Sylvaine Delacourte was the former Director of Olfactory Evaluation at Guerlain. She was the only female director in 180 years. After several years as Fragrance Director at Maison Guerlain, she decided she wanted to create her own fragrances. Her first collection was Musk, then Vanilla and most recently Fleur d'Oranger.
In the Collection Vanille, Delacourte chose to work with natural vanilla beans and not with synthetics. Madagascar’s vanilla was used for its depth and its distinguished, faceted aspect. She stated: "Vanilla has always been dear to me. I wanted to create a collection where the main raw material is natural, unsweetened vanilla. My aim was to shake things up, to reinvent, to surprise with audacious associations and to provoke contrasts between top, middle and base notes. My challenge is to appeal to those who might say "no, I don't like vanilla-based perfumes", with fragrances that are suitable for both men and women." Vanilla has become a rare and very luxurious material because the price has increased so much. The fleshy Madagascar vanilla bean is not sweet, in fact it has an enveloping scent and a great sensuality that comes in milky, honeyed, amber, woody, spicy, animal and rum notes. Vanilla is the magician of desire, a bewitcher that provokes a sensual dizziness, it is hypnotic, generous and invites sin. The scent of vanilla has the taste and smell of happiness.
Virgile is an aromatic vanilla fragrance that uses sage which is a note that is seldom used in perfumery. It features top notes of bergamot, mandarin and rosemary; middle notes of rose, geranium and sage; and base notes of leather, cedar and vanilla. Virgile is an eau de parfum, edp.