GUERLAIN: A Temple of Perfume on the Champs-Élysées

Boutiques also are a big part of the story.
Laurent Boillot, former President and CEO of Guerlain

For Laurent Boillot, who led the expansion of Guerlain’s own boutiques, the history a store could convey was central to its purpose. At 68 avenue des Champs-Élysées, the bees and sun motifs familiar from the perfume bottles extend into the building itself, making the search for a fragrance an encounter with the house’s past. Opened in 1914, the boutique is both a place to buy perfume and a setting in which Guerlain’s understanding of beauty comes to life.

Contents

The First Boutiques
The Thinking Behind the Stores
1. From Bottle to Building
2. A Bottle to Keep
Boutiques to Visit
References

The First Boutiques

Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain opened his first shop in 1828, on rue de Rivoli in Paris rather than the Champs-Élysées. Selling perfume and cosmetics, it soon drew fashionable Parisians and visitors from Britain. In 1853, he created Eau de Cologne Impériale for Empress Eugénie, introducing a bottle decorated with bees, the emblem of the Empire.

In 1914, Guerlain opened at 68 avenue des Champs-Élysées. The building housed not only the boutique but also offices, a laboratory and the family’s apartments. Creating fragrances, bringing them to customers and the rhythms of family life all came together under one roof.

The fragrance Jacques Guerlain prepared to mark the opening was presented in a tortoise-shaped Baccarat bottle. It was a gently humorous keepsake, a nod to the slow progress of the building work. Such stories bring a sense of the family workplace to the history of this imposing address.

A beauty institute opened upstairs in 1939. In 2013, a renovation by architect Peter Marino expanded the retail space. Preserving historic details while adding new rooms, the boutique has evolved into an address where perfume, cosmetics and beauty treatments can be enjoyed together.

The Thinking Behind the Stores

From Bottle to Building

The historic marble interiors provided the starting point for the renovation of No. 68. Taking his cue from the twelve varieties of marble in the existing octagonal shop, Marino combined different stones to connect old and new.

I played with variants on the theme of marble set into marble
Peter Marino, architect

Crystal chandeliers hang above the counters in the four corners, their light reflected in a rippling mirrored ceiling. Guerlain’s bees, suns and orchids appear throughout the space. More than a backdrop for displaying products, the interiors bring forms once confined to bottles and cosmetics to an architectural scale.

A Bottle to Keep

At Guerlain’s boutiques, choosing a fragrance is only part of the experience: making the bottle your own matters too. Engraving, personalising a Bee Bottle and refilling it once it is empty all offer reasons to return long after the first purchase.

Sandrine Sommer, who established Guerlain’s sustainability department, described the relationship between its perfume fountains and Bee Bottles:

our bottles Abeille (Bee), which have always been refillable, now become endlessly refillable thanks to the Perfume Fountains…
Sandrine Sommer, Guerlain’s then Sustainable Development and CSR Director

The idea is to choose a bottle you want to keep, then continue to enjoy it by replenishing its contents. Providing the advice and finishing touches that make this possible is another part of the Guerlain boutique’s role.

Boutiques to Visit

68 Champs-Élysées

At the white marble entrance, visitors are greeted by an installation of golden bees by Gérard Cholot. Suspended in a seven-metre-high atrium, the swarm takes the symbol found on Guerlain’s bottles since 1853 and enlarges it into something that surrounds the visitor.

Up the stairs, a gallery combines rippling mirrors with gilded brass. Light and passing figures shift in the reflections, bringing the historic staircase into conversation with contemporary decoration. In a salon created for private fragrance consultations, sun motifs are worked in straw marquetry. From the main shop floor to quieter spaces for personal advice, the same house motifs reappear in different materials.

Illustration inspired by the staircase and mirrored walls at Guerlain, 68 Champs-Élysées

Upstairs, L’Institut Guerlain has nine treatment rooms and a space for relaxation. Alongside fragrance consultations, bottle personalisation and refills, visitors can take time for face and body treatments. Here, the pleasure of exploring the building meets the pleasure of experiencing Guerlain’s work first-hand.

Vendôme

The Vendôme boutique at 356 rue Saint-Honoré is another address devoted to fragrance. Opened in 2017, it embodies the Guerlain Parfumeur concept, with its dedicated approach to introducing customers to perfume.

A personal fragrance consultation can lead to a choice of finishes or engraving for a Bee Bottle, and refills are available too. While No. 68 invites visitors to explore a historic building, Vendôme is an address for taking the time to find a fragrance that suits you or to shape a personal gift.

Rue des Francs-Bourgeois

On rue des Francs-Bourgeois in the Marais, another boutique brings perfume and beauty together. As well as bottle personalisation and refills, it offers a space for treatments by a facialist. The chance to seek advice on fragrance and enjoy skincare treatments at the same address gives this boutique its particular appeal.

Dubai Mall

The flagship boutique at Dubai Mall has private lounges for fragrance and beauty consultations, as well as dedicated spaces for facials. From browsing perfume bottles to exploring individual preferences and skincare needs, different parts of the store offer different ways to spend time.

Alongside a personal consultation to find a fragrance, visitors can meet a facialist to learn about daily skincare and application techniques. Perfume and beauty are considered together, with a place in the customer’s everyday life. The role Guerlain’s boutiques developed on the Champs-Élysées continues here, in another city.