Maison Guerlain, founded in 1828 by perfumer-chemist Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain, is celebrating its 190th anniversary this year. For nearly two centuries, the Maison has explored the facets of beauty in fragrances, makeup and skincare. To celebrate its 190 years Guerlain is premiering extraordinary sagas that retrace its history to the origins of modern perfumery.
Guerlain is intimately linked to the city of Paris, to women, and to the revolution in cosmetics and perfumes. Maison Guerlain began in 1828 thanks to the visionary creativity of Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain. Inspired by a desire to spark emotion, to surprise and amaze, Guerlain continued its story with Aimé Guerlain, who revolutionized the world of fragrances by combining natural and synthetic ingredients for the first time to create Jicky. Three generations of perfumers followed: Jacques Guerlain, Jean-Paul Guerlain and today Thierry Wasser.
To celebrate this anniversary, Guerlain is unveiling a series of sagas, a special chance to discover or rediscover this mythic Maison throughout the year. Three sagas have already been released. This first is dedicated to Guerlain Perfumers, the second to the raw materials used in the composition of Guerlain fragrances, and a third reveals the secrets of lipstick, retracing the creation of Guerlain’s first modern lipstick.
With 1,100 fragrance creations and ongoing innovations in cosmetics, Guerlain celebrated the beauty of women by creating the bullet lipstick Ne m’oubliez pas in 1870, anticipated the fashion for Orientalism with Mitsouko in 1919, and proposed an elegant take on the bronzing trend with Terracottapowder in 1984.