Guerlain's origins date back to 1828, when Pierre François Pascal Guerlain opened the first boutique of the house on Rivoli Street in Paris to sell perfumes and cosmetics. The first milestone for the maison came in 1853, when Guerlain dedicated the perfume Eau de Cologne Impériale to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, which made him the 'official perfumer to Her Majesty.'
Recognized worldwide for the distinctive Abeilles or Bee Bottle, the original design of the perfumes reflects Guerlain's interest in creating a container as special as the essence itself. For this, he relied on the house of Pochet & du Courval, a renowned French glassmaker that included 69 golden bees as a nod to the imperial symbol of Napoleon and the Bonaparte family.
Among Guerlain's historical perfumes are Jicky (1889), a pioneering fragrance in modern abstract perfumery, L’Heure Bleue (1912), whose heart-shaped bottle is made by Baccarat, Mitsouko (1919), and Shalimar (1925), considered the first oriental fragrance. Later came the masculine Habit Rouge (1965), the high luxury collection L’Art & Matière (2021), and the floral garden of the Aqua Allegoria line (2022).