SAMPLE .. Guerlain, Liu, DECANTED SAMPLE from Flacon, Parfum Extrait, Flacon Quadrilobe, 1929, Baccarat, 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.

"During the colonial years the world of the East captivated Europe as well as Jacques Guerlain, who created several perfumes with Asian names. Liu (1929) was the last in his line to unite his fondness of the Orient's myths, olfactory musings, and the arts in general. Liu is the name of a character in Puccini's unfinished opera "Turandot" from 1926. Based on a tale from the Persian story collection "The Book of One Thousand and One Days", it was set in ancient China near the walls of the Imperial City of Peking. This opera, which was staged for the first time in Paris in 1928, is about unrequited love and loyalty. Liu's character is a slave girl so true to her beloved master, Prince Calaf, that she commits suicide rather than betray him. In the end, Liu's tragic death establishes her as the heroine of the tale.

Some accounts inform us that the perfume Liu was created for Rose Kennedy, mother of John F. Kennedy, even though an unconfirmed story goes that Jacques Guerlain once caught his wife wearing Chanel No.5 and then immediately felt compelled to create a competitor. Whatever version is correct, it seems beyond a doubt that Ernest Beaux's world-famous perfume served as a model for Liu with much of the recipe in common, including No.5's strong signature of aldehydes that lift any floral composition to shimmering new heights. What marked Liu as something only Jacques Guerlain would make, was its sheer resemblance to face powder, combining a fresh-sweet, cologne-like neroli note with jasmine, rose, orris, light amber, and light sandalwood. The powdery effect was what made us think of Jacques' earlier works, from Après l'Ondée through L'Heure Bleue and Shalimar. An extremely graceful fragrance, "Liu the elegant is for she who is modern," was how the American advertisement promoted it, as if to make sure women understood that Guerlain was aware of fashion's taste for the casual chic which Chanel had introduced. Yet it was one of Jacques Guerlain's "dullest perfumes," if one asks Luca Turin, a remark perhaps triggered by the fact that Liu, with all due respect to its obvious beauty, lacked real originality. Jacques Guerlain had become renowned for his keen ability to assess the potential of other perfumers' work as well as his own, and to treat them "the Guerlain way". In the case of No.5, already a tour de force in itself, maybe there was not much left to improve.

With regard to florals, Jacques Guerlain chiefly held onto the abstract aldehydic style throughout the 1930s and 1940s, in varying degrees of lightness and opulence like Véga, Coque d'Or, Fleur de Feu, up to and including his last perfume, Ode, in 1955. All of them are long gone, and Liu was probably the loveliest and most missed of those that had disappeared. It was reissued in a limited Parfum edition in 1994 along with a more widely available Eau de Toilette, and later, in 2005, it was re-created as an Eau de Parfum among the Parisiennes, for those who like No.5 but swear by Guerlain." Monsieur Guerlain.

Launched in 1929, Liu by Guerlain is a Floral Green fragrance for women. The nose behind this fragrance is Jacques Guerlain.

Top notes are Aldehydes, Neroli, and Bergamot
Heart notes are Rosemary, Jasmine, and Provence Rose
Base notes are Orris, Amber, Vanilla, and Sandalwood

Offered here a chance to try a decant this lovely perfume. Offered in three sizes. An exquisite fragrance!!