The Guerlain fragrance brand and designer label is one of the oldest perfume houses in the world, and has been operating more or less constantly since 1828. It has passed through many hands over the years, but all of the owners of the label have held true to the values of the founders of Guerlain that the perfumes it created should be designed to complement rather than overwhelm the character of their wearer. With this in mind, Guerlain fragrances are often light and airy in character, offering the idea of a summer evening or an autumnal morning rather than the full on spice of a winter perfume.

The Guerlain perfume house remained completely independent right up until 1994 when it was taken over by the massive luxury brand LVMH, which also owns Louis Vuitton, Moet et Chandon, and Hennesey amongst other labels. The LVMH takeover allowed Guerlain the access to an enormous marketing budget that it had always lacked in the past and finally allowed it to begin to grow and appeal to a much wider audience than ever before.

While purists decried the decision of the brand to enter a more mainstream market, it was done without a compromise on either the quality of the perfume or indeed the actual character of the Guerlain fragrances. These remained as rich and heady as ever, maintaining the traditional style of the brand that had always allowed its fragrances to be inspired by confectionary.

The Guerlain brand has had more than its fair share of classic scents. From its earliest Jicky fragrance that was first launched in 1899, and is widely described as the first modern perfume to be released. This has been followed by a number of other popular scents over the years including some of the modern Guerlain perfumes including its latest classic, Insolence, which was released to a waiting world in 2006.

Guerlain perfumes have often been described as being very much of their age. Samsara, and its later re-launch, Un air de Samsara came to define the perfume industry in the late 1980s and 1990s thanks to their relentless fragrance, and iconic timeless advertising. While some of the Guerlain perfumes have remained on sale for generations in various forms, others have been fleeting classics, and these are often still sought after by fans years later thanks to their classic status amongst true fans of perfume.

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