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pancon – :
This was also reformulated into an EDT relaunched as Vol de Nuit Evasion and sold mainly at duty free shops in airports. I was lucky enough to get one in error upon ordering Vol de Nuit. It is a creamier floral Mitsouko, I have to agree with those reviewers who pointed that out.
Beautiful.
odz066speagoessenda – :
In 1999 happened, what in 1992 happened with Madonnas book ‘Sex’, then I walked without plan or even aim, inside a bookstore and after half an hour thought: “ah yes”….So I asked the salesperson “do you have the book ‘Sex’ by Madonna?”. “Yes here it is for [say $50 in the Netherlands then]”. So I bought it almost subconsciously and only later I learned this had been a “hit of coincidence”. Now the same happened in 1999 with “Guet Apens”. there was a beauty salon where they also exclusively sold Guerlain. Already I was deep into the perfumes. Gazing around my eyes were suddenly drawn to the ‘flacon bleue du lanterne’. This intense blue and that form of the flacon worked mesmerizing. I already had payed exorbitant prizes for cosmetics: the first jar of 50ml of ‘La Prairie. Crème Caviar Luxe pour le visage’ for, let us say, but it were, 520 guilders and after 2000 still once more when it ironically costed € 520. The perfume then and there of Guet Apens was so unforgettably divine that I had to have it. Perhaps it was somewhere near 400 guilders? With such buys afterwards you stand on the street thinking “Uh oh, how am I going to eat this month?”. But this to me deeply flowery elixir proved irresistable. To me there are three Guerlains above all else: Nahéma, Mahora and Guet Apins. Of course we have Shalimar, Mitsouko, l’Heure Bleue. Vol de Nuit and l’Instant. But Guet Apins is in a league of its own. It is a so magnificently blended perfume conveying ultrafemininity, sophistication, an ambery chic. This morning I made a little research with the here offered links as to the notes of the perfume and I came finally to these: rose,violet,iris,orris,vanilla,sandelwood,jasmine,tuberose,peach,amber,musk, oakmoss,cinnamon. Also the term “Rose Flambée’ came to the fore and yes do we not have here a certain confiture of rose set briefly afire? Also the tuberose, iris, violet, sandelwood, peach are clearly discernable. It is a magnificent perfume as I have the ‘blue lantern’ still next to her sisters half-full. And then to have bought this so offhandedly, so informal. This is happiness truly. Furthermore, and there is something mysterious attached to this, I found the strangest of ‘quoted’ word placed in the declarative ‘placate’ colluded to the dessous of this exquisite flacon and I wonder if Mathilde Laurent is Belgian or has in anywhichway access to the Dutch ! language. It is a bizarre word in any case. On the explicative sticker we find the word ‘droif’ which to me as a Dutch person has, or seems to have, connotations with the Dutch word for ‘grape’ ‘druif’ if it then is dadaistically misspelled. However this may seem to be farfetching there is no easy way to interpret the evidence of that word there. But isn’t this not also what we’re equally smelling? the perfume of a stately and beautifully aged wine, perhaps an Alsace, and with the development of what we see often (not so often) of an haute rose dissecting in deep and narcotic winey accords……
Tausnourabawnas – :
Finally I had the occasion to test this fragrance.
I do not remember if I did when it came out but I forgotten that in any case.
Anyway this is a very feminine fragrance, sensual as well.
If we begin from the end, the drydown, in a rewind way, I sense an animal trace, like the one you can find in Musc Ravageur or Meharees. Maybe is opoponax or something really pseudo-animal. Is a creamy mossy spicy sandal vanillic base. On this base we found an huge dose of peach/apricot, or fruity notes, which after some minutes gives an sensation almost like lipstick. Cause of the base this fruity notes are never sunny or fresh. Very womanly.
Who wear this perfume can be described as “a woman who is about to sin” like Winona Ryder describes Cher in the movie Mermaids. But in a smiley way, without be aggressive or tigress.
Remember me also Mira-Bai. It is in some way a sort of blend between Musc Ravageur and Mira-Bai.
al_lind – :
Guerlain Guet Apens Limited Edition, is very rare. The bottle alone is beautiful. I just found one, Brand New, unopened, kept in a cool place with no sunlight. The packaging is beautiful as well. To nice to use it.
psv-003 – :
I have Guet Apens and just acquired Attrape Coeur and they are the same. I also have a decant of Royal Extrait. Again, the same.
Why is Attrape Coeur not in the database?
zzzzjzzzz – :
This was a blind buy from a reseller, but with all the panegyrics over the years, I thought it was worth the risk.
Guet-Apens EdP is a magnificent fragrance, rich and soft and deep. It is amber-y without being overwhelmed by the amber; this is a full orchestra with amber strings, but no solos. If it were a woman, it would be one of those marvellous brunette French actresses with endlessly fascinating faces– Anouk Aimee or Fanny Ardant. Composed, intelligent, but with a sense of joy and humour that could burst out at any moment.
It is also famously hard to get, and expensive when you do find it. However, those of you longing hopelessly for Guet-Apens (or the same frag with any other name) may take comfort. The sillage/projection is far too soft, at least on me. I have never worn a scent that settled so close to the skin so soon. Within half an hour, you need nose to wrist (or arm or forehead) to be properly aware of it. This has been confirmed by friends whom I longed to share this glorious smell. And, dammit, I wanted the immediate world around me to lift its head and sniff in wonder.
I also agree with those who would classify it more as an oriental, and less of a fruity chypre. But then, I am an untrained nose.
If Guet-Apens (or Attrape-Coeur or Royal Extract or whatever it might be called now) were more readily available, and were a little less shy about announcing its presence, it would be one of my top five scents in all the world. But for the time being, I will wear lots of it at a time every once in a while, and feel like a kitten kneading its paws in pleasure.
leomesi – :
I have had this beautiful fragrance and I have worn it in special occassions. In the beginning it’s strong and bold, almost harsh, but after a while it’s like skin, like sweet, floral skin and not heavy at all. Mitsouko is very far of this, Mitsouko is more latent, more downsifted. Both are very nice but in a very different way. Guet-Apens’s bottle is so nice to open, sniff and you are in fragrances’s heaven!
k.a.r.i.n.k.a – :
Great. I’ve worn Femme Rochas for years and this is in that family. Sometimes I wear Creed Vintage Tab and this may be the whiff between the two.
KJLIM – :
I am fortunate enough to have the limited release called Royal Extract from harrods. believe it is the same perfume. It is beautiful. purchased in the summer 2014. On me it wears close to the skin but has reasonable longevity. I love Guerlain chypre fatal and rose nacre du desert. this is like the sweet dry down of these perfumes. beautifully blended sophisticated amber vanilla peach and oh so much more…balanced intoxicating. It conjures up a romantic Edwardian champagne party in the countryside by a river on a warm summers afternoon captured in a Monet painting
NIKITA FEDCHENKO – :
Given what I have read on other blogging sites (basenotes) and judging from the ingredients list, you can still get this wonderful concotion under yet another new name, called ROYAL EXTRACT, currently sold as a store exclusive limited edition in London’s most famous department store (hunting green with golden letters).
It is a fabulous fruity chypre with a boozy vanillic dry-down. The peachy ‘compote’ gourmand note is not cloyingly sweet, but golden and ambery, and the fir balsam, together with the other florals gives this an indulgent, rich, dense and fabulous aromatic explosion.
If you love CHANEL’s “Bois des Iles”, BOND No.9 “West Side”, Roja Dove’s “Outspoken”, you will find this sits well in there amongst all of them as a fruity chypre.
Another peculiar aspect I would like to mention, and perhaps the reason I love this so much, is the warm pleasant plastic note, that is so glamorously captured here. To me it smells of warm shrink wrap plastic film from a brand new fresh off the press vinyl record. A scent that I truly miss, since there are hardly any brand new vinyls left in this world and the sensation of opening one, is just second to none.
Collector’s value 10/10. Individuality 10/10. Exclusivity 10/10. Longevity 8.5/10 Overall Scent 9.5/10 NEAR MASTERPIECE!!
обычный2511 – :
I got this several years ago, after it was renamed Attrape Coeur and changed to a bee bottle. I should have gotten two. How good is it? Well, my BIL criticizes just about everything I wear. Well, he gave me a compliment on this one. It personifies richness and elegance. It’s so well blended that I don’t detect any particular notes. Heady, sophisticated stuff. And, of course, I was stopped in my tracks by a stranger who had to know what it was. I gave this requestor the “rare, exquisite, discontinued, and expensive” spiel. Believe me, it’s all of that.
empociami – :
Not sure if it makes any sense to write a review of a discontinued, hard to find (and ridiculously expensive if you can find it) perfume, but maybe Guerlain execs will come back to their senses, find a way to replace those ifra-banned ingredients and bring this beauty back to market.
This is easily the best of modern Guerlains…or actually the best Guerlain I have ever tried. Gorgeous ambery heliotrope-violet sweetness that is instantly recognizable as a descendant of the Guerlain classics. It shares some similarities with l’Heure Bleue, Vol de Nuit and Apres Ondee, yet it is unique and sadly, none of the other Guerlains can ever fill the gap in my heart.
I was a bit disappointed by the longevity (6h in total, but the beautiful opening blast toned down much faster). Nevertheless, it is one of my all-time favourites and I dearly hope it would be re-issued. Until that, I’ll be sniffing the gorgeous wafts from my empty bottle:(
If you can get a full authentic bottle, go for it. Not worth testing a sample because you’ll very likely fall in love.
Adamenco – :
Oh I was stunned and wouldn’t know how to react because the moment i applied a spray at my back hand while i was walking, it was a fireball that heated up in a cold evening. It hits me so hard, beautifully done, super classic heavy mix of finest flowers with oakmoss and some fruit notes. I do not detect a specific flower dominating this edt of the classic but I can smell jasmine, rose and tuberose, perfectly balanced together yet heavy for the first minutes. This is only for mature women who possess a strong character. 3 sprays would definitely annoy those around you because this is amazingly too potent to trigger happy. To a wrong skin, it might be sour, to my skin, it made me miss my mom… This is the 60’s and 70’s alluring woman should smell on the first hour but after that, the 30’s up modern woman would make heads turn due to its captivating aromatic, balmy, heart to dry down. A cold evening walk to a beautiful labyrinth filled with smelly flowers, woods, moss and be ready to go deeper, sniffing your path to no return. 🙂
Igor Zhirnov – :
I don’t feel a connection between Guet Apens and Mitsouko, either as a vintage fragrance. I find Guet Apens to be original and well made. Its cloying, sweet/ambery, and smoky/vanillic, with a beautiful violet note. Please! Go easy with this one, My only complaint is that I find this very strong. Complex scent so take your time to explore Guet Apens.
kell – :
No words can adequately describe Guet-Apen. I have Mitsouko extrait and edt, vintage yada yada…..not even close! Like I said Attrape Coeur was the later version but one in the same……sort of…..there still is a little difference but I would NOT turn down Attrape-Coeur.
Корнишин – :
I am completely baffled by this scent. When I first put it on there was a blast of something, not sure, not unpleasant, but very different. And then it very quickly faded away to something soft and sweetish, maybe musky? I have no idea. Definitely have to try again and see.
Dronchik-Andrey – :
I will always be searching for Guet-Apens!! Attrape-Coeur has a plastic note in it but it’s the next best thing!!
dron1984 – :
The liquid in my sample vial (whose provenance was ultimately a decanter, by way of a fellow fragrance traveler) of Guerlain ATTRAPE COEUR smells suspiciously familiar to the dregs in the bottom of my now nearly empty bottle of YSL YVRESSE, which is so old that it actually bears the original name of that perfume, CHAMPAGNE.
Thick, somewhat gunky stewed peaches and parched vetiver? Hmmm… this seems very similar to the result which I might expect to derive from attempting a reduction of MITSOUKO over the stove. The flowers are really all stuck together in an amorphous blob in this composition. Eventually the drydown smells more like MITSOUKO than YVRESSE, but I never detect a single isolable flower petal anywhere: rose, violet, and iris are nowhere here to be sniffed. I do believe that my sample may simply be old.
I never had a chance to try the 1999 launch of “this” perfume, GUET-APENS, but I am curious as to why it should have been totally renamed if in fact there was no significant reformulation for the 2005 launch of ATTRAPE COEUR. I also wonder why two extra perfumers should be given credit for a perfume originally composed by Mathilde Laurent, if in fact the two creations are really one and the same.
Dzeigova06 – :
Guet-Apen IS Attrape Coeur! My friend worked for Guerlain and they just remarketed it and changed the name.
This is probably my favorite perfume! I adore it. I do NOT get Mitsouko from this and I have the vintage Mitsouko and the parfum.
Anyway………truly wonderful………..I think of this much more of an oriental also.
LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!! I save it for special!! I’d hate to think I’d run out! It’s expensive……BUT
FreertRapsese – :
As with many of my perfumes, I ordered this untried, and after decanting to a spray bottle and spraying on my wrist I gasped and said aloud, “Oh no, that was a waste of money!” The tuberose hit me in the face like a ton of bricks and I’m not a huge tuberose fan, but I am an experienced perfume fan and decided to give it some time and airing out before starting to scrub.
I am soooo glad I did. It immediately bagan calming on my skin. the tuberose subsided and the jasmine (one of my fave florals) and violet rose to the surface and I began to relax. I never got much rose, but that’s alright. The peach wasn’t that much present for me either, but when the drydown began in earnest I was in heaven. It was that vanilla, ambery, slightly musk Guerlain base I have come to call home with just the right amount of the floral balance hanging in to soften it and give it lightness and it’s own character.
I don’t see the resemblance to Mitsouko in Guet Apens. Mitsouko has a harshness on me that never goes away and is one of the only Guerlains I don’t like. Guet Apens is what I wanted Mitsoukp to be. A sweet, yet soft oriental with great staying power and decent sillage.
Ordelttit – :
When I sampled this a year ago I was looking for a reason not to buy another Guerlain, but wanted to circle back to it now.
Guet Apens is a purple fragrance with a lot of ‘glass’. Upon the opening I want to compare it to Apres L’ondee, but this is not a wet, springtime fragrance. It is a windy, late fall fragrance; something you would wear as you walked through the open prairie as the first brisk breezes of winter were whistling down your neck.
The mood of this fragrance is introspective to me; something I would wear if I needed to be alone and contemplate something. A solitary wind-swept note.
This time of year I place it ahead of L’heure Bleue, and behind Apres L’ondee. I wouldn’t compare it to Mitsouko at all, as it is a dry, floral oriental and not a fat, luscious chypre.
Certainly one of the better fragrances to ever come from Guerlain.
Vatspotahom – :
That’s true, Guet-Apens has something very similar to Mitsouko. It is old-fashioned in some way like tessture said but that’s why I love it so much!
Mitsouko is somehow sharp and quite heavy, “dusty” fragrance compared to Guet-Apens. Guet-Apens is softer, fruitier and really creamy.
It makes me feel as if I was walking alone down the dusty countryside road on a very hot summer day, dust tickles my nose, the air is hot and dry but at the same time wind brings the smell of juicy ripe peaches from the garden which I cannot see. I love how Guet-Apens makes me feel! It is lovable, romantic fragrance with the edge to it.
Guet-Apens has the classic Guerlain base and a lovely sillage. Simply adorable!
Dzhurilo – :
Not as different as Mitsouko, nor as interesting, even though Mitsouko doesn’t quite work on me. Sadly, Guet Apens/Attrape Coer is basically a boring, old fashioned heavy floral on my skin. I wish it was more like what Mals86 has reviewed.
l1ance – :
Guet-Apens was renamed and rereleased (without obvious reformulation) in 2003 as Attrape-Coeur.
Notes include:
Top: Rose, jasmine, tuberose, violet
Heart: peach
Base: amber, musk, vanilla
Someone has described Attrape-Coeur (to give it its current name) as a “creamy Mitsouko.” I’m not sure that’s very clear, but it is certainly related to Mitsouko, with its peachy heart. I cannot wear Mitsouko; it smells of waxed floors and bitter herbs on me. I prefer this one, with its lovely violet and rich, textured rose. The ambery vanilla drydown is rich as brandy. A real asset in the Guerlain line, and a must-try if you like the classic Guerlains. Gorgeous.
I do not understand the chypre designation. This one is, to my nose, heavily ambery and more oriental than chypre.