Many beauty brands are making strides to operate in a more sustainable manner including established fragrance markers. For Guerlain, a nearly 200-year-old French maison that has been working with some suppliers, such as its Italian bergamot source, for generations, that means creating a metric to hold itself accountable. “You cannot progress without measuring where you are at the very beginning,” says Thierry Wasser, Guerlain master perfumer. Cécile Lochard, the brand’s chief sustainability officer, explains the process of making a fragrance product more sustainable involves consideration of two main components: the sourcing of ingredients and the product’s packaging. To that end, Guerlain has reformulated its entire Aqua Allegoria line to use between 90 and 95 per cent natural-origin ingredients, including alcohol made with organic beetroot, a lengthy process undertaken with farmers in Chartres, France. The brand has also introduced a new bottle made of 15-per-cent recycled glass that can be refilled at home.
My recommendation: Luxury goods should be made to last. A bottle of Guerlain’s Nerolia Vetiver, a fruity-woody-floral scent inspired by the Mediterranean, is refillable at home so it can enjoy pride of place on your vanity for years to come.
Aqua Allegoria in Nerolia Vetiver, $125 for the 75 ml bottle, $207 for the 200 ml refill bottle at Guerlain boutiques (guerlain.com).
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