Guerlain • Jicky • Fragrances

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*TOP REVIEWER* LizWords on 8/12/2012 8:07:00 PM more reviews by LizWords

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

This fragrance can come off as a bit masculine during the first few spritzes because of the strong lavender and other base notes. This is probably the strongest true lavender based perfume on the market. After the first hour, however, this does calm down and the other notes start to shine. The vanilla and amber creates a warm and creamy dry down. The jasmine, rosemary, and citruses also appear after a little while and make this a very enticing and feminine skin scent. I really do like it, I found a very large refill bottle pretty cheap and I'm sure it will last a very long time. I love how old this fragrance is. It was made in 1889. I love thinking about the women from that era wearing this, so neat!

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*TOP REVIEWER* rock_chica81 on 3/28/2012 10:38:00 PM more reviews by rock_chica81

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

So I finally got my hands on the ever popular Jicky and, sadly, it just wasn't for me. It was too masculine like an old man's aftershave or something. However, the dry down was nice and soft. Like vanilla but not so sweet. My husband hated it. I don't think I'll ever wear it again unless I want to repell my husband lol. I should add that it has pretty decent lasting power. Anyways, I'm glad I had a chance to try this and I can see why people like it, but it's just not for me.

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*TOP REVIEWER* ilymed2 on 3/6/2012 5:28:00 AM more reviews by ilymed2

Age: 36-43   Skin: Dry, Fair-Medium, Neutral   Hair: Blond, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Blue    

For me it is lavender, powder, citrus, musk with some slight sweetening at dry-down. I have a few masculine leaning fragrances in my collection, so Jicky's slight musky edge is actually welcome. This isn't your usual bombshell fragrance, more like the sexiness that comes when a women is confident with or without the lipstick. I find myself reaching for Jicky at the end of the day, it calms and comforts me.

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*TOP REVIEWER* mariella99 on 11/1/2011 10:46:00 PM more reviews by mariella99

Age: 44-55   Skin: Dry, Fair, Cool   Hair: Brown, Wavy, Coarse   Eyes: Brown    

I had the opportunity to smell Jicky again for the first time since I was a very young teen and it was my first fragrance purchase! I read (in 16 Magazine...I am seriously dating myself) that this was the fragrance that Pattie Boyd (at that time, girlfriend of George Harrison) wore. So I made my mom take me to buy some and I thought I was the coolest thing on 2 legs! Guerlain fragrances and I just don't get along. I want to love them and I want them to smell great on me. I love the history of some of the older scents and their associations with Paris and some of the great writers and icons of past times. I'd love to be able, for example, to wear L'heure bleu or even Shalimar but these scents just do not work with my skin chemistry at all and the same is true of Jicky. Recently, I saw that it was available again and I gave it a try, mostly for the sake of nostalgia, but it is just not a scent for me though it's probably better on me than some of the more well-known Guerlain fragrances. But the price is so steep that I won't be shelling out for it just for the sake of nostalgia.

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*TOP REVIEWER* girrl65 on 9/10/2011 10:13:00 AM more reviews by girrl65

Age: 19-24   Skin: Combination, Olive, Warm   Hair: Black, Curly, Medium   Eyes: Green    

I'm not that good at describing fragrances, but I know that this smells very masculine. At first, I thought it was too masculine. It almost reminded me of that cheap cologne someone's unsophisticated uncle would buy from the drugstore. BUT NO! It's not like that. You have to wear it a while and smell it a while before you can appreciate it. This is very unisex, but on a woman it is very interestingly exotic. It's different from the sea of florals and sugary scents. I wore it all day and then reapplied before an event at night, and it seemed to have changed at night. I would say this is more of a night fragrance for sure because it transforms into a decadent, hedonistic scent after hours. Well, it's always like that, but when the sun goes down it enhances that effect. If you like Guerlain and classic fragrances, just try this. It's unique and interesting. Just try it!

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*TOP REVIEWER* tabloid on 8/9/2011 4:52:00 PM more reviews by tabloid

Age: 56 & Over   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brunette   Eyes: Hazel    

Yet another great fragrance which has been ruined by reformulation. The result is pleasant but forgettable, and the original Jicky was, like all the great classic Guerlains, unique and sophisticated and utterly memorable.
Did anyone see the Woody Allen movie "Midnight in Paris" where the main character was magically transported to 1920's Paris where he met the writers and artists who would one day become legends? If that happened to me, I would run straight to the nearest parfumerie and buy all of the great fragrances which either are no longer being made or have been reformulated beyond recognition. Apparently the perfumes of the 1920's (and '30s, '40's and '50's) were indescribably, heartwrenchingly beautiful.

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*TOP REVIEWER* SexyLittleMe on 7/26/2011 7:58:00 PM more reviews by SexyLittleMe

Age: 36-43   Skin: Normal, Fair, Warm   Hair: Brown, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Green    

Jicky reminds me of Shalimar, but it isn't as bad as Shalimar (I think Shalimar is very heavy/cloying). Jicky is a bit softer, lighter, and a little powdery, but there is no denying you are wearing perfume. I generally wear fragrances that smell natural, like I've taken a bath & smell naturally of vanilla, or pumpkin, or mimosa. Jicky isn't especially grannyish, but it isn't sexy/bold like the fragrances of the 80s. It smells ok, I do like it, it just isn't my style. I guess I'm not a Jackie...

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Profunda on 6/30/2011 9:52:00 AM more reviews by Profunda

Age: 56 & Over   Skin: Very Dry, Fair, Cool   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Blue    

Jicky has to be one of the most olfactorily challenging and "difficult" perfumes ever made.It isn't pretty,whether it even smells good is debateable.It is a complexio oppositorum,old-fashioned yet utterly modern,clean yet filthy,salubrious and decadent and all-in-all completely itself and none other.How very naughty the 90's must have been and how very debased (in the perfume sense-I exclude a few honourable exceptions,obviously!) ours have become.

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svprior on 3/6/2011 1:28:00 PM more reviews by svprior

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

Brigitte Bardot's signature perfume. Says everything really. Seriously sexy. Love it!

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*TOP REVIEWER* ella343 on 3/2/2011 9:12:00 PM more reviews by ella343

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

There is something quintessentially Mediterranean about the smell of lavender—green and herbaceous, purple and flowery, grey and camphorous—a concentration of vibrant sunshine with which Demeter anoints her tanned throat. With the brighter sparkle of bergamot, lavender lends a euphoria to Jciky's languid, leathery chocolate base—more handsome than sweet, because of the dirty, animalic infusion of civet—plus vetiver, rosewood, tonka bean, vanilla, rose, castoreum, sandalwood, patchouli, and god knows what other great little olfactory complications. For all its sumptuousness, Jicky effects a far less affected kind of elegance than its more glamorous relative, Shalimar. It's a question of alignment: unlike the vanillic-musky throw of Shalimar, Jicky's composition orbits around lavender's gravitational pull. The difference is both subtle and enormous, the difference between sex appeal and confidence, which are related but not the same; Jicky's roughness is ever so slightly unsettling, yet highly intelligent, in the way Bogart's wry, smirking sarcasm is caught exactly between intimidation and intrigue. Perhaps this is only the idea of pastoral umbrage, damp with an undergrowth of ferns, but all the same it remains a brilliant essay on combinatorial aromatics, especially considering that other colognes in this age of innocence would have been nothing more than rose or violet water. After all, sophistication is innately complicated, and quite a few extremes are stuffed into one bottle of Jicky, not just its bisexual status as both a masculine and feminine, but its carefully studied contrasts, between the medicinal freshness of lavender and civet's gentle undercurrent of decay, expertly bridged by a woody-vanilla-vetiver Guerlinade.

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*TOP REVIEWER* babsvs on 1/20/2011 11:55:00 PM more reviews by babsvs

Age: 56 & Over   Skin: Combination, Fair   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Hazel    

I have been wearing Jicky parfum and EDT for years, and always will. I read somewhere that Jackie Kennedy wore Jicky. I have no idea if that is true, but I can picture her dabbing some on with her riding outfit and galloping away on a horse. To me, Jicky is not old, and not a "miss", it is tomboyish.

I enjoy all of the various categorizations of this uncategorizable scent. Usually it is a fougere, sometimes a semi-oriental, and occasionally a chypre (without oakoss?)

I think that the beauty of Jicky is that the notes blend together so harmoniously. They integrate so beautifully that is it hard to get an accurate note description online. One site does not list lavender, another does not list musk. I love that. Jicky was formulated in 1889, and modern perfume writers can't agree on the notes.

I like to wear it with jeans and a stiped T shirt, kind of early 60s style. For me, it would not work with a dress.

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crdimalla on 1/20/2011 9:37:00 PM more reviews by crdimalla

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

(Post-Reformulation)


I don't have much to say about Jicky. Which means that if we are speaking about Jicky in terms of the girl that it is supposed to represent, the new Jicky must be an dull and immature young lass. She's pleasant yes, strong bergamot/Lavender mingling with vanilla. According to basenotes the construction is as follows:


Top Notes: Lemon, Mandarin, Bergamot, Rosewood
Middle Notes: Orris, Jasmin, Patchouli, Rose, Vetiver
Base Notes: Leather, Amber, Civet, Tonka, Incense, Benzoin

I can't speak to the Patchouli, Jasmin, Civet, or Incense. But all the rest seem very accesible in this perfume. Together they create something akin to a London Fog (for those of you who aren't beverage afficianados: Earl Gray tea, vanilla extract, steamed milk). I'm having trouble thinking of what sort of woman would want to go around reeking of london fog. I think, in fact, not a woman...but a girl...


It dried down to a very creamy creamy vanilla. Sort of like milk candy. Not just vanillic...but VANILLA. Maybe even vanilla icecream. Almost any gourmand is too much gourmand for me.


So it boils down to this: I'm guessing that at one point Jicky was a curious and breathtaking woman with a classy dose of disagreeability. The reformulation seems to have leached out all the valuable components of the original and left behind the shell of that woman--and made her 15 years younger. It's unfortunate, because you expect much out of the first abstract style perfume, released at the worlds fair along with the Eifle tower and electricity. For many it was and is the finest perfume ever created, walking the line between ugliness and beauty. This is not the same perfume. For me, something is lost. Something that cannot be replaced by the easiness of what is left.

(Read all my reviews at Swigandtipple.blogspot.com)

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AlessBL on 1/10/2011 8:34:00 AM more reviews by AlessBL

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

Undescribable! This is what heaven smells like! Thanks Monsieur Guerlain!

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*TOP REVIEWER* AntFarm on 9/30/2010 9:40:00 PM more reviews by AntFarm

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

Parfum: This isn't nearly as strong as the EDT or EDP, and I like it most out of all the formulations. It smells like forests and saliva. It reminds me of camping, or taking a dog for a walk in the woods and having it lick you. I wouldn't buy a bottle though, because it's so faint.
EDP: This was so, so strong. It smelled like men's hygiene products with something breathy and animalic in the background. Then I realized, this is how a woman would smell if she was necking with some sophisticated gentlemen. It has a worn-in, adrogynous sexiness, that's for sure. But it's the same kind of sexiness as wearing your boyfriend's t-shirt to sleep in. I get and admire its appeal, but it's just not my kind of appeal.

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*TOP REVIEWER* fivezero on 5/7/2010 12:46:00 PM more reviews by fivezero

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Medium, Warm   Hair: Black, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Black    

Quite like the citrus and lavender opening, which on me lasted for about 10-15 min. Then *bam* I sniffed myself again and almost laughed out loud in the middle of the street. "I'm FILTHY!" For the next hour or so, I alternately smelled the powdery lavender and vanilla, then the incensy filth...they didn't really seem to mix for me. I only picked up one or the other. It's so strange and yet I don't mind it. I wouldn't buy a bottle of this but I am glad I tried it. Definitely unisex. I sampled the EDT.

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*TOP REVIEWER* cocorocha on 4/14/2010 5:24:00 AM more reviews by cocorocha

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair, Warm   Hair: Blond, Straight, Fine   Eyes: Brown    

Got it in a great swap (gave a decant of my 24 Faubourg for Jicky), tried it yesterday and kaboom!this is the first perfume on my wish list...
All reviews of Jicky are 100% accurate and true...very interesting scent you can't confuse with anything even simmilar...oldfashioned vanilla meets lemon meets lavender perfume, with the sweet and refreshing beggining (like Shalimar Legere for example), but with a unbelieveable transformation...
first, it was too perfect to be true..my skin took it and savoured it,and I didn't even have to put the hand to my nose how strong and sweet it wass ...but in a very,very good way...
oh, sorry, I'm talking about Jicky EDT, okay...
no civet roling in a lavender, nothing remotely ''dirty'' on indecent in this scent...
just lemon, bergamot,lavender and the most gorgeous vanilla scent ever...later when it settles down on me, it just smells amazing...I detect heavier notes such as vetyver...than of course- iris that gives a very powdery dimension...amber,patchouly,musk...

don't know about EDP or pure parfum, but the EDT is an absolute HG scent for me...
they just don't make them like they made Jicky any more....

second, after my first HG- Chanel No 5.

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*TOP REVIEWER* msm4slm on 3/14/2010 9:54:00 AM more reviews by msm4slm

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

Jicky, on me is a nice lavender vanilla, following the initial citrus opening. It's very wearable, and a great unisex--not too sweet. This is for the edt.

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zazie33 on 10/15/2009 6:04:00 AM more reviews by zazie33

Age: 30-35   Skin: Normal, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Hazel    

Jicky is a perfume of light, contrasts and refinement. The extrait is golden and precious as the color of the juice itself.

Some Guerlain perfumes, like Vol de Nuit, feature slightly different formulations depending on the concentration (EDT, EDP, Extrait). Others, as Jicky, apparently don’t.
However, when applied on skin, Jicky EdT and pure Parfum are as different in feel as they can be. Whereas the EdT has indeed a slightly harsh and masculine edge to it (which might be interesting and pleasing, depending on tastes) and is overall refreshing and light, the pure parfum is opulent and rich, it rounds all the sharp edges and already infuses the great aromatic lavender + citrus opening with then sweetness of the heavy-on-vanilla, slightly animalic heart. On one side (from the moment of application through some good hours) this allows the fragrance to beautifully balance the refreshing thirst-quenching opening notes with the softness, comfort and sweetness of the somptuous oriental heart. On the other side, this all-at-once-ness contracts the evolution of the fragrance: as the lavender and citrus luminous notes slowly receed, the vanilla, woods and balsams take center stage, without dramatic progressions or unexpected turns. I may have preferred a more complex development. But hey, this fragrance IS history.
I usually consider all scents to be unisex (why restrict our possible perfume choices?), however I wonder how a man could ever pull-off the very sweet and feminine extrait (the EdT is a different story!).

If, like me, you appreciate the extrait (pure perfume) but are not sure whether to shell the $$$ or not, an excellent alternative is mouchoir de monsieur EDT: it is Jicky’s twin (something acknowledged even by Silvaine Delacourte, Guerlain’s creative director) and has an soft, refined edge. And yes, despite the name, I find MDM very feminine, much more so than Jicky EDT.
(I have not tried the Jicky EDP to compare)

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marchesa on 7/4/2009 9:15:00 PM more reviews by marchesa

Age: 36-43   Skin: Acne-prone, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Blue    

It took me a couple of tries to 'get' Jicky. Sprayed on a card, you'll get the infamous filled nappy doused in lavender air freshener accord. But on the skin, the 'poo' note disappears within seconds of application and the initial burst of lemony lavender dries down to something indescribably delicious and almost gourmand - almonds with a tinge of coconut, I think. The lemony lavender continues to hover, but unobtrusively, melding well with the almondy goodness underneath. Who knew that two apparently contradictory accords could mesh so well, bringing out the best in each other?


It sounds like your common-or-garden floral-gourmand but trust me, it's not. Jicky is mischievous, contradictory, truly unusual, and probably won't work for everyone. Perhaps that's what's so good about it.

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*TOP REVIEWER* Melloney on 5/22/2009 1:51:00 PM more reviews by Melloney

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

This for the parfum extrait. I love Jicky and I always have done. I love everything about it from the quirky name to the slightly animalic dirty note from the civet which sort of gives it an extra kick ,shock factor vibe. The lavender and the incense is fresh but sophisticated. The parfum is strong, but not overbearing and it is tenacious . Gorgeous stuff and real perfume. Once you try the parfum extrait , I guarantee you ,that the EDT will no longer suffice.

EDP review : This is fabulous juice. I know the EDP is known for having the most animalic notes and the most civet but I love its tangy- ness. It's rich and fulsome and really forward thinking ,open minded woman who is free,with naughty twinkle in her eye. This is so gorgeous and modern in my eyes. The extrait is smoother with more lavender and incense . I love both EDP and the extrait. The EDT is more masculine with emphasis on citrus and incense to me.

You know, I love many fragrances and I have tried numerous but only one melds with myself and my character and that's Jicky. It's quintessentially and personally me.

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