Habit Rouge
Guerlain (1965)
Average Rating:
250 User Reviews
Fragrance Overview Where to Buy Reviews Community Ownership
About Habit Rouge by Guerlain
People & Companies
Guerlain
Fragrance House
Fragrance House
Jean Paul Guerlain
Perfumer
Perfumer
Robert Granai
Packaging / Bottle Design
Packaging / Bottle Design
Another Guerlain classic: Habit Rouge (meaning red jacket) combines notes of bergamot, patchouli, vanilla and leather.
Fragrance notes.
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Habit Rouge on eBay (Habit Rouge by Guerlain)
Reviews of Habit Rouge by Guerlain
There are 250 reviews of Habit Rouge by Guerlain.
Habit Rouge is not for everyone. It's strong, floral and yes it does remind one of another age. The rose and carnation floral and powder scent are quite pronounced although they are somewhat cheered up by the citrus. The leathery dry down provides some masculinity but not much. The ingredients seem top notch like all Guerlain frags but perhaps there are just too many of them here. Nevertheless, I can't get away from liking the overall effect. There's something intoxicating about it. I use it as an occasional spritz and it makes a wonderful long lasting closet spray.
Vintage - At the risk of repeating what many other esteemed reviewers have noted on BN and elsewhere, this is one of the very best.
Essentially it's a powdery amber - dry vanilla, with hints of resins. There's a noticeable citrus / bergamot note in the beginning, hints of orange, and touches of rose and carnation in the mid phases. There's a slight leathery element, but very much in the background for me. I don't think of it as a leather perfume.
What I love most here is how it wears - rich without being heavy, and a very restrained sweetness. It is distinctly dressy, but would pair equally well with smart casual outfit or even something bohemian but well put together. For what it's worth, I find it more versatile than Heritage.
Over the years I've come to appreciate Habit Rouge even more, because of its airiness, and the fantastic blending. One of my bottles leaked a bit during transit, and the residual scent in the package is one of the best things I've ever smelled.
5/5
Current (circa mid 2010s) - The mid and the base seem to lack a bit of depth as compared to vintage, and there's a pronounced musky element not there in the vintage version. A fine scent on its own if one has never tried the vintage. Also, a bit weaker.
3.5/5
Essentially it's a powdery amber - dry vanilla, with hints of resins. There's a noticeable citrus / bergamot note in the beginning, hints of orange, and touches of rose and carnation in the mid phases. There's a slight leathery element, but very much in the background for me. I don't think of it as a leather perfume.
What I love most here is how it wears - rich without being heavy, and a very restrained sweetness. It is distinctly dressy, but would pair equally well with smart casual outfit or even something bohemian but well put together. For what it's worth, I find it more versatile than Heritage.
Over the years I've come to appreciate Habit Rouge even more, because of its airiness, and the fantastic blending. One of my bottles leaked a bit during transit, and the residual scent in the package is one of the best things I've ever smelled.
5/5
Current (circa mid 2010s) - The mid and the base seem to lack a bit of depth as compared to vintage, and there's a pronounced musky element not there in the vintage version. A fine scent on its own if one has never tried the vintage. Also, a bit weaker.
3.5/5
I am sorry but I'm going to join the 'meh' faction here. Habit Rouge is fine. It smells nice. But it's really nothing special even for the time it was first made and certainly not today. Despite being labelled as masculine, it also strikes me as one of the most unisex, in fact sexless, scents I've smelled. It starts off with an almost imperceptible, sneeze-and-you-miss-it touch of lemon, but that's already surrounded by a rose-carnation florality, which is made tolerable by something of a woody undertone. That undertone fades away in favour of a predominantly vanilla accord, leaving a very sweet and soft vanilla-rose scent, with a very polite and shy touch of leather, and that's pretty much how it stays. Now I'm not really a huge fan of rose or really sweet fragrances, and vanilla has to be combined with either more boozy, leather or tobacco notes for me to really love it, so this is not going to be one I wear very often, maybe only occasionally in summer.
If a perfume is great, and you want to write about it, there should be no problem finding something to say. If it's awful, and you can't stand it, you will probably have a few epithets to give vent to your feelings.
But what if a perfume does nothing for you: you don't love it, you don't hate it, it's just meh.
What do you do then? What do you say?
It's hard to get worked up about something that doesn't move you:
Nobody writes hymns of praise to plain vanilla.
And that's what this is to me, plain vanilla; sweet with orange and rose (and a whole lot of other stuff spices, balsam, blah blah blah)...
It isn't bad, or cheap, or clunky, it just doesn't say what I want to hear.
I've tried to like it, Ive had it for years and it's sat at the back of the shelf. Even the vintage doesn't float my boat.
It's polite and affable, but complacent; a crashing bore.
There, now I've found something to say about this perfume that doesn't move me...
But what if a perfume does nothing for you: you don't love it, you don't hate it, it's just meh.
What do you do then? What do you say?
It's hard to get worked up about something that doesn't move you:
Nobody writes hymns of praise to plain vanilla.
And that's what this is to me, plain vanilla; sweet with orange and rose (and a whole lot of other stuff spices, balsam, blah blah blah)...
It isn't bad, or cheap, or clunky, it just doesn't say what I want to hear.
I've tried to like it, Ive had it for years and it's sat at the back of the shelf. Even the vintage doesn't float my boat.
It's polite and affable, but complacent; a crashing bore.
There, now I've found something to say about this perfume that doesn't move me...
Lovely scent, for about 15 minutes. I get lots of citrus and carnation and the sillage is quite good. Then, everything pretty much disappears, and I'm left with a powdery skin scent reminiscent of my grandmother. If the opening wasn't so nice, this would be a hard "no" for me.
Habit Rouge(1965)
How classy is this rosy glow? This rose is a perfectly tailored black suit coat, white shirt, proper trousers with fine leather shoes driving a loaded black/deep burgundy 1965 Buick V-8 Riviera that has been waxed and detailed to perfection. That is how classy this rose is.
Out of all my fragrances Habit Rouge made the best first impression of them all.
The first time I sprayed this I was enveloped in this amazing scent orb that was mesmerizing. It was like I was floating in this glowing burgundy bubble of bliss.
That original decant still has some left, but the bottle I have while still fantastic doesn't measure up as the woodiness is way more pronounced and their isn't a magic bubble of rouge-y glow quite like I experience with the decant. I wasn't expecting Habit Rouge to be one of my most worn scents but it is #4 currently.
Thumbs up for the greatness that is Habit Rouge.
How classy is this rosy glow? This rose is a perfectly tailored black suit coat, white shirt, proper trousers with fine leather shoes driving a loaded black/deep burgundy 1965 Buick V-8 Riviera that has been waxed and detailed to perfection. That is how classy this rose is.
Out of all my fragrances Habit Rouge made the best first impression of them all.
The first time I sprayed this I was enveloped in this amazing scent orb that was mesmerizing. It was like I was floating in this glowing burgundy bubble of bliss.
That original decant still has some left, but the bottle I have while still fantastic doesn't measure up as the woodiness is way more pronounced and their isn't a magic bubble of rouge-y glow quite like I experience with the decant. I wasn't expecting Habit Rouge to be one of my most worn scents but it is #4 currently.
Thumbs up for the greatness that is Habit Rouge.
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