Guerlain Fragrance Bottle Engraving

Do you remember this bottle? I remember seeing this on my mother’s fragrance shelf growing up. It is one of those scents that is simply classic. Guerlain describes its legendary fragrance, Shalimar, as a timeless scent in an iconic bottle symbolizing a mythical, incandescent love story. The first ambery fragrance in perfumery, it embodies intoxicating femininity and a hint of the forbidden. They had me at “femininity.” I love many things in the feminine category (not to be confused with “girly” things…and yes, there is a difference).

Here, a beautiful woman named Shannon wanted a simple engraving of her name. She desired to have this fragrance bottle engraved such that every time that she saw it she felt special. Isn’t that exactly what we all desire and long for?

Engraving this bottle was pretty simple. I knew that I needed to engrave it such that the main text would fit within the raised section in the middle as the glass angle declines on both edges. At the same time, I couldn’t engrave this bottle in an entirely simple manner. I decided to keep the main body of her name in the middle, but create simple flourishes on the sides. With that in mind, I just made the entrance and exit strokes further out from the body to create a relaxed, but beautiful effect with the compound curves. It was a genuine pleasure to engrave this fragrance bottle and I hope that Shannon is pleased.