shalimar takes its name from the royal gardens the emperor built for the princess, before her untimely death inspired him to build one of the seven new wonders of the world – the Taj Mahal. Moved by this story of tragic love and the imagined culture of a land far from his native France, Guerlain set about creating a sensual and smoky fragrance that, in his words, ‘lets your senses take over’.

The real key to Shalimar’s innovation, however, came courtesy of Guerlain’s friend, a chemist named Justin Dupont who was experimenting with a new compound called ethyl vanillin. The synthetic ingredient created a uniquely potent vanilla scent that became the foundation of what would not only become Shalimar, but a whole new category in the history of perfumery: amber fragrances.

Amber perfumes are defined by their unique blend of warm, sweet and powdery notes, a profile Shalimar achieves through a combination of fresh bergamot with floral notes of rose, jasmine, iris and that signature, synthetic touch of vanilla and tonka bean. This unique combination of notes also forms the foundation of Guerlain’s ‘Guerlinade’, an accord that has become a signature feature of almost every one of its scents since Shalimar’s creation in 1925.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Shalimar and to celebrate, La Maison Guerlain has created Shalimar L’Essence, a fragrance that reconfigures the original’s essential components into a new, more modern variation.

Shalimar L’Essence celebrates the vanilla character of its ancestor with a new interpretation of the ingredient. Delphine Jelk, perfumer and Guerlain’s director of perfume creation, formulated Shalimar L’Essence with a rich Madagascan vanilla tincture that heightens the woody, slightly leathery qualities of the original formulation. Notes of subtle bergamot are still present, as well as a blend of rose absolute and powdery iris. Rich in added musks that did not exist a century ago, this new iteration of Shalimar is richer in a way that is designed to appeal to modern tastes. The new edition also features a fresh update of the perfume’s classic art deco-inspired ‘batwing’ bottle, with a bold, gold-lettered logo emblazoned on its front.

‘I wanted the new Shalimar to keep the emotion, to go into its heart, its essence,’ says Jelk. But, she continues, ‘I wanted to associate it with certain ingredients, like certain musks that didn’t exist in Jacques Guerlain’s time, and bring it a sensuality that fits with the spirit of the times.’