Scents Of Purpose: Guerlain’s Delphine Jelk On The Fragrances That Shaped Her Life

For Delphine Jelk, Creative Perfume Director at Guerlain, fragrance is a profound source of comfort, connection and emotion, shaping both her life and her career. Through an olfactory journey of the scents that define her, Jelk reveals the memories, places and moments that nourish her soul.

apricot oil from a Swiss brand called Déesse. It comes in a little pot, and my whole family uses it for everything. It smells amazing. When I was little, my mother and grandmother used it whenever I had a little booboo. It’s so good for your skin, but it’s also good for the soul. It was our little oil for everything, and I still use it today, on my lips and on my kids. It’s really difficult to find, as you have to call someone and they come and deliver it to your home – you can’t buy it in the shops. But it has a fabulous scent. When I smell it now, it’s just so familiar – it’s part of me and my life and brings me security and comfort.

I also love the smell of the baby product Mustela, which was important in my childhood but also for my kids and me today. It actually inspired Guerlain’s new reinterpretation of L’Heure Bleue. I always had the smell of it in my mind, because when I smell a woman wearing the original L’Heure Bleue from 1912, I think the drydown smells like Mustela.

the smell of my favourite beach in Corsica. It’s what inspired the perfume I created called Aqua Allegoria Forte Bosca Vanilla Forte. It’s this idea of the end of summer, when everybody’s gone, but you still have the smell of sunscreen from the week before, and you can smell the eucalyptus, the driftwood, the immortelle [Helichrysum italicum plant] and the sea salt – I love those kinds of notes. I think it’s very emotional, and it almost gives you hope that you will live it all again – that you will be back. It’s a place where I have a lot of memories because I’ve been going there for 20 years. It’s beautiful and I love going there.

White Musk from The Body Shop, which is the perfume I wore then. I have so many memories of it, whether it’s the smell of a pub or the smell of my boyfriend at the time. Even the smell of the school gym where we did sport, which always had such a distinctive scent – it’s all linked to this musk. I wasn’t a rebellious teenager, but I was both wise and mischievous. I knew I had to do what was expected of me, so I was good at school, and I wasn’t about doing crazy stuff that could be bad. But, in secret, I could be mischievous [laughs].

I never think of scent as being something that gives you confidence, as for me it’s more about protection. Confidence I can get from high heels or makeup, but for me, perfume is like my armour – something that protects me. As a teenager, I just wanted to smell good, and I got so many compliments when I wore White Musk. It was so me, and I loved what stayed on my sweater or my scarf. To this day, I still love the drydowns of perfumes. I want my fragrance to last, to leave a trace – or, what we call in perfumery, the sillage. I love that musky, vanilla, ambery, very sensual background, and that’s what I got with White Musk.

vanilla, which I love. I studied aromachology, and I learned that vanilla is like your mother’s arms – it’s so comforting and reassuring. Fortunately, at Guerlain, vanilla is the queen, so I work a lot with it. I love it in perfume, but also because it reminds me of sweets from my childhood and good moments in life. It’s very comforting and brings back happy memories. It’s so addictive.

Bitter almond is another of my favourite ingredients, and I think it’s something that also comes from my childhood, as I have such good memories of that smell. I love blending it with rose. I did a perfume called Rose Chérie, which is one of my favourite perfumes, because it’s a similar accord to La Petite Robe Noire, which was my first perfume for Guerlain. When you blend almond and raspberry, you get this cherry note. With almond, you can do anything.

rose, which makes me think of my mother, who I lost when I was a child. I can still remember the smell of her perfume, and for many years, I kept her silk scarves in boxes because I didn’t want to lose her scent. She wore a perfume with a lot of rose – quite a spicy rose. Today, rose is one of my favourite smells, and I love to work around it. Rose was her, and it’s very emotional.

I also have so many memories of the smell of my mother’s lipstick, and it’s still a scent I love so much, with those notes of iris and rose. Those smells are very important to me.

Dolce & Gabbana for Men, which is a perfume that I love. It has a lot of tonka bean, and it’s so delicious. I suffered a lot because we broke up and it was terrible, but now we are very good friends, and thankfully he doesn’t wear it anymore [laughs]. But when we talk about it, we laugh. The smell of someone you love is something so important.

mandarin essential oil. It’s amazing for when you feel stressed and anxious – it really helps you feel more grounded. It’s such a delicious smell and it really has that calming property.

Incense from church. It’s funny because I love to work with incense, but I always need to contrast it with something very happy and joyful, like a fruit. I went to Oman to see the incense trees, and I think it’s delicious and such an interesting note. But for me, it’s something sad, so it has to be blended with something joyful.

The smell of my children’s necks when they were little. I absolutely loved the smell of their necks, even when there was a little bit of milk there and it was a bit disgusting [laughs]. There’s something crazy addictive about that smell. When they stop being babies, it’s different – it’s over. There’s something totally animalistic and primal about it.

Vanilla, because I wanted to create the best vanilla fragrance imaginable. Vanilla is part of the Guerlinade and one of the pillars of the house, so it has always been incredibly important to Guerlain. As you now know, it’s also something I personally love so much.

With Vanille Planifolia Extrait 21, Guerlain and I created something together that is having a lot of success right now. The vanilla is macerated in alcohol for 21 days, allowing all of its naturally woody, ambery and gourmand facets to come through. I’m so proud that it’s being recognised as one of the best vanilla scents, because vanilla is such a foundational material for Guerlain. I feel like I was able to make vanilla the queen again.