More limited edition collector fragrance bottles, with the usual disclaimers: in most of these cases, the juice is unchanged, just the bottle is "special" (or not, as the case may be), and some of these may not be available in the US.
For the 2008 holiday season and the 180th anniversary of Guerlain, the brand presents Shalimar, L'Instant Magic and Insolence in "the legendary bottle of L'Heure Bleue", with "the unmistakable round label of anther [sic] legendary scent, Mitsouko, to symbolise the timeless refinement of the House of Guerlain". Priced from £41.50 (via purebeauty.co.uk )
From Comme des Garçons, the latest limited edition version of Comme des Garçons 2: Silver Words, a matte black bottle decorated with the words peace, love and freedom in various languages. At Colette in Paris, 80€.
From Thierry Mugler, Angel in the Excessive Star limited edition: "The sensual facets of Angel are concentrated and revealed in a dramatic blue lacquered bottle. A glamorous limited edition individually lacquered by hand for the true Angel lover to collect and treasure. To certify its authenticity, each rare and precious bottle is engraved with its individual number." $240 for 10 ml Extrait at Nordstrom.
From Judith Leiber, Pink Crystal Eau de Parfum. This just might be a new fragrance, but I'm fairly sure it's just a limited edition bottle for the regular Judith Leiber Eau de Parfum. Whatever it is, it's $125 for 50 ml at Neiman Marcus.
Also at Neiman Marcus, limited edition bottles for Clive Christian 1872 for Women (shown) and 1872 for men. "Clive has chosen one exceptional ingredient from each perfume that visualizes the spirit of the perfume and created artwork to place on the original green bottles. Rose de Mai known as the Painter's Rose, is so rare it blooms for just three weeks each year and so pure it is often associated with the presence of an angel." $370 for 50 ml.
I want the Comme des Garcons one
So what exactly is the point of putting one perfume, Shalimar already with its own iconic bottle, in the bottle of another?
As the press release says, 'to symbolise the timeless refinement of the House of Guerlain.' You don't buy it? No, neither do I (in all senses of the word).
I'd take one too.
So people who like collector bottles will buy it?
exactly. Although I do like collecting bottles and the Angel is gorgeous.
Obviously the Guerlain bottles are like BOTH LHB and Mitsouko, and so are the round labels. The ad copy is interesting in trying to separate them. The Shalimar and L'Instant Magic are EDP; the Insolence is EDT. The shading and the transparency at the shoulders of the bottles is truly beautiful but like they put Vol de Nuit Evasion in the LHB bottle and the Colours of Love series in a Dior bottle with a LHB cap—why? Because it's more cost efficient than designing a new bottle. It just leads to confusion n the marketplace. These three L.E.'s should have been in their original EDP bottles with the same shading.
That's an 'excessive star' all right, if ever I saw one. A surefire eye putter outer.
It does look like a weapon!
Celestia, I've seen the Shalimar in the US but not the other 2, so far. Would like to see the Insolence in person — that pink looks lovely.
Me three! Since I want some of that anyway.
I have to admit, I love the Guerlain bottle and I recently got a 30ml of Mitsouko EDP (seems the 30ml size is hard to find — is it usually only sold overseas?). My only complaint: the plastic cap feels cheap; I don't know if they could manufacture it in glass somehow, but that sure would be nice. It does look nice in all those colors, but I personally don't want any of those juices.
Caps most always look cheap, don't they? It's a shame. Where'd you find the 30 ml? They are hard to find. No idea if easier to find overseas or not.
30ml was on ebay — and a good thing, because even 30ml of Mitsouko EDP is almost too much.
And yeah, it's a shame about the cap — I assume that Guerlain vintage bottles have that inverted heart stopper made out of molded glass, yes? I'd be curious about what the cap is like for the pure parfum bottles they sell these days too.
I think the caps are only real glass in the pure perfumes. The original Insolence bottle would be better with a glass lid in the EDT and EDP, however one would think that it would increase the weight and thus shipping costs. It adds to the prestige presentation for the costly extrait to have a glass stopper.
The vintage extraits certainly did — don't know when they started using plastic for the lesser concentrations. They still use glass stoppers for the extraits.
That's mostly true these days — no glass on EdT/EdP.
I'd like the Clive Christian bottle. Actually $370 for a limited edition Clive Christian doesn't seem much anyways. $370 for anything else is way too much though.
It's like Guerlain is playing a shell game with those bottles—no one knows what they've bought until they get it home and put it on.
It's more than I'd pay, but I guess it isn't that much more than the regular bottle is it?
LOL!