Alongside rose, jasmine is one of the most favourite flowers used in perfumery.
Guerlain incorporates jasmine into Guerlinade, a secret olfactory hallmark for its fragrances, while its other five notes are rose, vanilla, iris, tonka bean and bergamot.
The dainty white flower now stars in the new Jasmin Bonheur from the L'Art & La Matière collection.
"For this creation, we composed the ideal jasmine scent. It brings together jasmine from three precious origins, including a rare Calabrian jasmine replanted exclusively for Guerlain in the exact place where it bloomed over 40 years ago," said master perfumer Thierry Wasser.
At the end of the 1990s, the Calabrian jasmine disappeared from the land where Guerlain obtains its emblematic bergamot. Following Wasser's request, the cultivation was revived in 2010, which reinstated the supply for Guerlain.
Besides Calabria in Italy, the large-petalled Jasminum grandiflorum is sourced from Grasse in France and India. Jasminum sambac from India is another variety used for this new composition.
The delicate jasmine is picked at dawn to preserve the freshness of its scent. Because the flower is too fragile to be distilled, its essence is captured by making an absolute which is extracted on-site as soon as the blooms are harvested.
Because jasmine absolute alone does not evoke the powerful yet delicate scent it releases in the field, the perfumer has to work on bringing out its animalic edge.
Guerlain perfumer Delphine Jelk also turned down the nocturnal sensuality and made jasmine sunny for a playful fragrance.
The white flower also becomes more colourful through vibrant olfactory nuances inspired by the palette of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) known as the Painter of Happiness.
The fruity floral Jasmin Bonheur is set against an elegant, fine chypre base with woody accents of moss and vetiver.
"I tinted jasmine with joyful shades -- the pink of the rose, the purple of the iris, and the orange of the apricot," said Jelk. "I wanted to put some colour and sunshine in it, a bit like Henri Matisse, whose work is full of joy."
His masterpieces include the gouache cut-out Les Mille Et Une Nuits (1950), which inspires a motif on the plate and case of the Jasmin Bonheur Maison Matisse Edition.
