Guerlain

 Shalimar L'Essence Eau de Parfum Intense

Most Helpful Critical Review

Intriguing and ultimately awful

This fragrance took me on a journey that ended with me hating it more than any fragrance I've ever tried. I'm not consciously familiar with Shalimar or any Guerlain fragrance. I knew that Shalimar is often described as having a "vintage" vibe, which makes sense considering how long it's been around.... I was concerned by the "powdery" descriptor, but I wanted to try a Guerlain fragrance and I had points to burn, so I decided to order it after reading rave reviews. Big mistake. My initial thought was "that's disgusting." It immediately reminded me of vintage Max Factor pancake makeup, which had a fragrance that had been gone from my memory for 30+ years (and I REALLY wish it had stayed that way). Then it became intriguing, and after thinking about it for a while, I finally sprayed it once on each wrist. Over the next half hour, I started to fall in love with it. The vanilla is beautiful. Sweet but grounded while also being light and airy. It smelled classy. But the longer I wore it, the more that powdery scent kept gnawing at me, and that very short-lived love turned to hate. It became really pungent and nauseating to me, and I had to wash it off. Here's where the problems REALLY started. I washed my forearms at least 5 times, and I could STILL smell it. I felt like I could TASTE it. I ended up changing my clothes, washing my hair, scrubbing my skin with rubbing alcohol. It might have then in my nose, but it was definitely still on my skin. Eventually, I tried to cover it up with another perfume. No luck. I started getting desperate and tried covering it up with 4 different perfumes. I could still smell it. It kept me up for most of the night because it was so nauseating. Today, I realized that almost EVERY fragrance I own now triggers the scent of Shalimar L'Essence. Not surprising, since almost everything I own has vanilla. I love vanilla, but this fragrance has basically ruined it for me, albeit hopefully temporarily. I feel like my brain is reacting to the scent of vanilla as though it's a threat, lol. This is not at all a safe blind buy. I'm honestly glad they don't carry it in stores though, because I never want to smell this fragrance ever again.