Guerlain • Vol de Nuit • Fragrances

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*TOP REVIEWER* hadas on 3/17/2013 3:04:00 AM more reviews by hadas

Age: 36-43   Skin: Normal, Fair   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Blue    

For me, Vol de Nuit is distinguished and made exciting by its juxtaposition of disparate notes. Chalky, bitter galbanum and sour citrus smoothly interpenetrate a subtly-orientalized, earthy accord of oakmoss, benzoin and vanilla. The perfume straddles the divide between oriental and chypre. Where orientals stand gooey-thick up to their knees in a tar-pit of rich, sweet, heavily ambered & balsamic winter-cozy accords, Vol de Nuit merely sticks a toe into this dark territory while keeping her other foot anchored in the lighter fields of chypre with its brown, autumnal, leaf-litter basenotes. Murmurings of vanilla and benzoin tease the primary woody-oakmoss structure, as together they trip through withered, flaxen fields. I get little to no florals, personally. But that's okay. This isn't that kind of a party.



The strength of the EDT is notoriously abysmal, but the vintage parfum is a bit more rich. This perfume vibrates with natural essences; the chlorine twang of modern synthetic fragrances is completely absent here. If one thinks this perfume lacks pizzazz or zing, it's only because that person was - most likely - weaned on modern chemicals substituting for quality essences. Vol de Nuit was the real deal, lovely quality stuff. I can't comment on the current parfum as I haven't tried it, but the vintage is exquisite work. A very calming and grounding fragrance.

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*TOP REVIEWER* YoHarajuku on 10/28/2012 10:44:00 AM more reviews by YoHarajuku

Age: 25-29   Skin: Oily, Fair, Cool   Hair: Blond, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Hazel    

Another Guerlain frgarance that left me dissapointed. Old fashioned, dated and boring. There are many older frgrances, like Chanel No.5, that have been able to hold up over time, but this isn't one of them.Sadly only Shalimar has left me impressed.

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*TOP REVIEWER* keanash on 5/22/2012 1:01:00 AM more reviews by keanash

Age: 25-29   Skin: Combination, Fair, Neutral   Hair: Red, Wavy, Fine   Eyes: Green    

Vol de Nuit, you were worth every hard-earned and carefully-saved penny. Created in 1933, the top notes are bergamot, galbanum and petit grain; heart notes are jasmine, daffodil and spices; base notes are earthy woods, iris, vanilla, amber and woodsy notes. Like so many perfumes I love it is an old and deep scent, sitting close to the skin -- but not so close as to make it not worth my while.

I'll have to add more later.

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rodelinda on 10/29/2011 3:55:00 PM more reviews by rodelinda

Age: Unknown   Skin: Combination, Fair, Cool   Hair: Brown, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Blue    

Mitsouko and I simply don't get along. Shalimar is lovely but a bit too opulent on me, and besides, it's my mother's fragrance. Apres l'Ondee is a stunning floral, but I'm more of an oriental gal. L'Heure Bleue stays cold and aloof and never quite settles on my skin. But oh, Vol de Nuit is perfection.



It smells so similar to L'Heure Bleue at first that I get a little nervous. Then the magic happens. While L'Heure Bleue stays one-dimensional, Vol de Nuit warms and turns polished and golden and epitomizes pretty much everything I love about older classic perfumes with their powdery amber and vanillic benzoin and complexity and nostalgia. It also gets bonus points for having the most beautiful parfum bottle in the fragrance world. I would encourage fans of Caron's Nuit de Noel to also try Vol de Nuit, because they have a lot in common, both in scent and in overall feeling.

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shelly59 on 7/24/2011 12:27:00 PM more reviews by shelly59

Age: 44-55   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Warm   Hair: Black, Straight, Fine   Eyes: Green    

I absolutely adore this perfume, and it's my signature scent. It's a very sophisticated, adult scent, nothing prissy or girly. It's full on W.O.M.A.N. On my skin it's a warm, soft, woody, oriental-ish floral. I have no problem with it's sillage, as I often get compliments on it in the afternoon, long after I have initially put it on. A lovely, classic fragrance.

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*TOP REVIEWER* FlameDancer on 4/16/2011 2:22:00 AM more reviews by FlameDancer

Age: 25-29   Skin: Sensitive, Fair   Hair: Red   Eyes: Hazel    

I get very little sillage from Vol de Nuit. In order to smell it I really have to hold my wrist to my nose. This goes for both the Parfum and the EDT. This and the exorbitant price are the main reasons why I wouldn't buy a bottle, but it is still a beautiful fragrance.


Vol de Nuit in the EDT form starts out with a really funny bit of Jean Nate mixed with Aliage (the real stuff from the 80s). This is funny only because the true character of the fragrance couldn't be any more different from either, so if you smell this at first, don't judge it then. Wait 5 minutes, and you will get an absolutely magical heart of oakmoss, soft leather, roses and vanilla. This lasts for an hour or so, and then melts to a creamy, powdery doll's head, gingerbread spice and incense scent that is to die for, if you happen to have your nose buried into your skin.


Of course it would be much more intoxicating if it could be smelled at a greater distance than three-to-five inches from the application point (this goes for EDT and parfum both), but at least to my nose, it's not strong or effervescent enough to grab the senses unless you're actively sniffing for it. It's a base-note scent top to bottom, and so it's subtle, which would be a very lovely thing if only it weren't extremely pricey. As much as I love the parfum bottle and the story (I had a small obsession with St. Exupery as a teen), this is in the same vein as Caron's Nuit de Noel and Habanita, both of which came out about ten years prior to Vol de Nuit and represent opposite ends of Vol de Nuit's spectrum. They also cost far, far less, also have great stories and gorgeous bottles, and are quite a lot stronger and more distinctive scents blending rose, oakmoss, vanilla and spices -- Habanita is also has green, tobacco, leather and incense, while Nuit de Noel is a creamier, sweeter scent with aldehydes and a distinctive nuttiness.


There are so many Guerlains that I would love to love, but ultimately they've priced their best ones way out of my market, and the only way that I could ever justify a purchase like that is if it really did hit every mark. But with subtle reformulations over the years rending their best fragrances tame, I would much rather stick with those few classic scents from other lines whose reformulations still have the same spirit and big distinctive presence that just about all fragrances had in the golden era of perfumey perfume.

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*TOP REVIEWER* ella343 on 3/2/2011 8:57:00 PM more reviews by ella343

Age: 25-29   Skin: Sensitive, Fair-Medium, Cool   Hair: Black, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Brown    

Much is made of its romantic association with aviation and adventure, but a kind of stasis grips the heart of Vol de Nuit, anchoring it firmly to this blighted earth. Even the metallic vitriol of petrol fumes, recreated by the corrosive, medicinal sulfuric, terpene-rich galbanum, hints at a cthonic origin. In one respect, the name is entirely just; it is best worn in the chill winter night, not to comfort as Shalimar would, but to belong. No other perfume so perfectly captures the very substance of darkness itself—opaque, vague, and lonely. There is only starlight in Vol de Nuit, a brief twinkle of bergamot and mandarin, quickly shuttered by a bitter cloud of galbanum, poor illumination against the dense backdrop of resinous woods and earthy aromatics: an abundance of narcissus and iris (these are not actually floral), agarwood, cinnamon (though perhaps more accurately a spice), rosewood, cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, oakmoss, benzoin, and tonka bean.



Vol de Nuit serves is the prototypical bittersweet, caught between attraction and repulsion, and counts in its lineage perfumes such as Bandit and Vent Vert (themselves very influential), as if Cellier dehydrated the sepia-toned original of its Guerlinade and then split it in two halves, one black, the other green. Bittersweet is a common enough theme in art—the grit and heartache in Billie Holiday's voice, that sinister tendency behind Kubrick's films, Hamlet generally screwing everyone up with his eloquence, the Amazonian custom of cutting off a breast to ease archery, Goya's black paintings—it is a little more unexpected from a perfume. If a spirit of adventure guides this composition, it is not, as the name may imply, informed by the rash heroism of youth, but by a mature confidence, leading us on an inward journey, deeper into the heart of darkness.



I often think that Guerlain's perfumes are essays on human frailty, and this is what makes them so fascinating. But Vol de Nuit is a homage, not to frailty, but to human strength, the only one we have, the ability to weather horrible, mindless, meaningless adversity, to face that endless night, know it is there, and still live. If that isn't bittersweet, I don't know what is.

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BlueLineBabe on 1/26/2011 7:19:00 PM more reviews by BlueLineBabe

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair   Hair: Brunette, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Green    

The most beautiful thing I've ever smelled, and that includes rain, lilacs and hockey rinks. A sexy, seductive, intelligent, mysterious, aloof, hypnotic, animalistic, bombshell, come-hither, ballsy broad perfume.

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*TOP REVIEWER* AntFarm on 10/1/2010 8:39:00 PM more reviews by AntFarm

Age: 25-29   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Warm   Hair: Red, Medium   Eyes: Hazel    

I was all set to love this. Firstly, it's a Guerlain. Secondly, the bottle is strikingly beautiful, and the name reminds me of a Howard Hughes movie (only if Howard Hughes was French). However, this is one of those Guerlains that doesn't develop on me. It smelled exactly as aldehydic and synthetic on my skin after hours of wear as it did straight from the sample...pretty much as if I rubbed fancy nail polish remover on my skin. Also it gave me a bit of a rash. So sad!

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*TOP REVIEWER* msm4slm on 4/24/2010 5:57:00 AM more reviews by msm4slm

Age: 44-55   Skin: Oily, Fair   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Brown    

Finally, I got to try Vol de Nuit, and it is just gorgeous! This is a soft oriental, similar to Shalimar, but a little more woody and less vanillic. It's very elegant and soft. I am more comfortable wearing this than Shalimar due to Shalimar's huge popularity and connection with elderly relatives. Terribly difficult to locate, I believe only Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman have it in their stores. Absolutely worth getting a decant to try if the stores near you don't carry Vol de Nuit. It is a true beauty, and I wish it were more available in the mainstream.

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*TOP REVIEWER* rasputin2 on 1/14/2010 1:54:00 AM more reviews by rasputin2

Age: 44-55   Skin: Combination, Medium   Hair: Silver   Eyes: Green    

I love the house of Guerlain... I trust them! Their fragrances have a "sane" and "reliable" quality I greatly respect. Their fragrances are designed to put your mind in a healthy, good space, in an aromatherapeutic sense. (Are all fragrances "sane"? By no means. With experience sniffing perfumes, you will find that some fragrances smell stunning.... but they are not "sane". That is, they don't promote a real cerebral, emotional balance, a humane well-being. The Guerlains do.)
VOL DE NUIT is a gorgeous green chypre, with some warming amber, leather and spice elements afoot. But it is by no means an Oriental, and it bears little comparison to SHALIMAR, as some have claimed. VdN is warm, yet never sweet.
That initial hit of galbanum, bergamot, petitgrain, neroli, aldehydes and "Guerlinade" is so refreshing. You'll detect that salty heliotrope/PLAY-DOH note that seems to balkanize smellers. Then an indolic jasmin begins to gently creep out from under the brilliance, tinged with musk and the faintest hint of civet.
May rose, patchouly, frankincense and oakmoss begin to bestow a solidity and identity to the mix; cassia and santal, some warmth.
Au fond, you have a pleasantly "dirty" leather--- like fallen autumn leaves mulching in the mud--- and you begin to feel that VdN is like a cherished pair of old comfortable shoes, or a well-worn, loved brown leather aviator's jacket.

No fragrance incorporates patchouly so deftly.... It is pronounced, yet never once "headshoppy" or heady. VOL DE NUIT is a warm lovable leather, decidedly outdoorsy...almost sporty. Perhaps it could be worn to a formal occasion, yet VdN's real beauty and usefulness is as a friendly, unpretentious daytime companion. Probably most at home with jeans, boots and a leather jacket. Hair untethered and blowing free. Minimal makeup. VdN is flawlessly blended and balanced; so many things are going on "under the hood", yet individual notes never stand out.... Like the other Guerlains, all one smells is the Gestalt, the totality. Perhaps no perfume house manages this "Gestalt"-type blending as well, so completely, as Guerlain.

VdN is indeed an old-fashioned type smell--- the notes of galbanum, orris, peach, and a nostalgic "TABU-like" accord of patchouly/rose/amber hearken back to the first half of the 20thc.---- but I mean this in the very best way. People who truly know perfumery will cherish this one, and sadly there are probably some twenty-somethings out there who will never even give it a chance. VOL DE NUIT never once pretends to be anything it's not. It will occupy a most special place in your wardrobe... always as a good, chummy friend.

I believe it can be easily Unisex.

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*TOP REVIEWER* brookebaird on 1/2/2010 4:34:00 AM more reviews by brookebaird

Age: 36-43   Skin: Combination, Fair   Hair: Blond, Curly, Medium   Eyes: Green    

We all know Shalimar is beautiful but many of us associate with an elderly family member that has worn it for the last 50 years. This exemplifies how good the fragrance is because it is still appealing after all these years. I don't know about you, but I want my fragrance choices to be unique. I don't want to smell like aunt Sheba (that's her scent).

Vol De Nuit is a beautiful woody oriental. It has many similarities to Shalimar but is a bit naughtier/sexier/edgier. I love this. It's Shalimar's prettier sister that doesn't go to as many parties and has a smaller social circle.

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AlessBL on 10/28/2009 5:19:00 PM more reviews by AlessBL

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Brown    

I´ve just recieved my first one, ordered online unsniffed, what a great surprise: I loved it! It reminds me of something that I have no idea what it is... as each one of all old guerlains I suppose. It surely has something of Shalimar but more fruitier and some insence leading into some animalic almost manly dark note. Amazing fragrance! I´ll keep ordering unsniffed guerlain classics online as nothing compares to them. Thanks for all you girls reviewers that in a way are helping me on my relevance list!

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talintyre on 6/9/2009 12:05:00 AM more reviews by talintyre

Age: 36-43   Skin: Combination, Fair   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Green    

Despite Vol de Nuit's legendary status, it does nothing for me, after 30 minutes the aldehydes settle in and don't budge. I'm fasting drawing the conclusion that my skin does not like aldehydes as I seem to find this with every perfume that I know contains prominent aldehydes, i.e. Chanel #5 and a couple of Carons. I never encounter this with perfumes from Serge Lutens, Montale etc that omit this chemical ingredient. A perfume lesson has been learned!

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*TOP REVIEWER* Melloney on 5/21/2009 8:41:00 AM more reviews by Melloney

Age: 36-43   Skin: Combination, Medium   Hair: Other   Eyes: Blue    

Vol De Nuit is wonderful - a real fragrance, a real perfume that does not smell gourmand, flowery of candy or anything edible. Created in 1933- it has a vintage air, class and mystery . It has its own personailty .To me this is chypre -oriental . Intense, dark and daring in the parfum extrait, lighter, less broody in the EDT but still spicy and very good fragrance. This fragrance is not made in the EDP form.
The extrait is a must try to appreciate this scent entirely. A classic always.

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*TOP REVIEWER* Dagney on 3/15/2009 7:24:00 PM more reviews by Dagney

Age: 30-35   Skin: Acne-prone, Medium, Warm   Hair: Black, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Brown    

Ok, I understand Vol de Nuit is a masterpiece. But, I don't think this is a wearable fragrance for me. I would describe Vol de Nuit as an intense oriental. The first thing that came to my mind was super skanky. The skank lets off heading into the dry down but the strong spices are still there. There is nothing floral at all about this fragrance......it's pure darkness. I would love to own a bottle (the bottle itself is beautiful) but I'm not sure if I'd have the opportunity to wear this.

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BanditKat0824 on 12/30/2008 10:40:00 AM more reviews by BanditKat0824

Age: 44-55   Skin: Normal, Fair-Medium   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Brown    

I bought the EDP for myself for the holidays from Neimans. The original scent was delicious and intoxicating, however....after about 5 minutes I was totally scent-less. Maybe I'm crazy but I couldn't detect anything. I'm sure that my body chemistry is deficient and to blame because this is the most lovely fragrance I have ever sniffed - it just doesn't like me. Even when just minutes after application, I asked my daughter how I smelled by offering my neck, she said "Like nothing - I don't smell anything". Needless to say I'm more than disappointed.

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vdn on 11/28/2008 8:42:00 PM more reviews by vdn

Age: 36-43   Skin: Other   Hair: Other   Eyes: Other    

my love.

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*TOP REVIEWER* MizLiz211 on 11/26/2008 9:14:00 AM more reviews by MizLiz211

Age: 19-24   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brunette   Eyes: Hazel    

What is it about Jacques Guerlain's classic perfumes that makes them so difficult, yet so compelling? For so long, I dismissed Vol de Nuit as too dark, gamey, and weird. I even compared it to a barnyard, animals included. But when I tried it at the Waldorf-Astoria's charming little Guerlain space yesterday evening, something happened. I finally started to get it. The wood notes, so smooth that they seemed polished, came out, as did vanilla and some notes that reminded me of old-fashioned face cream and powder. It was still dark, but no longer impossible. Now, instead of a barnyard, I think of a 1930s femme fatale's dressing table, upon which Vol de Nuit's beautiful, Art Deco extrait bottle would go perfectly.

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taxvixen on 10/15/2008 4:07:00 AM more reviews by taxvixen

Age: 44-55   Skin: Very Dry   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Brown    

VdN has become my signature fragrance-- it's spicy, soulful, complex yet accessible and eternal. I tried it first in the EDT which, while nice, lasted mere minutes on me. But then I tired the extrait (parfum) and it was love at first inhale, which only increased through all phases including its drydown. The Guerlainade is certainly in evidence, giving VdN a clear connection to Shalimar, but I find VdN more interesting and evocative. It is a timeless and very much still relevant fragrance, unlike almost all the scents developed in the last decade which are "flavor of the month" and fruity, or cloying or simply just annoying. VdN is, in my opinion, Guerlain at its finest!

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No