Les Quatre Saisons - Quant Vient L`Ete by Guerlain

eskarina62

Joining the few connoisseurs with a comment on this exquisitely feminine smell - a definitely guerlainean one at that.
Pleasure to comment on a smell collecting all the summer in it- there is a spelling mistake in the title correcting it as I look at it - quanD - when is summer gone (or goes away)...
to my nose it opens with a rich bouquet of many flowers with the carnation in the lead...it lingers on all through - in a very subtle, summary way, leaving a subtle trace of vanilla and probably caramel...
lovely smell for the winter, autumn and spring...

sky76sky

To add: there is a faint metallic tang to this perfume, that is suprisingly pleasant. For me it fuses the old baked earth & the modern metallic world. I'm enjoying it more & more!

sky76sky

Weegee, my Terracotta smells very much like how I would expect the notes of this "new" fragrance to smell.

It is a light fragrance, with a mid-weight warmth & low, caramel sweetness in its heart.

The overall impression I find is of warmth & dryness, the colour of the juice is perfectly matched. Sunbaked terracotta pots in a parched garden where you catch a warm waft of fragrant flowers.

I never thought I liked carnations in fragrances until I realised that I disliked them in high, sweet "white" florals. Amid the vanilla they do not shout & instead produce a beautiful spiciness - I am a convert!

The lemon & mint are artfully introduced (nothing in your face, very mellow) & then I smell a real lily (it has the green sap, too). There is a honeyed floral background & then the carnations step forward. The dry down keeps the gentle spice, a touch of powder & lots of vanilla.

Definitely not a fragrance I would have expected myself to love, but it is such a soft, laid-back affair & manages to ride out the heat without resorting to lemon, water or fizz that I am under her spell. Sadly it is a short spell as the lasting power is a little poor.

I will now have to track down the "new" version to see how similar they are.

weegee

An Australian blog said this scent was formerly known as Terracotta Voile d'Ete and said it was a "scent from the past" that's been reissued as Quant Vient L`Ete. An older bottle is on its way to me - will post review next week!

Update: Sky's written a masterful review and I second her opinion of this luscious, carnation & caramel delight. I have both the dry oil and the edt and find that layering them gives this fragrance a generous 6-8 hour scent-window.

The carnation is immediate and carries through the dry down. Caramel emerges about 1/2 hour in and remains as well. I can't catch any mint whatsoever - it, like all of the other notes, seems to blend with & enrich the overall carnation. If you dislike carnation you should avoid this entirely, but if you love carnation Terracotta is a dream come alive!