Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Flora Nymphea

The happiest, grassiest, flower meadow scent ever!

Flora Nymphea is the only one out of Guerlain's ongoing Aqua Allegoria series that I've smelled and instantly gone, "Wow! That's pretty!” It's the happiest, grassiest, flower meadow scent ever. It turns out that Flora Nymphea's buoyant orange blossom plus honey equals a wonderfully youthful and exhilarating perfume, especially for spring and summer. Or if you want to pretend it's spring and summer. Or if you want to pretend you're youthful and exhilarating. Basically, Flora Nymphea can smooth out a lot of rough spots, both with the weather and your life. It's kind of a full-service perfume.
Flora Nymphea is available at Perfume.com, Sephora.com and FragranceNet.com, starting at $59 for 2.5 oz

24 comments:

  1. JoanElaineJuly 27, 2011 1:43 AM

    Flora Nymphea has been sitting on my wish list for a while. After reading your review, I'm pushing it up the queue. I've got lots of "rough spots" that need smoothing right now!

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  2. Katie PuckrikJuly 27, 2011 5:32 AM

    I know I do, JoanElaine!

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  3. DPJuly 28, 2011 2:32 AM

    How can you go gaga over a bottle like that?

    If you can, you should be swooning over the true pre-LVMH Guerlain flacons.

    LVMH has cheapened Guerlain's art(in more ways than one)

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  4. Jennifer WellsJuly 28, 2011 5:26 PM

    I like the bottle! This review makes me curious to check out more fragrances in this line, which I didn't even know existed until now.

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  5. Jennifer WellsJuly 28, 2011 5:28 PM

    Also, this description sounds like something I'll be reaching for in February...yuck, I don't even want to think about all that snow and gray skies!

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  6. Katie PuckrikJuly 28, 2011 7:26 PM

    Oh sure, DomPerrier, many older perfume bottles are exquisite, in all kinds of different ways (I miss the original Donna Karan Black Cashmere bottle), but in a casual stroll through a Sephora, the filegree'd elegance of the AA bottles stands out.


    Nora, Flora Nymphea is a vanquisher of grey weather gloom!

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  7. DPJuly 29, 2011 2:05 AM

    Actually,I'd like to correct myself:

    The art is still there(not really the perfume,mostly the bottle), but only for those who can casually spend the equivalent of the education budget of Liberia on their hobbies.

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  8. DPJuly 29, 2011 2:07 AM

    The rest of us get pale imitations of authentic art which are pegged at a level slightly higher than the run-of-the-mill dime-a-dozen plastic & glass flacons.

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  9. UnknownJuly 29, 2011 3:22 AM

    So I happen to have a mini of this, and I went to put it on and experience this bouyant, youthful, awesomeness, and I don't get it. I feel like I know what honey smells like, and I don't smell any. I know I don't really know what orange blossom smells like, so I just have no idea what is going on here.

    It's pretty, but I don't get it... Yet.

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  10. ValerieJuly 29, 2011 3:30 AM

    I don't get the honey either! I get lilac and jasmine, but sadly no honey which is the only reason I bought this blind. Exquisite bottle though....

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  11. Katie PuckrikJuly 29, 2011 5:43 AM

    Chalk up a *shrug* for you two, Maggie and Valerie -- FN didn't toot your honey horn? (Erm...maybe I should rephrase that...)

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  12. UnknownJuly 29, 2011 4:05 PM

    On the bright side, I can still smell it on my wrist now.

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  13. UnknownJuly 29, 2011 11:09 PM

    I kid you not, almost 24 hours later, I get the honey.

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  14. Jennifer WellsJuly 30, 2011 1:08 AM

    Dom--maybe I'm the only person who believes this, but I think the bottle for Paloma Picasso is very nice-looking, and it's very possible to score a bottle for $20.

    Maggie, Valerie--noses are totally wacky things. I smelled Love, Chloe finally, and to me it smelled like pickles. But pretty! Really, really, the prettiest, most attractive pickle smell in the world. As it dried, I did start to get a pleasantly waxy smell that reminded me of makeup. I'll have to take another whiff later.

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  15. DPJuly 30, 2011 2:42 AM

    Nora - I have a small bottle with the distinctive circular black plastic casing. It's actually a very unusual and unique chypre which KP should review sometime...

    It came with a mini set that included Tresor,Miracle,Lauren,Lou lou & Anais Anais.
    I'm pleased with all of them save the last one!

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  16. Jennifer WellsJuly 31, 2011 3:35 PM

    Yes, I thought that Paloma Picasso smelled great when I first tried it, and guys should give a whirl. The bottle isn't overtly girly, so that is a plus for le dudes who want to check it out.

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  17. Katie PuckrikJuly 31, 2011 7:53 PM

    Maggie, the honey played hard to get, but you got it in the end!


    Nora, now I want to smell Paloma Picasso again!

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  18. KayJuly 31, 2011 10:24 PM

    I actually like Flora Nymphea as well. I went into it thinking it was probably going to be boring, and--while not exciting--it wasn't bad. It's just a light, fun, happy fragrance. I can spray her on and prance in a field.

    As for the bottle, it's a faint echo of Guerlain's classic bee flacons. A real shame that they had to simplify it, but to me, it brings a small element of Guerlain's illustrious past to a contemporary audience. I don't think that's a bad thing. Guerlain's got so much history behind it that one would hope someone who falls in love with the Aqua Allegoria bottles will do a little bit of research and find out the design used to be so much more. Maybe I'm just being too optimistic though. I still think the classic flacons are better, but view the Aqua Allegoria bottles as a sort of "art-lite" for the contemporary consumer.

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  19. Jennifer WellsAugust 01, 2011 2:16 AM

    Kay--your post will make me check out the history behind the Guerlain bottles. Yay!

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  20. jtdOctober 01, 2011 3:41 AM

    Great review. You really capture it! Yeah, easily one of the best Aqua Allegorias. (I've found my new analogy for them---the Post It notes of French perfumery.) I really want to retry it in light of your sniffing and may dash to Sephora tomorrow. I found that it captured that moment that I love (and apparently I'm pretty much alone here): the tippy top notes of Insolence edt. The hairspray? Wonderful.

    And now inspired by Katie World, I have a whole new way to propel Nymphea onto the scene. I'll steal your ideas: squeeze into a peasant dress, and launch myself as a new twirling drag thing named Amplified Nature. She won’t be pretty, but she’ll smell marvelous. Hope you don’t mind my blatant rip-off of your ideas,

    Honestly though, I was really taken by Nymphea and had not expected it. I think it could be phrased as a perfume in the My Insolence, Shalimar Parfum Initial range. I’m not so sure it’s suited to the AAs.

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  21. Katie PuckrikOctober 01, 2011 4:29 PM

    jtd, "perfume Post It notes" - right on the button, sir! And I'm looking forward to attending your cabaret turn as Amplified Nature.

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  22. AnonymousDecember 09, 2011 7:29 PM

    Hi Katie,

    There is a fragrance I smelt once, that since, I have not been able to forget. It was during summer on my walk to work in Somerville, MA when I smelt an intoxicating flower that filled an entire street with its scent. It was different than any other flower I've smelt because it was not a grassy smelling and did not shock my nose. It was verrry carnal. Since then, I have smelt nothing like it and I have no idea what it could have been. Do you have any ideas what type of flower it was and any perfumes that might resemble it?

    Thanks,
    Laura

    P.S. I would contact you through email but your "contact" button requires outlook and I am unable to set it up currently.

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  23. Katie PuckrikDecember 09, 2011 9:03 PM

    Hi Laura, I'm no botanist, but I've had luck identifying fragrant plants and trees in my area (southern California) by Googling on "fragrant tree, [state]." I came across a website listing California aromatic plants. I'm sure something similar exists for MA. Another idea is to contact "Somerville Metro Man" on Basenotes (or his alter ego, Mark Behnke on CaFleurBon), since as a perfume lover in your area, he might have some insights on this.

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  24. SherryMay 03, 2012 4:29 AM

    If anyone has a bottle they want to sell cheap because they do not like it.. I'm a willing buyer :)

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