Guerlain Perfumes: Apres L'Ondee c1906

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Apres L'Ondee c1906

Après L’Ondée (pronounced ah-pray lon-day, meaning “after the rainshower” in French) is one of Guerlain’s most poetic and emotionally resonant creations. Launched in 1906, its title alone captures a moment of delicate transition—the hush that follows rainfall, when the air is thick with the scent of damp earth, crushed leaves, and shy blossoms reopening to light. The name evokes an image of a soft Parisian spring morning: clouds parting, sunlight trembling through the mist, and the world glistening as if newly painted. It speaks not of passion or extravagance, but of renewal, reflection, and quiet joy.

At the time of its creation, Europe was in the last glow of the Belle Époque, a period of optimism, artistry, and refinement before the turmoil of the First World War. Paris was the center of elegance—its women adorned in long gowns, corsets giving way to softer silhouettes, and pastel colors replacing the dark formality of the previous century. Art Nouveau was at its peak, influencing everything from architecture to fashion and perfume design with its flowing, organic lines and motifs inspired by nature. Against this backdrop, Jacques Guerlain’s Après L’Ondée felt utterly modern yet deeply romantic—a fragrance that mirrored the artistry of the time, where beauty was found in subtleties and emotional nuance.

The word “Après L’Ondée” would have stirred immediate imagery for early 20th-century women—a scene of serenity and light after a storm, symbolic of nature’s gentle resilience. To wear such a perfume was to express softness and grace, to embody a kind of melancholic femininity that was tender rather than ostentatious. In scent, the name translates into a watercolor of florals and spice, delicate yet complex, shimmering between coolness and warmth. Jacques Guerlain described it as “a celebration of fine weather that follows the rain,” and indeed, it smells like hope reborn in air still touched by moisture.

Built around violet, iris, and vanilla, Après L’Ondée opens with the ethereal brightness of aniseed, a note that adds a faintly spicy, green sparkle—like sunlight glancing off wet grass. The heart is a tender bouquet of violet and iris, both powdery yet alive, evoking freshly opened blooms with a gentle dusting of rain. The violet, rich in ionones, gives the perfume its distinctive powdery and melancholy character—soft, wistful, and slightly candied, like the scent of pressed petals between pages. Iris, derived from the orris root, lends a buttery, cool elegance that anchors the fragility of the violet with quiet dignity. Beneath these blooms, vanilla and musk form a delicate warmth that feels like skin touched by lingering sunlight—never heavy, only embracing.

When Après L’Ondée debuted, it stood apart from many perfumes of its time. The early 1900s saw florals and aldehydic bouquets dominating the market, often bright and assertive. Guerlain’s creation, however, introduced a new kind of emotion in perfumery: one of mood and atmosphere rather than mere prettiness. It was introspective, painterly—a fragrance that conveyed the feeling of a moment rather than just the smell of flowers. In this sense, it foreshadowed the emotional storytelling that would define modern perfumery.

To the women of 1906, Après L’Ondée would have felt like poetry worn on the skin—a private reverie made visible through scent. It captured the fleeting beauty of nature and the fragility of time itself, much like a Claude Monet landscape or a line of Verlaine’s verse. Today, it remains one of the most emotionally charged perfumes ever composed, a fragile masterpiece in soft focus—a scent that smells not just of rain and flowers, but of memory, gentleness, and the light that follows sorrow.

Après L’Ondée was created by Jacques Guerlain based on the formula for Voilette de Madame. Voilette de Madame was created by Jacques Guerlain, originally as a wedding gift for his friends in 1901, serving as a counterpart to Mouchoir de Monsieur. It is classified as a powdery, musky floral fougère for women. The composition blends iris, ylang-ylang, narcissus, lilac, violet, civet, opoponax, vanilla, tonka bean, and sandalwood, with a drydown featuring the signature Guerlinade accord over an animalic base.

Fragrance Composition:

Original Fragrance Composition: So what does it smell like? Après L’Ondée is classified as a powdery floral fragrance for women with spicy and musk notes.

Top notes: anisic aldehyde, oleander, rosemary, mimosa, hawthorn, seringa, bergamot, lemon, neroli, lavender, wisteria, thyme, raspberry, cassia
Middle notes: carnation, heliotrope, peony, jasmine, lily, orchid, orange blossom, violet, De Laire's Bouvardia base (ionone, rose, jasmine, orange blossom), ylang ylang
Base notes: vetiver, sandalwood, ambergris, vanilla, benzoin, styrax, almond, laurel, orris and Tonkin musk

Scent Profile:

Smelling Après L’Ondée is like stepping into a misty spring garden at dawn — a world of trembling petals and glistening leaves still damp with rain. Created by Jacques Guerlain in 1906, it captures not only the scent of flowers after a gentle shower, but also the emotion of that fleeting, melancholic calm when the world exhales after the storm. The air is cool, tender, and luminous — the olfactory equivalent of a watercolor washed in pale lilac, silver, and faint gold.

The opening unfolds with an exquisite anisic aldehyde, the same molecule that lends anise and fennel their sweet, airy sharpness. It gives the fragrance its ethereal lift — a crisp, transparent shimmer that feels like the first inhalation of damp, rain-cooled air. This is followed by the delicate greenness of oleander and the aromatic breath of rosemary and thyme, whose terpenes (borneol and camphor) bring a resinous clarity, grounding the sweetness with a faintly medicinal herbaceousness. Bergamot and lemon, likely sourced from Calabria, add a golden, sparkling brightness — the citrus oil’s natural limonene and linalool molecules imparting a clean effervescence that dances across the skin like scattered sunlight on rain puddles. Neroli, distilled from Tunisian or Moroccan orange blossoms, brings a honeyed yet green floral note, while lavender softens the edges, adding a silken, aromatic calm through its linalyl acetate. The rare touch of mimosa and hawthorn adds a breath of pale yellow pollen, gently powdery and slightly almond-like due to heliotropin — a subtle foreshadowing of the fragrance’s heart.

As the top notes settle, the perfume opens into its emotional center — a dreamy, powdery floral heart that feels suspended between sunlight and shadow. Here, heliotrope dominates, creamy and tender, releasing vanillic almond nuances through its natural heliotropin content. Violet and orris (from the rhizomes of Florentine iris, aged for years before distillation) form the backbone of this softness — their ionones imparting a misty, powdery effect that evokes both lilac blooms and the softness of vintage face powder. This violet-orris duet was amplified by De Laire’s Bouvardia base, a turn-of-the-century perfumery accord that blended ionone with rose, jasmine, and orange blossom, lending radiance and subtle sensuality. The floral heart blooms further with peony, lily, and orchid, each adding watery and petal-like nuances — the peony’s airy freshness, the lily’s cool waxiness, and the orchid’s smooth, creamy sensuality.

Ylang-ylang from the Comoros Islands lends its golden, solar warmth — rich in benzyl acetate and p-cresyl methyl ether, which create its deep, slightly banana-like creaminess. The orange blossom intertwines with it, echoing neroli but sweeter, rounder, more enveloping. Jasmine, most likely from Grasse or Egypt, adds its indolic undertones — just enough to whisper life and human warmth into the bouquet. There is even a soft trace of carnation, bringing a faint clove-like spice through eugenol, reminding the wearer that beneath this serene watercolor lies the pulse of sensuality.

The base of Après L’Ondée is where the rain begins to evaporate into the air, leaving behind the warmth of sun on damp soil. Orris butter continues to diffuse its powdery, suede-like scent, while benzoin and styrax add a resinous, balsamic sweetness — their vanillin and cinnamic components harmonizing seamlessly with vanilla and tonka bean. Ambergris, in its natural form, lends a saline smoothness that softens every edge, while Tonkin musk adds a soft, skin-like warmth, blurring all transitions into a gentle haze. Vetiver and sandalwood from Mysore give the perfume its earthy spine: vetiver’s grassy, smoky facet (rich in vetiverol) grounds the composition, while sandalwood’s santalols add milky, velvety persistence. A faint trace of almond weaves through, enhancing the heliotrope and mimosa’s tenderness, while laurel and galbanum contribute a shadow of green bitterness, evoking the last glistening raindrops clinging to leaves.

To smell Après L’Ondée is to experience emotion distilled into scent — the bittersweet quiet after beauty, the fragile hope that follows sadness. Its ingredients work not as individual notes but as brushstrokes in a delicate impressionist painting — each molecule chosen to suggest atmosphere rather than statement. It remains one of Jacques Guerlain’s most poetic achievements: not simply a perfume, but a moment suspended between melancholy and sunlight, memory and renewal — the very air after the rain.

Combat, 1955:

"Apres l'Ondee by Guerlain: the basket of roses and wisteria on the balcony leans towards the finally quenched garden. Princely lilies, mock oranges, heliotropes and apoplectic peonies lost their breath under the tawny sun. The drops of rain freshened the sweet petals orange tree and those, vanilla, snowballs, smoothed the laurel which smells of almond and the taffeta of thyme. Mingled with their sighs of ease, for transparent blondes, the smell of lawns and wet raspberries."

Apres L'Ondee vintage version (1985-1989) is classified as an aldehydic floral fragrance for women. It begins with a fresh floral top, followed by an elegant floral heart, resting on a sweet powdery base. A fresh tender floral full of the charm of violet, iris and aniseed, that evokes a stroll "after the rainshower."

Top notes: violet, bergamot, neroli, cassie
Middle notes: carnation, ylang ylang, rose, jasmine, orris, mimosa, sandalwood, vetiver
Base notes: vanilla, benzoin, styrax, musk, ambergris, heliotrope

Bottles:

Originally presented in the Louis XVI flacon (parfum) and the Empire flacon (parfum), the quadrilobe flacon (parfum) starting in 1908, the Goutte flacon (eau de toilette) starting in 1923, the Montre flacon (eau de cologne) starting in 1936, and various spray flacons over the years.