Guerlain
The Parisian alchemist crafting beauty from nature since 1828
Guerlain was established in Paris in 1828 by Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain, a perfumer-chemist who built the house into a supplier to the French imperial court. For nearly two centuries it remained family-run, producing foundational classics: Jicky (1889), often cited as the first modern perfume; Mitsouko (1919); Shalimar (1925); and the sprawling Aqua Allegoria series launched in 1999. LVMH acquired the house in 1994, providing capital and distribution while preserving the Guerlain name as a prestige anchor. The house operates across three registers: grand classical orientals and chypres built around the guerlinade (a proprietary base of vanilla, iris, tonka, and benzoin), the lighter seasonal Aqua Allegoria line, and the rarefied L'Art & La Matière collection of high-concentration single-material explorations. Thierry Wasser has served as in-house perfumer since 2008, following Jean-Paul Guerlain's retirement.
DNA over time
Each column is an era. Each colored band shows that family’s share of accord weight across every perfume the house released in that window. Bigger band = the house leaned harder on that family.
