The perfume flacon featuring a biscuit porcelain adornment made by artist Céline Cléron is one-of-a kind. Launching this May, it retails at €60,000 and contains Guerlain’s first “upcycled” fragrance.
Guerlain’s bee bottle produced by glassmaker Pochet du Courval is celebrating its 170th birthday this year. For a special anniversary edition, French multi-disciplinary visual artist Céline Cléron came up with a “garden of flowers and insects” in biscuit porcelain and 24-carat-gold that is designed to “emanate from the perfume itself.”
Flowers are made using the “pastillage” technique, where each petal is shaped by hand then assembled. The biscuit porcelain is hand gilded, while 24-carat gold is used for the stems and the ring around the neck of the flacon.
The flacon contains what Guerlain says is a first in the maison’s history: a 100% “upcycled” fragrance. Dubbed Bee Garden, the floral, fruity EdP blends notes of rhubarb, bergamot, jasmine sambac and black tea.
For the upcycled juice, the brand worked with circular economy start-up OASHE, which won the Sustainable Beauty Challenge in 2019 sponsored by Cosmetic Valley and LVMH Recherche. OASHE was recognized for its proposal to bring new life to obsolete Guerlain perfumes, using up dormant inventory to create new short series products.
The fragrances are first sorted before being unpacked and removed from their containers. Guerlain perfumer Thierry Wasser used each fragrance in its entirety rather than isolating particular molecules. "Assembling different fragrances to create another fragrance, reinventing an olfactory story for a new and explosive composition is a brand new and inspiring exercise for those who value sustainable approaches," Wasser says.
Guerlain’s one of a kind Bee Garden retails at €60,000. The one-liter bottle nestles in a bespoke wooden coffret adorned with gold details. The box also contains three, 100ml flacons.
BottlePochet du Courval
AdornmentCéline Cléron
PerfumerThierry Wasser
