Vol de Nuit
Vol de Nuit is an enigmatic fragrance. It is certainly Guerlain's most faceted, most sophisticated fragrance. Vol de Nuit has a green facet that precedes the floral, spicy, leathery, oriental, woody chypre and powdery ones.
Its very assertive personality is not easily accessible. To understand it, you need to have a certain olfactory heritage. I like to say that to discover Vol de Nuit, you have to sleep with it! Those who have the patience to wait for the base notes will be rewarded. On my skin, unfortunately, the alchemy does not work.
Its "raspy" top notes, galbanum, combined with petit grain, may surprise, but reward women or men who have the audacity to tame its mystery. The heart, a cocktail of mixed flowers, is a firework display: violet, carnation, quite spicy with the addition of chilli, jasmine, rose, gentian and daffodil. Its base is really racy, very slightly oriental: vanilla, resinous notes, iris. You can also feel its chypre, woody accord with sandalwood, patchouli, etc. And also some sensual, sexy, animalic, leathery notes.
Vol de Nuit is the fragrance for women who risk everything. It is no coincidence that it is and has been worn by women of power and entertainment personalities. Personally, I prefer the extract which is richer because its concentration and composition are really different. For me, it would be a shame to reserve it for the night. It should be worn in the morning, it works wonders in combination with the eau de toilette.
The extract is not strong, it's the opposite, it's the most intimate product, it's for yourself and for your loved ones. It should be combined with the more extroverted eau de toilette and the sillage will be felt by the people who are lucky enough to be behind you. It is the assurance of a trail that will leave an indelible mark.
Originally created in the early days of airmail, this fragrance is a nod to the rumour that women rivalled men and that the delicacy of their gestures made them better pilots than men (Hélène Boucher, Amélia Mary Earhat, Miss Cochrane and many others).
Night Flight (Vol de Nuit) by Antoine de Saint Exupéry
In 1931, the French pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of the best-selling book "The Little Prince", published a highly successful book: Night Flight. This book, which is sometimes autobiographical, recounts the adventures of a journey he made from Tierra del Fuego to New York, via Patagonia. Rivière ordered his men to fly at night, understanding that this was the only way to beat the speed record held by mail wagons. It is easy to imagine the very risky nature of such an undertaking at that time. The hero also recalls how one of his pilots, Fabien, disappeared below Patagonia, while trying to reach Buenos Aires. Fabien soon discovers with his radio that he has deviated and that the fuel reserve will not allow him to return to land, his wife is worried, she decides to join the aerodrome, the contact is lost with his boss Rivière, everyone knows that he is doomed. In spite of this hard blow, Rivière continued to fight energetically to maintain night flights at all costs, triumphantly imposing the idea of the aeropostale.
Throughout, this novel expresses a philosophy based on courage, heroism and the will to succeed. The novel makes it clear that every flight was an adventure fraught with danger and anxiety. Courageous, the perfume Vol de Nuit is also courageous. It is the scent of risk, of dangerous play, full of daring, the scent of charismatic women.
The creation of this extraordinary perfume was the finest tribute Jacques Guerlain could have given to his very good friend. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, commander of the French Air Wing, disappeared during a mission in July 1944.
For many years, Guerlain distributed boxes containing a Vol de Nuit with the emblem of the French Wings to the cadets of the Air School on the evenings of galas in Salon de Provence. 1933, the year Vol de Nuit was created, was also the year Air France was founded.
Perfume bottle
The bottle, which I find quite masculine, was created by Raymond Guerlain in collaboration with Baccarat. The square bottle is made of smoked glass with eight chamfered corners. On both sides, the decoration in relief represents the motif of an aircraft propeller in motion.
The name in gilded metal, die-cut, forms the belt of the propeller on a surface. Between the wars, the sky was considered a place of mystery and excitement, evoking exoticism and distant destinations.
The square, golden metal cap is a symbol of modernity, as it evokes a famous piece of machinery, the triumph of machinismo and the conquest of the air. This bottle, like many others by Guerlain, is avant-garde as it is the first time it combines metal and glass: it is very much in keeping with its Art Deco period. Its box is lined with an imitation zebra skin.
The original bottle is only available in the 60 ml size. For smaller sizes, the fragrance comes in the Jicky bottle. Vol de Nuit is mainly sold in France (confidential sales). Some pieces are also sold in Japan, under the name of Vol de Nuit translated in Japanese as "Yakaïsko" (phonetically and approximately). Even if it is not sold much, Guerlain wants to keep it in the catalogue, being well aware of its splendour!
A quick word on Vol de Nuit Evasion, a limited edition for airports. It contains, you will have recognised, Attrape Coeur, also known under the old name of Guet Apens, in a less concentrated version. Attrape Coeur, in its original concentration, can be found at the House of Guerlain in the "Les Parisiennes" collection.
Sylvaine Delacourte perfumes
Discover Sylvaine Delacourte's brand with her Orange Blossom, Musk and Vanilla Collections. You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover these raw materials as you have never smelled them before.