SAMPLE .. Guerlain, Plagia, DECANTED SAMPLE from Flacon, Parfum Extrait, Flacon Carre, 1879, 1904, Paris, France ..

The House of Guerlain is one of the oldest perfume houses in the world. It was founded in 1828 when Pierre-Francois Pascal Guerlain opened up his first perfume store on 42, Rue de Rivoli in Paris. Pierre-Francois composed and manufactured custom perfumes with the help of his two sons, Aime & Gabriel. His unique approach was to personalize perfume for a specific person, place or event. Honore de Balzac commisioned his own eau de toilette during the writing of Cesar Birotteau, and the periodical La Sylphide, le Journal des Elegances, scented each issue with a different fragrance by Guerlain.

Guerlain catered to the high society of Paris, and obtained a very loyal following. The perfume house was so successful that Guerlain decided to open a flagship store at 15, Rue de la Paix in Paris in 1840. The house was at its peak in 1853 with it's fragrance Eau de Cologne Imperiale. This perfume gained Guerlain the prestigious title of His Majesty's Official Perfumer of France. This in turn led him to create perfumes for other royals such as Queen Victoria of England, Empress Sissi of Austria and Queen Isabella of Spain as well as other crowned heads of royalty.

Pierre-Francois passed away in 1854 and his sons inherited the perfume house. Aime became the master perfumer, a tradition that would be upheld for the next master perfumer in lineage. Gabriel managed and further expanded the house. Aime, created several fragrances for the perfume house, these include Fleur d'Italie, Rococo, and Eau de Cologne de Coq and his greatest creation, Jicky. In 1914, Guerlain moved to 68, Champs-Elysees Paris.

The business was then handed down to Gabriel's sons, Jacques & Pierre Guerlain. Jacques became the third master perfumer and created many fragrances in his lifetime. His creations include Eau de Coq, L'Heure Bleu, Apres L'Ondee, Shalimar, Vol de Nuit, Ode, and Mitsouko. These perfumes were so successful that some are still sold today. Jacques grandson, Jean-Paul Guerlain is the fourth generation master perfumer and has authored several perfumes and men's colognes including Vetiver, Habit Rouge, Samsara, Nahema, Jardins de Bagatelle and many others.

Launched in 1904, Plagia is a gentle woody fragrance, both musky and spicy. "Guerlain is unable to provide an explanation for the meaning of the name Plagia. It could be the past tense of the verb "plagier", which is French for "plagiarize". Other sources suggest that the name refers to Plagianthus, a genus of trees and shrubs native to New Zealand, but unknown in perfumery. Either way, it doesn’t make much sense to us today.

There was a gradual transition between Aimé and Jacques Guerlain’s role as the family’s master nose. Jacques’ first official Guerlain perfume was Le Jardin de Mon Curé (1895), but Aimé continued to create perfumes while Jacques was in his beginner’s phase. Plagia may have been the final fragrance of Aimé, who died in 1910. Guerlain says that the formula obviously was written by Aimé, as it’s too simple and short to be a Jacques Guerlain composition.

Plagia does smell somewhat simple, but nonetheless charming. It’s worked around the unmistakable scent of sandalwood, sweet, smooth, and profoundly warm and oily. Supported by creamy notes of ambrette, deer musk and suede, the sandalwood is so dominant from start to finish that Guerlain classifies Plagia as a woody fragrance.

Speaking of plagiarism, when we smell Thierry Wasser's re-created scents from the historic Guerlain catalogue, we come to imagine that Jean-Paul Guerlain equally had made himself familiar with some of his ancestors' perfumes, to find inspiration for his own work. In Jacques Guerlain's Vague Souvenir, for example, we found certain links to Habit Rouge and Nahéma. Now, as we discover Plagia’s accord of sandalwood and ylang-ylang, we can’t help thinking of Samsara. However, in the time of Aimé Guerlain there was no such thing as polysantol to boost nature's fragile odours, and Plagia falls far short of the big-haired opulence of Samsara.

Plagia retains the woody warmth throughout, mixing in cinnamon and other aromatic, peppery spices, like the "brown cardboard box" scent of calamus. At the drydown, where sandalwood, musk and cinnamon meet orris and vanilla in the most powdery Guerlain manner, the scent quite resembles Jicky, even though it got there from a different direction. Only in that sense is Plagia a case of "plagiarism". But can a man really plagiarize himself? " Monsieur Guerlain

Top notes are Ambrette, Orange Blossom, and Bergamot
Heart notes are Sandalwood, Ylang Ylang, Suede, and Spices
Base notes are Orris, Benzoin, Tonka Bean, and Vanilla

Offered here is an opportunity to smell this very old Guerlain fragrance. It is housed in the typical apothecary bottle so popular with early Guerlain fragrances. It is quite light and ethereal ..