Inspired by the passionate love story between an emperor and an Indian princess, Shalimar, which means "temple of love" in Sanskrit, symbolises the promise of eternal love forevermore. It is a fragrance of desire. With its smouldering and slightly impertinent character, the star oriental fragrance in perfumery embodies skin-caressing sensuality with a hint of the forbidden. "Wearing Shalimar means letting your senses take over," Jacques Guerlain would say.
In 1925, the Shalimar bottle designed by Raymond Guerlain won first prize at the Paris Decorative Arts Exhibition. Its curves were inspired by the basins of the famous Shalimar gardens. The fan stopper with its sapphire transparency recalls the garden's eternally gushing water.
Jacques Guerlain daringly used a completely new gourmand molecule, ethylvanillin, blended with the Jicky accord. Swept away by this deliciously carnal creation, which he worked on night and day, he knew that he was paving the way for a "small revolution": the first pure oriental fragrance.