Guerlain Les Voyages Olfactifs 04 London: Of Green Grass & Boiled Sweets (2011) {New Fragrance}
Guerlain have added a fourth chapter to their Les Voyages Olfactifs collection with 04 London. Originally, the scents included Paris in all of their titles, but the Paris-centric names have been discarded. After 01 Moscou, 02 New York, and 03 Tokyo, it is the capital city across the channel which is the inspiration for the new composition by in-house perfumer Thierry Wasser...
A timely choice it is as well since London will be hosting the Olympic Games in 2012. The bottles have been redesigned to make them look more emblematic of the cities they represent, with cityscapes of each drawn on the face of the bottle.
Continuing the gourmand-touch tradition of the collection and many Guerlains today, one of the notes of the new composition is boiled sweets. Another atmospheric note is grass - no doubt, mown grass, to reflect the love of the British for their gardens and parks. That was also seen as an iconic nuance in the nation-inspired fragrance called England By George!, which was even completed by the scent of lawnmower exhaust fumes. 04 London also puts the accent on tart, fresh accents with further notes of grapefruit, bergamot, rhubarb, a duo of roses resting on rose essential oil and rose absolute, and violets.
Notes: bergamot, grapefruit, rhubarb, rose essential oil, rose absolute, violets, boiled sweets.
Via Tsum
It sounds very appropriate for London and for a grandchild's memory of a very particular type of elderly British lady who wears face powder or Devon Violets perfume (often the first gift a child buys for Grandma). As a nation of gardeners, I'd guess roses are still high on the 'must grow' list for many Brits. And rhubarb is utterly British. We love a rhubarb crumble with custard!
Boiled sweets are a big part of a British childhood - usually thanks to the British old lady's habit of keeping a few in her handbag or coat pocket as treats for grandchildren. (Or treats for Grandma - boiled sweets are a sneaky sort of treat - virtually silent and eminently edible in church or on the bus.)(Though my Nana would have told me it's not ladylike to eat in public.)
I'd say that from the notes listing M Wasser has constructed a scent image of a more up-to-date version of Miss Marple.