Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Nerolia Vetiver Forte & Harvest Review – Delphine Jelk; 2023

Why stick with one Aqua Allegoria when you can have three? That certainly seems to be the thinking over at Guerlain at the moment, because they’ve just added two variants to last year’s Nerolia Vetiver: a Forte version and a so-called Harvest edition (a new concept designed to showcase exceptional crops of ingredients). I reviewed them both over on YouTube the other day. Here’s a link: Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Nerolia Vetiver Forte and Harvest reviews.

The basic accord at the heart of Nerolia Vetiver is pretty strong – a metallic citrus-floral that overplays neither the sweetness of the neroli nor the earthiness of the vetiver, creating a bracing, razor-edged freshness – which is probably why it stands up well to tweaking. In the Forte version, it’s rendered markedly sweeter (thanks to a heavier orange blossom?) which perhaps causes it to lose some of its edge, although it remains uplifting and distinctive. But it comes into its own in Harvest. Making use of a dusty honey note – waxy, powdery, almost mystically ancient-smelling – Jelk has taken the relative innocence of her central idea and coaxed it into the realms of something far more complex. By the time it reaches its drydown, it is perhaps near-identical to the original eau de toilette. But before it gets to that point, it serves as a reminder that although nature and bees and all things Timotei are often presented in marketing-land as soft and innocuous, they possess a subtle force that is not to be trifled with. I hope Guerlain are persuaded to turn this limited edition into a release that sticks around for a while.

Persolaise

[Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Nerolia Vetiver Forte and Harvest reviews based on samples provided by the brand in 2023.]

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