Guerlain – Herba Fresca : Morning freshness

Herba Fresca is a perfume from the Aqua Allegoria collection by Guerlain, a prominent, rich, sophisticated, and nearly two centuries old French brand. The entire Aqua Allegoria line is based on simple yet stunning scent combinations that mix the freshness of eau de cologne with the strength of Guerlain perfumes. Herba Fresca is no exception because the perfumer’s intention this time was to produce a feeling of refined freshness, similar to a barefoot walk in the grass in the early morning hours.

Herba Fresca belongs to the original collection, which debuted in 1999 when Guerlain’s master perfumer was none other than the legendary Jean-Paul Guerlain, and his assistant was one of today’s most talented noses, the genius Mathilde Laurent, now in-house perfumer at Cartier. Unbelievably lucky for the Cartier brand, but indescribably unfortunate for all other brands and all of us, scent enthusiasts, who would love to see Mathilde in other capacities and directions.

Herba Fresca perfume has an aromatic green perfume composition, which means it is dominated by herbal, fresh notes like mint and green tea. I’d venture to say that this is the most authentic mint scent I’ve encountered in a perfume. Although there is always the risk that a perfume with a predominant mint note could give the sensation of toothpaste, the perfume’s creators, Jean-Paul Guerlain and Mathilde Laurent overcame this by using a special type of mint – shiso lat. Perilla frutescens. This mint is native to Southeast Asia and is mainly grown in China, India, and Korea, where it is consumed in combination with rice and is believed to significantly boost longevity.

The uniqueness of Herba Fresca perfume is reflected in the distinctive interpretation of the lemon note, which, unlike the vast majority of perfumes on the market, is not at all harsh. Mathilde Laurent’s magical touch seems to extract the best from fragrant notes as if creating platonic ideal forms. In the case of Pamplelune, she created the most perfect, tastiest, juiciest grapefruit that exists on the perfume scene. This time she did it with a fragrant note of lemon. When you have a chance, be sure to try these two perfumes from the Guerlain Aqua Allegoria collection and enjoy the best that natural perfumery has to offer. We can only hope that Cartier will loosen its grip a little, and Mathilde will give us many more beautiful perfumes in the future.

The creators of the perfume are Jean-Paul Guerlain and Mathilde Laurent.