Guerlain - Spiritueuse Double Vanille (2007) Fragrance Sample Review

I decided to look through my cabinet of samples to see what I could review. I knew I had stuff ranging from By Kilian to Burberry and I just needed to decide what I felt like reviewing. I decided to open the top drawer of my cabinet (where I keep random stuff but mainly designer samples) and just dug into the pile.

John Varvatos - Vintage? Not going to work...
Chanel - Platinum Egoiste? Wait why do I have a sample of this?
Guerlain - Spiritueuse Double Vanille? EUREKA!!!!!!

I've smelled it before and with all the talk about this vanillic gourmand I thought it would be ideal to do a video of it. That video will be uploaded in the next few days but hey, I'll write down my thoughts here in case you all care to read it in the meantime.

This Guerlain fragrance was released in 2007 and is quite wonderful. I mean, for the price of $225 for a 75ml bottle I'd expect nothing less than extraordinary from this house and they hit the nail on the head. The fragrance starts off with a blast of booze, reminding me of Bacardi 151. Enough rum to burn the hairs in your nose but by the time you register the connection you realize there's some vanilla in there too. Now the vanilla comes off as a syrupy sickly sweet vanilla that you could just lick. YUM! Now I must say, this syrupy concoction does make me classify this as a feminine and not a unisex but really, it can be worn by men as well. Frankly, I believe it is because of my imagination of this syrup being poured on one of those bodacious blonde babes depicted in Guinea54's Millesime Imperial review. Yes, vanilla syrup would go well with melons. Ask me how I know...

Once you snap back into it you realize that the scent is fantastic but that you may not necessarily be able to wear it. Once the fragrance dries down a little bit the booziness goes away and is replaced with a tobacco feel reminding me of times spent in a hookah den. Delicious vanilla with a dark, heavy tobacco looming over me. Not heavy enough to cause an asthmatic to go running, but enough to give a nice twist to a note in fragrance that is done too often and simply not good enough to ever leave a lasting impression.

Overall the projection of the fragrance is decent, suprising me after a few hours that it is still alive and kicking. Considering that I just dabbed a single touch this time to write this review with and it is still projecting ever-so-lightly these five hours later, I am starting to think this is the vanilla of the year if you're looking for one. The thing though is I don't see myself buying this. I feel the price is outweighed only by the deliciousness of the juice BUT, and this is a rather large but, I don't see myself wearing this. Either I am immature or I don't want to buy another bottle of something that is covered largely by other fragrances in my collection. Believe me when I say this is a very unique fragrance but the credit this is getting deserves a second look without the hype. It is a beautifully done scent and really the price is NOT an issue for divinity. My one problem is the wearability I seem to perceive on this one as I'm having trouble with Pure Malt by Thierry Mugler. I don't grab it as often as I should because I don't like the opening anymore, and the drydown is a little too much for me. I like projection monsters as much as the next guy but at this point I don't want to drop the money for something that I can't love using every day of a season.

That being said, Guerlain's Spiriteuese Double Vanille still gets a very respectable 6.5 only getting docked for the versatility as well as the projection/longevity not being perfect. Come on, someone had to knock it down off it's pedestal. Smell this one out, as it is worth it. Spray with the bottle! Get a decant while you're at it too!