GUERLAIN Mitsouko Eau de Parfum

Mitsouko is gloomy Sundays, walks in the woods after it rains, and empty auction rooms. It's Paris at Christmas. It's early 20th century Japonism, using elements and ingredients from Asia but still managing to be incredibly French. It's incense and burning candles, and waxy floor polish. It's cinnamon peach jam. It's a bouquet of lilacs on the dining room table. It lasts so long it's like a ghost in the room.

Faith in retail fragrances restored:
A recent course on perfumery led us to begin exploring iconic fragrances.....
This is how explorers must have felt, discovering new lands filled with new life. New colours, new smells, all there to be taken in and adored.
I wonder how many men throughout history have waited for the wife or mistress/maid or whoever to be gone long enough for him to have a go around the room on her Mitsouko or (if he's very naughty) her second cousin, 'sticky' Jicky? Abject horror may ensue at the discovery that these 'flowery' scents don't wear off too quickly.And that they can indeed have a profound effect on the wearer's psyche.
This man has stumbled into the Solomon's mine of fragrances with Guerlain. Even with all the re-formulating and snowflake generation preserving rules on ingredients, there's a whole bunch of fragrances here that still stand out as seminal, origin of the species that have shaped the way perfume is made, worn, marketed-everything..
The object of perfumery is to create new sensations from existing ingredients that match the formulations intention at conception.The motivation/inspiration for this one must be cosmic.
I love Mitsouko because it tells you everything without giving much away.You can guess or even tell yourself you know what's what with this one, but it really does have a life of its own.It's the rarest flower from a tree that will never be discovered; only throwing it's scent on a breeze to stun those who experience it directly.
I can only wear this alone and/or when sleeping, only because it demands so much attention (for someone who isn't anywhere near accustomed to it yet).
The next one who says it's an 'old lady' smell will hopefully realize one day that lots of old (and young) ladies have something called class and style.They wear it because it's so good.Young or old, man or woman; one is truly fortunate to encounter something so fine as this.

Many prior reviews cover notes and performance accurately, so just a few random thoughts:

--Reformulations have slightly diminished Mitsuko, but you can diminish the true greats a little and still have an excellent fragrance.

--In a world where white flowers and fruity notes abound in unisex niche fragrances, Mitsuko, with its mossy notes and vetiver intensive dry down is squarely unisex in 2021. That is the opinion of a middle-aged, CISHET man, his not quite middle-aged CISHET wife and his millennial gay male son--all of whom wear Mitsuko and cherish it. My teenagers both pronounced the scent "gross" and, in one case, "pointless", so probably best to sample if possible (although at current discounters' prices, maybe just go ahead and blind buy a small bottle).

--If you are new to Mitsuko, it is probably best to start with the EdP, which tames the harshest and most challenging notes. The EdT projects more and makes some folks smell the dreaded "pissy" note more clearly. The Extrait is closest to the older formulations, but costs an awful lot for a first experience and sits pretty near to the skin for most folks.

--The cap really makes the bottle for Mitsuko, so if you like the design element of fragrance packaging, don't get a tester.

--The opening is quite good, but short lived. Most folks who express issues with Mitsuko dislike the heart notes. The base notes are beautiful and have established themselves as dominant by 90 minutes after initial spray. If you have trouble with the middle, hang in there, it gets better as it progresses. Whether because the heart notes become more comprehensible with familiarity or because one eventually comes to associate the heart with glorious base notes it leads to, many, many folks who I know to enjoy Mitsuko have learned to like every aspect of this fragrance.

--Every fragrance fan owes it to his, her or xirself to try Mitsuko at least once.

Ah, Mitsouko!
My first perfume, my first Guerlain.
I broke my piggybank around age 11 to buy it and never regretted it.
It felt like home to me, and came to be my scented wraith for the decades to come.
All my friends, lovers, my husbands, my children came to associate it with me.
When I needed to leave for work, I would leave a nightgown scented with it in my sons' crib.
When my eldest lived on his own, I gave him a small flacon for comfort in rough times.
I never fell out of love with it: not through pregnancies, sorrows, joys, the passage of time.