fragrance notes: guerlain idylle

As much as I try to fight it, I'm pretty much a classic floral perfume girl at heart. The scent of roses and jasmine are some of the prettiest scents on earth for me, hence, my obsession with Stella McCartney's range of scents that riff on various rose notes. So why do I fight it? Well, let's face it, florals can seem boring and feel a little grandmother-y. But Guerlain's new scent, Idylle, created by its new-ish in-house perfumer Thierry Wasser, is a modern take on floral that's far from boring. Described as a "love dream", Idylle is an intensely romantic and pretty fragrance that kind of feels like you're walking through the most amazing flower garden packed with blooming roses, lilac and jasmine. It opens up with Bulgarian rose, raspberry, lychee and freesia, giving it a fruitiness at the top that's not at all cloying. Then, at the heart, the scent opens up to all those lovely florals: rose, peony, jasmine, lilac and lily-of-the-valley. Idylle finishes with the slightly woody white musk and patchouli at the bottom. While Idylle is described as a chypre floral, the musk and patchouli notes are so subtle you almost don't even notice them, which I kind of like. They're still there, and they give the fragrance structure, but they keep quiet so as to enhance the blooming freshness of the juice. My one qualm with Idylle is that, like all things precious and fleeting, the scent just doesn't last as long as I want it to; after spraying it on in the morning, it seems to be gone before lunch. Which kind of makes me love it more, in a way - you always want the one that got away, so to speak. And of course, let's not forget the stunning bottle - created by French designer Ora Ito, it's shaped like a glimmering, golden raindrop that's like a piece of sculpture in itself.