Après l’Ondée – delicate and romantic and feminine

Photo: perfumeniche

The first time I stepped into the Guerlain flagship shop at 68 Champs-Elysées I was a teenager, and truthfully, I don’t really remember it. Since then, I’ve visited that store countless times and grown to appreciate it.

No other Guerlain store has the history, ambiance or status of No. 68 Champs-Elysées. Of course, the boutique has been revamped many times since it opened in 1914. My favourite iteration was the one by renowned interior designer Andrée Putman, in collaboration with architect Maxime d'Angeac in 2005. They designed a space inspired by “a journey to the centre of the fragrance”. I loved how the small store opened up as you walked up a set of stairs where each step was decorated with one more gold tile than the previous one, leading to the Ruban d’Or (“golden ribbon” in English), the gleaming, curving, undulating hallway lined with gold mosaic tiles. I still remember the gold-chain chandelier that hung like a suspended drop of perfume between the mezzanine and ground floor. I remember my first time visiting this new reno. It was the day I bought Après l’Ondée.

Après l'Ondée translates to “after the spring showers” and was created by Jacques Guerlain in 1906. It was inspired by the moment the rain stops after a spring shower — that moment when the sound of the rain wanes, the sky clears, and a soft warm light breaks through the wet leaves and branches of trees and shrubs. The earth smells warm and damp. Wet leaves, grass, and flowers are revived, their tender fragrance captured in this bottle.

Après l'Ondée opens with a note of sunny lemon, bright bergamot, and fresh, sparkling neroli. The citrus notes are cradled by a sweet, floral note of licorice-tinged aniseed. The aniseed is a unifier that enhances the elegance of bergamot and the green facet of the neroli, that gives Après l'Ondée a haunting, tender start that opens up to a bouquet of lovely flowers: delicate, sweet orange blossom, soft, powdery violet and rosy, spicy carnation. The carnation has a heliotropin facet that’s powdery with a whisper of almond. A note of powdery, almondy mimosa bolsters the heliotropin as honey-sweet hawthorn anchors the flowers with a hint of its dirty animalic aspect. It all sits on a base of sensuous vanilla, benzoin that smells of vanilla, almond, and licorice, iris root that smells of violet with hints of herbs and licorice. Heliotrope is smooth, sweet, with a touch of vanilla. It’s joined by woody, creamy sandalwood which reinforces the powdery notes.

Après l'Ondée dries down to a delicate, romantic, feminine fragrance that is the essence of a walk in a garden after a spring shower. The secret to its beauty is that no one note dominates. This is an ensemble cast where facets and aspects of notes bolster, echo, and mirror each other to create a subtle, tender olfactory experience that lasts throughout the development of the entire fragrance.

In his book ‘Perfumes - The Guide’, Luca Turin says that Après l'Ondée is - "one of the twenty greatest perfumes of all time".

He’s not wrong.

Check out Après l’Ondée in our Shop.