Guerlain, Marie Claire, 30 ml. or 1 oz. Flacon, Parfum Extrait, Flacon Tonnelet, Edition Limitee, Pochet et du Corval, 1996, Paris, France .

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.

"In 1996 Guerlain created a limited edition feminine fragrance for the readers of French edition of Marie Claire, simply called... "Marie Claire". Simply put Marie Claire is a "fleurs blanches" type of fragrance, a white florals sonata that is a throwback to 1948. Why 1948? Because this is when Fracas by Robert Piguet came out, a fragrance of such a dedicated following that it shows no signs of abating. The almost brutal approach of Germaine Cellier (1909-1976) in instisting on short formulae, which targeted bull's eye, manifested itself into creating the most ebullient, the most expansive and the most complacent tuberose in existence; a fragrant labrosone typhoon for women with personalities that announce their arrival from two blocks away. One almost expects a military band with euphonia trumpeting coming marching on at any minute!"

Guerlain's Marie Claire is taking a page off that book and dresses it in the dusky, fetish-clad in vinyl skin of tuberose and what seems like jasmine-y ylang ylang to render an interpretation of that effect of glaring luminosity and abysmal darkness. And all that, just imagine, at the height of the popularity of L'Eau d'Issey and all those oceanic scents that acted as chastity belts for modern Victorians! The base of Guerlain Marie-Claire seems to be earthy, vetiver-rich, a memento of dry Guerlain bases from Djedi onwards. What I was completely struck by is the awesome radiance of the fragrance which emitted its strong emanations even before spraying it and by the prolonged evaporation which lasted for days on a blotter which I used, remaining true to the very end. What can I say? If Guerlain deemed a commercial commemoration to be so worthy of attention, I sure wish they'd do more of those." Perfume Shrine

Marie Claire is classified as a white floral fragrance for women.

Top notes are Jasmine, Orange, and Apricot
Middle notes are Ylang Ylang and Tuberose
Base notes are Vetiver, Vanilla, Sandalwood, and Tonka Bean

Offered here is a pristine one ounce of this lovely perfume. I had to remove the cellphane to photograph it, so it has never been handled whatsoever, except by me. Presented in the charming 'Tonelet' bottle, there were only 1000 of these produced. Comes in its original velvet-like presentation box. So collectible .. Super rare!