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 The Oriental trends so popular in the Europe in the early XX century provoked creation of series of special oriental fragrances. The same as eastern sweet or spices, the fragrances
excelled with the very different scent which was very intense, rich, and
sensitive and obducing. One of the first eastern fragrances in the history of
the current perfumery was Shalimar created by the French Perfume house Guerlain.
In spite of
the years, a little bit less than a century when the aroma was presented first
in so far 1925, Shalimar still keeps the niche of one of the demanded French
fragrances.
Jacques
Guerlain was inspired by the love story of the Indian governor Shah-Djahan and
his wife Mumtaz-Mahal. Thus, the legendary fragrance was created. After the death of the dearly loved spouse, Djahan
caused to build one of the true miracles of the world - Taj Mahal, so
well-known in the world. The Guerlain fragrance Shalimar was named after the
Shalimar gardens - «gardens of love», made by Shah for his love, Mumtaz-Mahal.
Under the
other version, Shalimar appeared not due to this romantic legend but to perfumery
experiments by Jacques Guerlain himself. In 1925 Guerlain was deeply concerned
in experimenting with synthetic vanilla, the new product for that time. Guerlain
added this element into Jicky, perfume created by him, to see how it worked. As
a result, Vanilla Shalimar is one of the iconic fragrances by Guerlain House.
Guerlain
Shalimar is proved to appear as the best examples of the French Perfume, picture
of sensitivity, enigmatic, elegant and deep. Perfume composition of Shalimar
recreates the original insightful and intoxicating atmosphere of Indian gardens
due to notes of lemon, bergamot, Tonka beans, vanilla, iris, incense, jasmine, rose
and aromatic opopanax gum. The original coolness of the citrus notes is
replaced by the luxurious, lusty flowery notes with intense vanilla accent. To the
words of the perfume expert John Oaks, who wrote «The New Book of Perfumes», «If
you are not elegant, witty, seductive or romantic, forget about the Shalimar
firework».
The perfumer
and critic from France Roje Dove, the creator pf his own perfume brand Haute
Parfumerie, tells about the legendary fragrance that «Shalimar possesses rather
extraordinary and sensitive base though it does not have the heart. The scent
is so sensual that it goes beyond the good taste ». Jacques Guerlain, though
managed to adjust the feeling by Shalimar with light and new citric notes. The secret
of Guerlain creation is that unlike the current scent that tries to make a good
impression, Shalimar absolutely is exposed in half an hour, at lest, after it
is applied on the skin.
The same as
the scent the Guerlain Shalimar bottle is legendary. When working with Shalimar
Jacques Guerlain got introduced to the Bakkara family, the famed owners of
glass plant, and ordered the unique bottle for his creation made from crystal
imitating the elegant image by Shalimar. As a result, we have the classic crystal
bottle with the legendary design that never changed for over decades. Though, the
scent stays the same overgrown with various flankers according to traditions of
the perfume industry.
Hot brunettes
of eastern type were the «images» of Guerlain Shalimar who never better echoed
the eastern nature of the fragrance, including top models Shalom Harlow and Fernanda
Tavares. Recently in 2008 году, Natalya Vodyanova, the Russian top model, featured in the promotional
campaign and the shootings of the first blonde lady in the commercials of Shalimar
were performed by the entire group of the popular photographers, as Steven
Meisel, Mario Testino, Bruce Weber, Patrick Demarchelier and Paolo Roversi. In
the team they managed to create the wonderful and magnificent image of sexual
lady which was afterwards called as one of the scandal advertising campaign of
perfume.
Inessa Hyder
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