Perfume Review: Guerlain Plus Que Jamais

Plus Que Jamais is one of the Guerlain scents I Don’t Quite Get. I think it is a gorgeous perfume and I would love to own a bottle…what I don’t quite get is why, given the fact that there is nothing especially unique and unusual about it, it is kept hidden from the masses among the fantastic exclusives like Attrape-Coeur, Derby and Liu. Plus Que Jamais is the kind of scent, which, were Guerlain to release it for wide distribution alongside L’Instant and Insolence, could have become their biggest modern bestseller. There is nothing about it that “an average customer” would not understand or like. In fact, this beautiful, luscious confection of a scent is not altogether unlike such hits as Flowerbomb or its elusive Extreme version and has a potential to do just as well or even better. Get a lovely spokesmodel for it, make a slightly obscure but attractive commercial, put an ad in every glossy magazine on the planet, and -voilà!-, a new perfume blockbuster is born. And in the case of Plus Que Jamais, the success would have been well-deserved, not all due to the hype, because the scent, although not earth-shatteringly original, is sumptuous, masterfully blended and incredibly attractive. The perfect ad for Plus Que Jamais would look something like this: Plus Que Jamais is lavish; it is Perfume at its best, an affordable luxury, an aspirational product. One spritz, and you feel beautiful, forever-young, elegantly attired, coddled, pampered and spoiled rotten. …It is magic! As to how it smells…with notes of bergamot, ylang-ylang, neroli, iris, jasmine and vanilla, it is a floral-oriental blend with an appealing, candied fruitiness and the rich, vanillic sweetness, which is almost, but not quite, gourmand. The citrus is apparent but not harsh in the beginning, the heart is overflowing with honeyed, sugared flowers, the base is softly woody and sweet…the notes are blended so very smoothly, the fragrance has a polished, supremely luxurious feel of the most expensive of silks and of the skin used to wearing only such silks and such expensive, opulent fragrances. It is altogether almost too perfect, like an impeccably dressed society woman of indefinite age (forever-young, remember?), shimmering with tasteful but noticeable jewels, with not a blond hair out of place. It is a little too glossy, a little too conventionally beautiful. It doesn’t have a twist, a slight imperfection that would make it more interesting…On my skin, although certainly as opulent as any of the classic Guerlains, it lacks the dark depth of the best fragrances to come from this House. Still…Plus Que Jamais is a stunning scent and I do wish it was more easily available. Plus Que Jamais is a part of Les Parisiennes collection and is available at the Champs-Elysées in Paris, € 170.00 for 4.2oz of Eau de Parfum. To order, call 00 33 1 45 62 52 57 or email champs-elysees@guerlain.fr. According to Isabel Rousseau, the head of Customer Relationships Department at Guerlain, to obtain Plus Que Jamais, one can also get in touch with Neiman Marcus in San Francisco or with the Toronto Boutique. Image sources, operagloves.com, guerlain.com. Please visit Aromascope, to read Ina's wonderful review of Plus Que Jamais.