The fragrance house Le Galion was already temporarily represented in the Aus Liebe zum Duft range a few years ago and is now once again part of our portfolio. Fortunately, it has to be said, because the brand is one of the classics in the perfume industry and can look back on almost a hundred years of history. Le Galion shares the fate of several other old fragrance houses that were quite successful and productive in creating perfumes for a while, but then – for a variety of reasons – unfortunately fell into oblivion, only to be revived years and decades later by passionate fragrance lovers and connoisseurs of the business.
A retrospective – Le Galion
The fragrance house was founded in 1930 by Prince Murat, who came from the Bonaparte dynasty and thus belonged to a highly respected family with an aristocratic background. I assume that the prince mentioned is Joachim Napoléon Michel Murat, the 6th Prince Murat, who lived from 1885 to 1938.
All the previous five princes, as well as the subsequent Princes Murat, were and are all called Joachim, which I find quite exciting. The very first Prince Murat – also a Joachim, of course – was the brother-in-law of Napoléon Bonaparte and reigned as King of Naples at the beginning of the 19th century.
But back to Le Galion! Prince Murat took his inspiration for the name from the large merchant ships, the galleons, which were used to transport raw materials and goods from all over the world to France. The logo also features the silhouette of one of these galleons. After just five years, the prince sold his fragrance house to the then already respected and successful perfumer Paul Vacher, who had previously worked for Guerlain and Lanvin.
This was the brand’s breakthrough. Vacher created numerous fragrances for Le Galion, which were very well received. Celebrities, stars and starlets wore its fragrances, helping the label to achieve worldwide fame that lasted for decades. After Vacher’s death in the mid-1970s, the fragrance house was sold in the early 1980s, which was the beginning of the end. Le Galion soon disappeared from the international perfume scene and fell into oblivion.
In 2014, Nicolas Chabot, who we know from Aether and Headspace among others, breathed new life into the brand. In collaboration with renowned perfumers such as Thomas Fontaine and Rodrigo Flores-Roux, he revised and reformulated the old formulas and carefully and prudently adapted them to modern specifications and contemporary tastes without changing the classic character of the fragrances too much.
We currently have seven of the creations in our range and I would like to introduce them all to you one by one. I will start with the classic Sortilège, which was relaunched in 2014 and is based on a recipe dating back to 1936.
Sortilège – Fragrant magic
Perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux was responsible for the revision of Sortilège, rejuvenating the original 1936 formula and adapting it to modern standards. The original character was to be retained as much as possible, but at the same time a fragrance was to be created that is also wearable today, which may have a nostalgic touch, but does not appear old-fashioned.
The ingredients of the 2014 version of Sortilège, which incidentally means “magic”, are lily of the valley, lilac, ylang-ylang, aldehydes, jasmine, mimosa, narcissus, rose, iris, sandalwood, vetiver, labdanum (cistus), ambergris and musk. The original from the 1930s also features other flowers and fruits as well as animalic components that are likely to lend the fragrance strength, depth and opulence, which is no longer really in vogue today.
Right from the start, Sortilège is a lush and fluffy-soft aldehyde dream, combining delicate floral and lucid nuances with a fascinating and opulent crystalline powderiness. This high level of aldehydes, which can hardly be denied in the eau de parfum, lends the creation a romantic, nostalgic character, a vintage flair that never seems old-fashioned or antiquated, but is always modern and contemporary thanks to the accompanying spring-like flowers, warming sandalwood and the subtle smoky sweetness of cistus. Sortilège is always elegant, classic and wonderfully cosy. A creation for fans of aldehyde fragrances, compositions with a vintage character that combine nostalgic and modern components. A wonderful prelude to this very special collection and an eau de parfum that friends of time-honored fragrance houses should definitely put on their to-try list.
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