Question:
I checked just now to make sure I wasn't reproducing a thread - I couldn't actually find one on Guet Apens on the ladies' board. Apologies if I'm duplicating anything.
My bottle of Guet Apens, still in the cellophane, arrived today. I ordered it several weeks ago from Italy, and I had become resigned to its never turning up, so I was incredibly excited when it arrived...so excited, in fact, that I couldn't bring myself to open it. I carried it around in my handbag all day, getting the great big blue box out every now and then to *look* at. Got back home an hour or so ago, and opened it! I shall sit here and wait for it to *do* things, and describe it every time it does something interesting over the next half hour.
First impressions: good lord, it's phenomenally good. It's a lot like the very best parts of both Apres l'Ondee and Mitsouko kind of remixed with a healthy dollop of creamy vanilla from Shalimar, made all the better in Guet Apens. Amazing creamy iris and a sweetly (important, this sweetness, because it goes all the way through the perfume) green violet over a big red basket of roses and peaches - the big, perfect white-fleshed kind of peach. I don't usually do peach, but this is glorious. It's much more recognisable as peach than the similar note in Mitsouko is - whether this is an accident of blending or a different chemical, I don't know. After a while it works its way into the background and lets the rose and sandalwood sing.
The sandalwood is in the bottom and a wonderfully vanillic cream. The sandalwood is, for me, the heaviest note in the drydown. There's an amber note in there too, but it feels almost like it's a trick of the peach and labdanum; it's like the two notes blended into a beautiful whole. The peach has turned ambery rather than juicy (about 20 minutes in at this point). It's so delicious I may accidentally eat my wrist if I stop paying attention. The iris, very upright and a little powdery, is still singing over the top like a very clearly sung musical note. It's very hard to say yet, but my experience of the EDPs of Mitsouko and Shalimar, which share some bottom notes with this, makes me think this will stick around, close to the skin, for a good long time.
I am completely in love. I think I'm going to get through this bottle *very* fast.

Answer:
Many congrats on your new love! I'm particularly happy that you are willing to go through the bottle...when I find a new treasure I have a regrettable tendency to bury it and save it. I know it's silly.
Wear it in the best of health, Squeezeweasel!

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God, that sounds lovely... I keep trying things in hope of finding something to rave about, but instead I inflicted JdP In Black on myself today
K looked puzzled: "synthetic... artificial strawberry? maybe rasberry? fake redfruit, anyay, why are you wearing this?" but he actually found more complexity in it than I did.
The rose and sandalwood sound amazing... congratulations on a great find!

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I have a decant of this, and I am beginning to wonder if it is off or something. I just can't get into it at all - I get an anise note that just ruins it for me, and it turns a little sour in the drydown too. The first 30 seconds are great, and then disaster. I keep reading all these raves, and I love all those notes...!
On the other hand I have just received a bottle of Metallica, and it is so, so wonderful. It is just so right for me. Everything I thought Guet Apens would be! So I will share in your joy, but with a slightly different fragrance, if you don't mind!

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Oh thank God you took the plunge!! Am happy/envious for your new love affair. Riannon sent me a sample of this with the admonition that it has been discontinued but has reappeared under Attrape Coeur. An ambush is an ambush by any other name, I guess.
Anyway I agree on the beauty and sheer Guerlain-ness of it! Wear it in good health!!

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[quote=Zibeline;1013928]Many congrats on your new love! I'm particularly happy that you are willing to go through the bottle...when I find a new treasure I have a regrettable tendency to bury it and save it. I know it's silly.

Wear it in the best of health, Squeezeweasel![/quoteZibeline, ]I do the same thing I think we were squirrels in past lives.

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I look over to the SA behind the perfume counter and pointed to Squeezeweasel and said, "I'll have what she's having".
Wow! sounds like heaven, so glad you have your bottle and it's as you remembered it.

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Quote: Originally Posted by Squeezeweasel
I am completely in love. I think I'm going to get through this bottle *very* fast. I really was afraid you would never open that bottle! I know the feeling. Afraid that it will not live up to your expectations. But now I am glad you are enjoying being in love
It is one of the most wonderful fragrances Guerlain ever made, even though it was not composed by a member of the Guerlain family but by Mathilde Laurent. A scent of purple smooth velvet on me.
But I really think this bottle will last a long time because the staying power is truly amazing, not to mention the sillage.
And with summer on its way....
Maybe it will be different for you but I have only felt comfortable in Guet Apens when the weather is cool
OBB Tao, this week I had the opportunity to test Guet Apens side by side with Attrape Coeur and all I can say is: I smell a slight difference. Like Attrape Coeur is a bit thinner, having less iris and sandalwood.
But I will have to bear in mind that the bottle of Guet Apens is many years older than the Attrape Coeur, so maybe Guet Apens has changed, matured, through the years.
I would love to know if Guerlain used the original formula of Mathilde Laurent or if Jean-Paul Guerlain could nor resist the temptation to change something, like he changed Mathilde's perfect Shalimar Light.
I guess we will never know for sure.

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Quote: Originally Posted by Riannon OBB Tao, this week I had the opportunity to test Guet Apens side by side with Attrape Coeur and all I can say is: I smell a slight difference. Like Attrape Coeur is a bit thinner, having less iris and sandalwood. But I will have to bear in mind that the bottle of Guet Apens is many years older than the Attrape Coeur, so maybe Guet Apens has changed, matured, through the years.
I would love to know if Guerlain used the original formula of Mathilde Laurent or if Jean-Paul Guerlain could nor resist the temptation to change something, like he changed Mathilde's perfect Shalimar Light. I guess we will never know for sure. Many thanks for the update, Dragon Dear. Attrape Coeur is now on my "must have" list!!

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Bravo, squeezeweasel! Although Métallica remains my very fave, Guet-Apens conquered my heart also. It's a glorious fragrance. I share your impressions on iris, creamy sandalwood and vanilla, didn't get the peaches yet, but rest assured I'm going to look look for them next time I wear it