180 Ans de Création 
Guerlain (2008)
LIMITED EDITION

This one is very nice to experience, particularly if you already enjoy the L'Art et la Matiere line. However, it's more of a collector's item than anything, since you can get much the same effect from Tonka Imperiale in my opinion.

Nice and pretty. 180 Ans starts off fuzzy, warm, and sweet, like a vanilla perfume mixed with almond and tonka, with a pinch of benzoin and sandalwood to give an amber impression as well, while judicious pink pepper makes everything fuzzy and comforting and touches of beeswax and clove makes it all smell a bit like a candle.

The feeling is somewhere between vanilla pudding, a Yankee Candle store, salty Play-Doh, and a warm cashmere blanket, but there are flowers hiding underneath as well.

Given time, after the beeswax mercifully burns off, I'm left with rich benzoin amber surrounded by fruits and flowers, cinnamon spiced and floating on musk. Hours later, the lasting base is spiced vanilla, calling to mind Shalimar's legendary drydown.

It's interesting - this is as close as you can get to being a gourmand without really being a gourmand. It's sweet, but not edible. It's also floral, but doesn't smell like a traditional floral perfume. I like it, but my complaint is that the wax note combined with the wide range of disparate ingredients makes it kind of smell like the jumbled smell of a candle store until it rights itself a couple of hours in.

Is this worth thousands of dollars on the collectable market? I suppose that depends on how rich you are, but I don't think so. If you remember when the Elixirs Charnels line was still good (the time of Spirituese Double Vanille and Bois de Armenie), this fits in perfectly there. It shares DNA with both of those, living in a space between the two, but with added flowers and complexity. Thumbs up, but I wouldn't go nuts trying to track down a sample of this.

The opening with the bergamot and grapefruit is given a slight edge with the pink pepper- the latter is very restrained, but as the citrus is bot very intense either that works together quite well.

The drydown turns unashamedly floral, with a traditional jasmine, which is nice but nothing remarkable, being enhanced by an orange blossom. On me it is the latter that truly shines, with a deliciously glowing richness that is transient but quite memorable.

The base veers more into the trodden path, with an ambery tonka-vanilla supplying the backbone, and lashings of white musks coming from behind but growing into equal importance with time. The amber is light and bright, lacking any smokiness. The vanilla is sweet without being cloying, and has a creamy and smooth character.

I get moderate sillage, very good projection and an excellent twelve hours of longevity on my skin.

This pleasant spring anger for cooler days commemorates the foundation of this House in 1828. It combines traditional approaches with a touch of pep, but is not super-creative as a whole. The base is rather predictable. Overall it - just - makes it to a thumbs-up. 3/5.

A dear friend of mine allowed me to explore several of his prestige scents recently. "180 Ans de Création" by Guerlain was one of the lucky snags in his collection which I was privileged to sample.

This is an EdP with a beautiful, high-class construction. The citrus and exotic pink pepper intro blends seamlessly with the tender orange blossom and jasmine flower, smelling so clean! A sexy sweet and musky finish accompanies this amazing formulation, and there is an unmistakable balance that blew my mind.

Gentle, sophisticated, staid and fresh...these would summarize the experience of 180 Ans de Création, which lasted a long time on my wrist and probably would do the same on my face (I was too ashamed to ask my friend!).

Good things come to those that wait, right? Upon its release in December 2008 to 'friends of Guerlain' (read: those that spend a LOT in the boutiques), I could only sigh and hope that someday a bottle of 180 Ans would grace my shelf. Last year I jumped on the chance to pay nearly $30 for a tiny 1.5ml decant from TPC when they first offered it. Nearly a year and half later, a little bit of luck has put a full bottle of 180 Ans on my shelf. It's not the same as receiving it as a gift from La Maison, but I can enjoy the fragrance nonetheless.As Mr. Guerlain describes, 180 Ans presents the Guerlinade accord. Unlike most Guerlain perfumes containing the accord, in 180 Ans it is front and center from application through the base instead of only being a basenote accord. Various notes accompany the Guerlinade through 180's stages of development On application one experiences Guerlinade with a strong dose of tonka, almond, and a hint of citrus underneath. The subtle citrus fades fairly quickly, and there is a floral heart that gives some breadth the Guerlinade. I wouldn't have initially noticed the orange blossom in the heart, but a later fragrance* has allowed me to pick up on the orange blossom that enhances 180. The drydown is pure Guerlinade, a la Shalimar/Jicky/MdM. Although there's not a whole lot of sillage (which would clearly be inappropriate for such a delicate scent), the longevity is incredible and a couple sprays easily last 8-10 hours. 180 Ans really comes into its own when worn (as opposed to just sampled), and like Cologne du 68 the intricacy one smells when closely examined gives way to a wonderful overall aroma surrounding the wearer.* In January 2010 Guerlain released Tonka Imperiale into the L'Art et la Matiere line. Smelling Tonka Imperiale, I immediately draw the connection to 180 Ans, to the point where I almost get the sense that 180 Ans was the basis on which Tonka Imperiale was created - the starting point of sorts. Tonka Imperiale is certainly much more potent with a rich, boozy tonka/orange blossom accord laid over a Guerlinade base. It does not have the subtlety or delicacy of 180 Ans, but they are certainly related perfumes.Thumbs up!

The ultimate celebratory act of Guerlain's 180th anniversary year was Jean-Paul Guerlain's creation of a non-commercial perfume gift offered to loyal customers and people within the industry. Simply called 180 Ans de Créations 1828-2008, this Eau de Parfum composition is quite simple: It represents what is perhaps the purest and most stripped down form of the famous Guerlinade accord ever produced by Guerlain: bergamot, jasmine, orange blossom, vetiver, tonka bean, amber and vanilla. The only "modern notes" are grapefruit, pink pepper and musk - respectively adding a bitter-sweet, spicy and soft skin-like touch to the otherwise very powdery fragrance. It's presented in the square Elixirs Charnels bottle decorated with an elegant strip of metal bearing the perfume's name.