Guerlin's perfume 'Helitrope Blanc 000' was created in 1870 and was a very popular fragrance from 1878 to 1883. The Victorians were generally very fond of including heliotrope in their perfumes, and the '000' in the name means that the flower extract in the perfume had triple strength. However, the very name 'White Heliotrope' suggests a degree of artifice – the flowers of the heliotrope can be white but are more often something between pale lavender and deep purple. The flower is so associated with the color purple that in French it denotes a light purple color and a gemstone.
There are trends in everything, including fragrances and flowers, and the heliotrope is hardly popular today. This sunny little flower, which according to what I’ve read smells in its perfume form of powdery vanilla, marzipan and cherry pie, but is still surprisingly fresh and is today rather forgotten. The white heliotrope is included in some modern perfumes that playfully allude the Victorian era, such as Estée Lauder's Pure White Linen from 2006 or Serge Luten's Rahat Loukoum from 1998. But note that the perfumes called Heliotrope Blanc – Guerlin's, L.T. Piver's classic from 1850, Oriza L. Legrand's modern from 2014 (which I own and usually put a few drops of in my bath) have the purple heliotrope among their notes.
Guerlin's perfume is said to smell of sparkling champagne in a cupped glass. "Heliotrope Blanc 000 shows another side of the story: all the freshness of a perfect cologne yet powdery and easy on the nose with a real bouquet and longevity. And not least; not as much a melancholic sigh from time long past, as a happy spring greeting." My encounter with the white heliotrope, however, is not on the perfume shelf but, unsurprisingly, in literature. I was reading the novel Teleny – sometimes attributed to Oscar Wilde and friends – and suddenly I saw white heliotropes everywhere. I felt like I had seen them before, these heliotropes, and suddenly I wondered if there's some hidden symbolism to them that I was missing.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to I lock my door upon myself to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.