The 130 year anniversary Jicky bottle. Courtesy of Guerlain
The perfume industry back in 1828 was very different to that of today’s. This was when Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain opened the first Guerlain shop on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. Selling vinegar, scented soaps and cosmetics, he was famed for his creations for high society Parisians. A flagship store on Rue de la Paix followed before his work caught the eye of French Emperor Napoleon III and his wife. The fragrance he created for them, Guerlain Cologne, is still around today. As are the houses other iconic fragrances. Jicky is one such fragrance, celebrating its 130-year anniversary this year. Created by Pierre-François’s son Aimé Guerlain it revolutionized the industry in 1889.
Courtesy of Guerlain
New synthetic ingredients were becoming more commonplace. Enhancing naturals, these new molecules not only helped them to last longer on the skin but allowed perfumers to use notes previously too difficult to extract. Coumarin was used alongside tonka bean adding a mild note of bitter almond, whilst vanillin reproduced the scent of vanilla. Both key in the creation of Jicky, Aimé Guerlain looked to the Fougères family of fragrances originally characterized by lavender over a geranium heart combined with a coumarin and oakmoss base. The result? A masculine-feminine scent.
Senegal-born artist Baye Gallo remastering the Jicky bottle. Courtesy of Guerlain
Jane Birkin, Jackie Kennedy, Joan Collins and Karl Lagerfeld were all fans. To this day it still remains a favorite. An icon in the fragrance world. For its anniversary Guerlain have redesigned the bottle. Based upon Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba from Senegal, he was famed for being a poet and Sufi theologian. Peacefully opposing the colonization of his country, he is still loved by his people who in honor of his memory lay Jicky perfume in his tomb at the same time every year. Senegal-born artist Baye Gallo was chosen to commemorate Jicky and Bamba. The result? A hand-painted sculpted edition it blends together vibrant colors and figurative art with abstraction.
