Apres l'Ondee

(Review of the extrait c. 1992-1993) Far be it from me to suggest I have the knowledge, experience, or authority credentialing me to make such a statement, but here it is: I do believe this is the greatest perfume ever created. If perfection is possible and it exists, it is Apres L’Ondee extrait. I have lived with and loved Apres L’Ondee EdT for a very long time, but had smelled the extrait only once prior to acquiring a full bottle. That single chance encounter was so startling and captivating that it started a years-long eyes-out for this maiden. I was to look for her everywhere I went of any corner of the world, hoping to see her again. One day, she would be mine. Full bottles very rarely crossed my path, but when they did they were always too eye-wateringly expensive for me to justify a purchase - even a purchase of perfection. Finding a full bottle for a great price, finally, put the hunt to rest and elevated my collection to a milestone level. A feeling of completeness, like finding a soulmate. Finally, she became mine. The first time I went to wear it I approached gingerly and reverently. I even used a sterile pipette from one of my laboratories to place it on my skin. The first sniff confirmed that Apres L’Ondee extrait is just as beautiful as I remember it. Our past dalliance wasn’t a chance summer tryst never meant to last, not a trick of the memory peering through rose-tinted spectacles, it was real. With the EdT every section is a calming experience, quiet, and gentle; as the name suggests it smells like blue skies and sunlight breaking through spent gray rain clouds. The extrait is something else. The opening of neroli and citruses smell completely like the sunshine the EdT only marginally lets through. Bright, rich, a cool but white heat, it shimmers and sparkles like visible spectrums of light bouncing off rainwater. The floral heart does not smell of relaxed earth after a quenching shower, it smells of Mother Nature at her most regal and elegant. Restrained and understated luxury as only she can achieve. Of course, orris is still the star: silvery, powdery, buttery, and starchy white floral notes are adorned with earthy, fleshy and peppery red roses and a honey-sweetened yellow mimosa. A touch of fruity and exotic ylang-ylang adds more decadence and suppleness to the powdery texture. If this is earth after a rain shower, than it is earth of some fantastical and otherworldly place. An enchanted forest. The floor of the forest smells of a floral amber; gently vanillic tonka, sticky earthy resins, and powdery floral and gray musks. It’s an effortless dry down of - dare I say it? - perfection. One of my favorite stories to tell when I’m describing Apres L’Ondee to someone is an experience with the EdT that perfectly encapsulates my total experience with it over many years. While sitting parked in California traffic one morning on my way to the office, not having slept well and stressing out over silly things as we all do, a gentle rain shower was coming down as the sun was breaking through the horizon. There I sat in the comfort of my car, the comfort of jazz through the speakers, the comfort of rain and gentle sunlight, the comfort of Apres L’Ondee wafting from my skin and clothes, and all of the stress and worries disappeared. Like they never existed. Washed away, cleaned, by Apres L’Ondee. The extrait is not like this experience. It is too vivid and dynamic to be calming. Too luxurious to impart a feeling of easiness. Butterflies in the stomach looking upon a face of exquisite beauty that smiles and talks to you. Me? How do I deserve this, such luck? These past few days getting to know the extrait I first encountered so long ago have been some of my best days in my long perfume journey. Apres L’Ondee reminds me why I love perfume, that I am blessed to be able to connect with them in ways beyond my nose and I shouldn’t take that for granted. If Apres L’Ondee is not perfection, than perfection is truly and unequivocally impossible.

I swear to God, one more time I encounter a 'smells like grandma' comment, I'ma have an aneurysm. Like holy shit, you ventured off TikTok and discovered a scent that predates 2015, congrats! No, geniuses, it doesn't smell like "grandma." It just doesn't smell like synthetic vanilla cupcakes, or ambroxan and cetalox marinated in fake lychee juice. It smells like powdery violets and iris caught in the rain, like something that actually took root instead of getting hosed together in a lab overnight. Go huff your superamber-laden PDMs and Kayalis, and leave the adults alone with our classic Guerlains.

I managed to snag a beehive bottle second hand, and wowee, this is precious. A soft blue haze. Vulnerable little plants and flower buds peering out at the world after a relentless downpour. It smells like the tears of 1000 women. Tears of sadness, relief, recognition, hope, courage. What a beautiful, beautiful perfume.

This literally disappears by the time the puddle that you apply to your skin to try and smell it dries down. 0/10 Absolutely pathetic!

Worth trying several times because in the end, it’s stunning. Blind-bought this years ago after reading rave online reviews and was disappointed. Where I expected a gentle symphony of soul, my nose betrayed me and it was all sweet almond paste and powder. It seemed cloying and I tried to scrub it off. A few year’s later thought, ‘they all couldn’t be wrong’, and tried again - same thing. Late last year I was reading reviews again because I was thinking of giving it away. One thing many of the reviews spoke of, was that it was good to wear when feeling melancholic. So, like a true perfume-tragic, I kept it ready for when melancholia hit and when it did, sprayed it on. Well! This time it somehow ‘made sense’ of my mood, gave it a bit of gravitas, revealing such beautiful layers in the fragrance I’d never noticed before. There’s definitely iris, but it’s been cuddled up in warm comfort. It is an occasional fragrance, but oh-so-gorgeous.

This smells like a waspy, upper middle class, carpeted house. AM I LOSING MY MIND?

Every time I get on the internet and read people's thoughts, I realize people are really miserable. Anyway. A lot of comments mention grandma. Grandma's used to smell GOOD. Just because something is grandma to you doesn't make the fragrance bad. Also, for longevity I layer this with Bvlgari Amethyste. It lasts ages. I get a trail & compliments. True fragheads know how to make a fragrance work for them. And if it doesn't work. Move on. This smells fresh, dewy, floral, powdery a little sweet a tad spice. Its very light, and sheer yet its present. You think no one smells you. They do with this.

Anisic violet mimosa heliotropin vanilla whispers Apres L’Ondee is meant to smell of a spring-time garden after a downpour. And while i can understand the idea, this is not at all personally what i associate with it, so i am not at all surprised by the fact that Elena and Malle decided to go for a completely different name for their offspring fragrance l'Eau d'Hiver (a personal favorite of mine). Apres L'ondee is for me the exact intersection between sweet anisic, fluffy powdery pollen-like and delicate pure vanilla. Bergamot and subtle green hues bring brightness and luminosity, carnation's sweet spice and subtle woody musky elements bring intrigue and sensuality. What is truly magical about Apres l'Ondee is that translucent cripsy anisic powdery slightly almondy vanilla core. While not a loud fragrance, there is a certain structural clarity to it, waves of it slowly radiating from the skin tickling your nose and bringing it back to your skin, before getting lost in the complexity of it. At times when smelling it too close it turns a bit sharp, confusing and slightly retro animalic, which makes me understand why Malle and Elena decided to radically reduce any for of interference in their abstract rendition and focus only on that fuzzy anisic caramel-like powdery heart, where the magic truly lies in. For those of us that appreciate fragrance as an art form, there very well may be nothing as rich and fantastical as the original feminine releases of this legendary house, even if you don't intend to wear them (such as in my case). If you can get your hands on a vintage, good for you. Know though that the current recreations effectively preserve the spirit of the originals well enough.

This is the fragrance that made me believe in skin chemistry. I truly thought y'all were exaggerating, but I'm now convinced of how big a difference it can make. My friend has this one and let me try it. On her, it smells incredible—addictively neroli-forward, but with fascinating depth and complexity. On me it was BAD, super powdery, stale old-person smell. :(

This is an old (1906) and famous fragrance, supposed to be wonderful, but it contains way too many off-putting elements, and I find it offensive. The orris smells exactly like the greasy sort of old-fashioned lipstick; the anise is a bit toothpastey; the heliotropin is baby-powdery; the violets are like those horrible purple Chowards violet mints; and, as a marked contrast to all this ballet-class stuff, there’s something like rosemary or sage in there, some herb that smells too savory for perfume, like it belongs on roast meat. Honestly, it’s weird for me to say this as a woman, but this perfume feels effete to me. Another way of putting it is that it evokes a Quentin-Crisp era style of gay femininity. It might work if that’s the aesthetic you’re going for.

so achingly beautiful and fleeting at the same time

I bought this perfume about a year ago due to my interest in historical perfumes. I didn’t know what to expect and I found this perfume to be really unusual. It truly smells like nothing else in my perfume wardrobe so I give it extra points for originality. I don’t know that I enjoy the scent per se, but I appreciate the fact that it is so unique and the fact that it’s been in production for more than 100 years. It’s a puzzle and one that may keep growing on me. I like that it’s challenging and not your typical in your face floral.

Beautiful from the very first note - I caught the opening in the air and I knew that I was in for a very special experience. Lovely opening, fresh, clear - but with a lovely spicy, soft floral hush. I did not expect the notss to be quite so full - light, delucate certainly - but fully present. A great scent for meditative and creative moments.

Firstly, I feel that some of the reviews here may be referring to the newer bottle, based on how people are describing the scent, and there is a listing for that. https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Guerlain/Apres-L-Ondee-Eau-de-Toilette-65155.html Since I managed to get a bottle of that, to compare with this older version, of which I'm down to the last third of the contents, I'll review both. I have the bottle pictured in the photo, and it came in the gold and black box. This is a gorgeous, subtle scent, on the opposite end of Insolence, but in a similar vein. Indolic purple flowers and jasmine, supported by powdery mimosa and heliotrope, a bit of bitterness from orris root and anise, sweetness from citrus and rose on a lovely balsamic musk base. This is a very well-balanced scent, with not one thing overpowering anything else. It's not a super potent scent, but it does last and linger on my skin for a long time. I find this one very comforting, and I wish I could afford to take the chance on one of the expensive offerings on eBay to get another bottle, but no one is selling the gold box version at this point, either.

Does anyone else get a pee smell from this?

Whilst this is quite inoffensive and versatile, it doesn’t inspire me as much as I had hoped. It is a sunken, melancholic fragrance but it lacks depth to me. I appreciate the purple floral accords and the aromatic anise note, but I also find the fragrance quite forgettable.

Apres l’Ondee is a gorgeous scent. It’s very reminiscent of L’Heure Bleue and Insolence, but the anise and subtle peppery spiciness of the scent sets it apart. I wish the anise hung around for longer though, because the burst of it at the beginning is really pleasant. Eventually it fades to the background to make way for the violet and iris notes. Unfortunately the projection lets this down a bit. L’Heure Bleue lasts forever on my skin, projects just the right amount, and is similar enough/slightly better than Apres l’Ondee that I don’t feel the need to pick up a bottle of this at the moment. However, I do appreciate their differences. This is the perfect rainy day fragrance.

I would be so grateful if someone would swap or sell me a decant or partial bottle of ALO. Please message me if you can: Edit: I finally got a full bottle- a 2003 bee bottle. Wow! Truly conjures up the image of flowers warming in the sun after a sudden rain fall. Remember playing outside during summer and a sudden sun shower would fall? Warm rain touching your face, the smell of flowers in the air, sun warming the leaves? The air was sweet and dewy. I smell a lot of Violet in the opening - it reminded me a lot of Insolence Edt but without the berry notes. The Violet quickly settles into almondy heliotrope and carnation. Vanilla, Iris and amber are what I perceive the most in the mid and dry down but this fragrance is really more about the mood it put me in rather than what I’m smelling note wise. I can smell a bit of L’heure Bleue (the powdery heliotrope) but the florals in this composition are dewy and in sunlight rather than powdery and in beautiful dusky twilight like LhB.

Smells like pee pee and powdery Iris. VERY VINTAGE smelling. It’s so old that it literally smells like something ancient from another time. I did not like the way it smelled. The pee pee note was too much for me and it just reminded me of the smell of a nursing home. I know that’s kinda rough but honestly, I love Guerlain but this one was not for me and I had high hopes. I also love violets and have about 10 Violet forward scents. Maybe my decant was bad. Anyone want to send me a 2mL decant who had a positive experience with Apree L’onde?

Very beautiful in a profoundly melancholic way. You would need to be in a fairly sombre mood to wear, a day when you feel happy being a little sad (rainy Day blues.) The iris and violet stand out to me and there is almost a creamy nuttiness to it, maybe almond milk? It also is reminiscent of the powdered fragrance of face powder compacts. If you want to wear a perfumed veil, this is the fragrance to use.

I am the proud owner of this stunning EDT bee bottle. Similar to the current formulation in the new bottle but a certain magic is missing from that one. With this one I close my eyes and I go back in time… I imagine this is something the aristocratic ladies wore at the Titanic ; why not? It was still around at this time. I think of Rose Dewitt Bukater’s character in the movie…that’s what her skin smelled like in that painting scene. Yes, it’s definitely a classic scent and it feels like it’s from a different era. It doesn’t necessarily smell “dated” or “stuffy” but it has a courtly, gracious, soulful character that is very hard to find in today’s scents. A lot of people compare this to L’Heure Bleue by Guerlain and I agree, but Apres L’Ondee has a delicate, dreamy character whereas L’Heure Blue is more hearty and melancholic as the name suggests. Blended to perfection with a not so good performance, but I’m okay with it, it lasts long enough for me to daydream for a few hours and get carried away…

Oh my. I was surprised when I first smelled it and wondered if I made a mistake to blind buy a whole big bottle second hand. It really is from a different space and time - definitely not from the winter of 2020s Finland. After couple of times testing and getting to know it we became friends, and I just want to know more, tell me! And she speaks, giving one verse at a time. It is very poetic, introverted and shy, but not subtile. I love love love love it and can't get enough. First time applying I made a mistake of spraying it in the air to do a walktrough - I didn't get much on me and the it lingered in the room for hours. My partner can't take strong smells and they said it's too strong and smelled like an incense store with all the incenses at the same time. I don't have a same impression thou I love that scent. :D Usually, when I wear perfume I try to apply just a tiny bit to my own happiness. Minis are good for that, and with spray bottles I have to carefully yank the sprayer to have a drip. Finland is full of scent sensitive people, including my whole family, so I try to not give people migraines by just existing in the same space. But this one, I don't think It's too strong when wearing and doesn't have anything headachey not to spray straight on the skin but also clothes, as it's longevity isn't the best. Apres L'ondee set a new standard in perfumes for me and also created a crave for more Vintage Guerlain!!!

A Masterpiece. An english country lane after rain. White hawthorn hedges...

Poetry of Guerlain is written in this beauty. Violet and anise, melancholy of transience and shy sweetness. It is femininity hidden under long dresses and corsets, lace gloves.. This is so evanescent in this postmodern world. It is delicate and silent. This one is straight on combination of L’heure bleue and insolence. You can sense mitsouko as well as vol de nuit. I own every one of them and appreciate them. They are like verses of the same song

Delicate violet and anise. I didn’t get a garden after the rain. It’s such a belle époque perfume. Big hats and bustles and lace and lace kerchiefs scented with your perfume to be given to your paramour. And for some reason, it’s so melancholy and sad. Like sitting behind a frost-covered window, looking out into a snowed-in twilight, dreaming of spring.

Apres l'Ondée is lovely and evanescent as the scent of rain on violets and irises. The heliotrope note is gorgeous, and the mildly aromatic anise accord is for me not a problem--it just signals vintage Guerlain to me, and what could be better than vintage Guerlain? The anise is more prominent here than it is in L'Heure Bleue, which it resembles (not sisters, but kissing cousins maybe). After some consideration, I still prefer L'Heure Bleue, which my skin seems to project and retain better. Malheureusement pour moi, Apres l'Ondée turns into a skin scent on me in no time flat. But it's so so so gorgeous while it lasts that I'm tempted to buy a bottle anyway and just spritz myself periodically as needed. Obviously, it's too expensive for that use. When my bottle of L'H B runs out, I might buy this one next, though. Despite its elusive unreliability, it has an indefinable charisma that's hard to forget.

Briefly citrusy, then strongly violet (like Choward's Violet Mints) for 5 minutes or so. Just when you think it's too much to smell like candy, things quiet down and you can start to pick up the iris and gentle base notes. This is euphorically floral and pretty, then gentle and sleepy - something I would have worn the heck out of as a teenager.

Quite a soft, make-up powdery violet-iris that never got off the ground, for me… For me, in a few words, this is mainstream designer iris – I’ve come across this many times already, and in a better way, and so I’m happy I don’t need to hunt this one out, either… Soft, delicate, dainty. Not at all my style. I once knew someone who was ONLY Bvlgari scents and this is what they all came across as – I know that is a little reductive and minimises it all, but this is not what I am looking for from iris scents. Don’t get me wrong, this kind of scent trope and aesthetic has a place and is totally valid, but I personally don’t want to smell like this. The dry down got all basey and resiney for me -- slight notes of Russian Oud and Ambre Loup -- minor, only, but they were stark in comparison to what this scent started off like...

Apres L'Ondee is a scent I feel as if I should love, but I only like it. It evokes a spring day after a rain, just as it says. It's classic and clean, sweet, with a touch of warmth. I like it a lot but rarely wear it. My younger self would have loved it. I would have annoyed people with how much they smelled it on and around me. Now, though, I want more spice and richness. I'd happily recommend it to friends who love similar scents; my own taste just changed.

This fragrance fits a rainy day with perfection. It is contemplative in a way that makes one want to dig in and take flight at the same time. I am utterly enamored.