Guerlain will launch Shalimar Parfum Initial L’Eau Si Sensuelle, a flanker to last year's Shalimar Parfum Initial L’Eau, which was a flanker to 2011’s Shalimar Parfum Initial, which was a flanker to 1925′s Shalimar.* a new limited edition collector bottle.**
Shalimar Parfum Initial L’Eau Si Sensuelle was developed by Guerlain house perfumer Thierry Wasser; notes for the lighter variation include bergamot, neroli, grapefruit, rose, iris, jasmine, vanilla and tonka bean.
Guerlain Shalimar Parfum Initial L’Eau Si Sensuelle launches this month, in 40, 60 and 100 ml Eau de Toilette.
(via voyancefrancaise, elle.fr)
*Making it that rare bird, a flanker of a flanker of a flanker.
** Oops. I am so sorry to inform you that it is not a flanker at all. Grant over at Basenotes confirms the comment left by Persolaise below — this is just Shalimar Parfum Initial L’Eau in a new frosted bottle. Drat.
I may be wrong, but my understanding is that this is simply Shalimar Parfum Initial L’Eau in a slightly different bottle… which would make it a flanker of a flanker, wearing a new outfit.
Oh, I do hope you turn out to be wrong, I was so happy to find a flanker of a flanker of a flanker.
With grapefruit!
Reminds me of that BVL Mon Jasmin Noir L’eau Exquise as far as names/flankers of flankers go. My exquisite black jasmine water..ugh.
I got the sense from the copy that this one has more attention to the jasmine, but maybe that’s just rebranding. As opposed to last year’s L’Eau which had that hyacinth/freesia/LOTV “green floral” accord.
Reading about it on Fragrantica – sounds like a different/new fragrance, not just new bottle/packaging. Notes are different from the L’Eau version.
Oh swell, just what the world needed!
Yes!
Oh for pete’s sake!
Dear Guerlain. Please stop the flankers. Make a wonderful, gorgeous and interesting fragrance instead. Oh…sorry, u already did.
i did like ‘L’Eau’, cause it smelled like a fruity hard candy version of Shalimar. like, if you’d turn Shalimar into a Jolly Rancher, that’s what L’Eau smells like to me
but this sounds ridiculous
People, it’s frosty pink and it has a feather on it. What’s not to like?
Amen, to that!
But if I want to buy the pink-pom-pom-feather-frag I may need to remember that name and –
what was I saying? Perhaps I’ll remember after my bleach and perm!
Make another flanker, tack another couple of words to the end of the name…ho hum.
Does the length of the name set a new record ;)?
It is one letter more than VS Sexy Little Things Noir Tease Temptation, but gosh, wish I kept track of these things — there might be something longer.
That’s a lot of syllables.
I love the original Shalimar and it’s latest rendition. What’s to happen next? ‘The artist formerly know as’….?
I wonder how well all these lighter versions of the original Shalimar have been selling? Have they been doing very well, which is why they keep coming up with more variations to try to encourage customers to by yet another version of Shalimar? Or have they been doing poorly, so they keep coming up with lighter variations in hopes that one of them will finally take off? It seems like they’d all be in competition with each other…
I actually tried Shalimar Parfum Initial recently, since a friend gave me a carded sample she didn’t want anymore. I didn’t care for it much, so I’m not sure I’d like these newer versions either.
Songeuse makes some good points in the first paragraph. We are aware that the reason companies do this kind of “flanking” is because they don’t have to pay for an artist to design a new bottle and box, and it continues the famous name of its pillar franchise. However, without testing in the real world, they have no notion of how difficult it is to flog, especially in an English-speaking world, because of the long French name and the confusion of the similar packaging. Customers need to be able to recognise what they spritzed at the counter when they make up their minds and return to buy. “My wife wants me to buy her Shalimar, but no, the bottle didn’t look like that. It was smoother and it had a little thingy at the neck but I don’t rmember what colour the thing was or the colour of the bottle. How would I know if the bottle was clear or frosty, or pink or yellow, and I have no idea if it was an EDT or and EDP? Maybe it’s safer to just get the perfume!”
So, is VS Sexy Little Things Noir Tease Temptation the winner of flankermania?
I don’t know — I wish I’d kept better track of these things all along. I just happened to notice & remember it.
When flankers are taken to absurd, almost Dada-esque levels, I check out. All I’m gleaning from this is that Guerlain is apparently the new Victoria’s Secret.
Also…this, but no Attrape-Coeur? No Vetiver pour Elle? Not even Derby in North American department stores? It’s a crime.
Keepin gup with these releases is a full-time job. I have often thought of Parfum initial as a “prequel” ( due to the name). But the “si sensuelle” messes that up nicely. Silly name, silly concept–and all they did was put it in a frosted bottle? I’m with Subhuman (above). And how bringing back the Après l’ondée parfum? That would get some attention.