Quand vient l'été is an explosion of flowers in pastel shades with accents of very bright colours - a pure Belle Époque fragrance that reminds me of Mucha posters with their floral arabesque. It was quite a modern perfume for that era and as No5 had its aldehydes in the 20's, this Guerlain perfume had its salycilates. What Hedione is today for floral perfumes were the salycilates (and mostly amyl/isoamyl) by 1900's, sometime overused in floral perfumes. The mild (iso) amyl salycilate with its soft cocoa note gave birth to two families of perfumes that dominated the Art Nouveau era (the clover and the orchid ) with brilliant and popular examples from Piver (Trèfle Incarnat, Floramye, etc). Quand vient l'été was Guerlain's version of that trend, with a strong ylang note and a sweet base that made the transition to the next big floral perfume, Quelque Fleurs (Houbigant). If in Quelque fleurs (the real one, not what is sold today) all notes were carefully balanced in a lilac-ylang shade, the Guerlain is a solar expression with strong notes pointing all the flowers inside: ylang-ylang, carnation (very spicy with clove-dianthine), lilac-hyacinth, rose Wardia on a very sweet balsamic base (coumarine, heliotropine). It has also a new note for that period, nerol - a natural fresh rosy note (a rose alcohol as citronellol or geraniol). The drydown has a very light ambery note, a soft powdery orris and an important musk facet. The combination of methyl salycilate, amyl and ylang gives a pungency and strengths popular in those day, very rare today.
Quand vient l'été is a perfume that could be resuscitated, a perfect vintage floral other than rose-jasmin-violet variations and different from the usual Guerlain range. A true Belle Epoque perfume!
Top fresh spicy note with citrus notes (and neroli), rosewood, clove, wintergreen
Middle floral bouquet of ylang and carnation with notes of lilac, hyacinth, jasmine absolute, rose oil
Drydown sweet and musky with: heliotrope, vanilla, balsams, orris, amber, musk
Salycilates are unusual and highly versatile ingredients. You can build with them a hyacinth, a carnation, a Madonna lily, a clover, an old orchid, a fougère - Canoe type …a cocoa note and so on. They bring breath and "make space" in a perfume.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
