For many years, Catherine Deneuve has been loyal to a perfume from a great French house, whose history is very special.
In the pantheon of French cinema, few actresses embody elegance with such consistency. Catherine Deneuve, with her royal allure and timeless charm, has always cultivated a subtle mystery, a part of her intimacy that she only reveals on rare occasions. However, behind the myth, there is an olfactory signature which has accompanied her since she was seventeen and which she herself describes as her “first aesthetic sophistication”. It is not a simple passing perfume, but a true companion, a classic born at the beginning of the 20th century, which has survived the ages without aging a single bit. This cult juice, imagined on the eve of a world war in an explosion of soft and melancholic hues, continues today to envelop the actress in a powdery and flowery veil, proving that the greatest love stories are often the most discreet and the most tenacious.
When a relationship has lasted this long, there is obviously a secret behind it. In addition to the loyalty of Catherine Deneuve, the smell of the perfume is exceptional. Already in 1989, the actress confided to Marie Claire magazine: “From the time I was seventeen, what did I want to wear? The Blue Hour. I believe that a perfume should be heady or nothing.” So, she is addicted to this creation by Guerlain, with its very particular history and trail. Imagined in 1912 by Jacques Guerlain himself, it is a floral, oriental and powdery fragrance. Her inspiration? The suspended moment just after sunset, when the sky becomes a deep and tender blue, before the stars appear. Jacques Guerlain even described this moment as “the hour when man finally finds himself in harmony with the world and the light.“
Even more poignant, L’Heure Bleue evokes a deep nostalgia since it was designed by the perfumer with the intimate conviction that this famous suspended time of happiness would soon be no more, “that peace would no longer be“, even specifies the Olfastory website. Shortly after, the First World War broke out.
If this classic crosses the decades, it is also thanks to a disconcertingly complex blend that plays on the contrasts between cold and hot. It opens with a combination of bergamot and anise. The heart notes then mix spicy carnation with heliotrope, this flower with scents of almond and vanilla, which gives the perfume its famous powdery and velvety signature. Finally come iris, vanilla and tonka bean for a touch of sweetness and sensuality. This fusion between the floral-powdery structure and the oriental-gourmet base gives this juice its eternal poetry which has seduced Catherine Deneuve for so many years.
