Guerlain Reinvents Iconic Bee Bottle with Jewelry Design

Guerlain is gearing up for the holidays with an exclusive fragrance packaged in a sumptuous, intricately designed perfume bottle. 

The brand is turning the iconic Bee Bottle of the Imagine Guerlain fragrance into an enchanting gold-plated holiday decoration that sparkles with crystals.

For this undertaking, Guerlain called on Paris-based haute jeweler L’Atelier Truscelli and its designer Francesco Truscelli to re-imagine and craft this spectacular Bee bottle, which will have a new iteration each year.

It’s not the first time the House of Guerlain has collaborated with Italian-born Truscelli. In 2007, the designer created a gold and diamond case for the brand’s Kiss lipstick and collaborated on creating bottle jewels for its prestige editions: Shalimar, Idylle, Mon Guerlain, and Muguet.

Guerlain’s emblematic bee motif resonated with Truscelli, who saw a strong connection between bees and jewelry. 

“They’re hard-working, meticulous, and discreet like jewelers. And then, there’s a type of stone setting called ‘honeycomb,’ whose geometric shape is a constant source of inspiration for jewelry designers. And what can I say about honey! It’s molten gold!”

To embellish this iconic perfume bottle—made by historic glassmaker and long-time partner Pochet du Courval—Truscelli has imagined a sumptuous bee-shaped jewel, handset with more than 150 sparkling crystals and trimmed with a trail of sparkling stars.

Recreating the perfume bottle required several steps—from lost-wax casting, hours of polishing, and gem-setting—all of which demanded a high level of expertise and meticulousness. Particular care was given to hand-setting transparent zirconium oxide crystals on the bee’s delicate wings. 

The bottle was then gold-plated—the warmth of the metal enhancing the crystal’s radiance—after which delicate gold-plated chains mimicking a trail of stars were attached to the bee jewel. 

The jewel was placed atop the Bee Bottle, which was adorned with a golden thread around the collar and with a label stamped in gold.

While it’s difficult to keep one’s eyes off the jeweled perfume bottle, Imagine Guerlain’s temptations don’t stop there.

The fragrance is fresh with a dash of orange essence, a touch of almond, and an alluring combination of floral essences—from honeyed may rose to jasmine sambac and ylang-ylang. 

Guerlain’s master perfumer Thierry Wasser has also chosen two woody notes—patchouli and sandalwood—that blend with the vanillic tones of the delicious benzoin resin.

The special Bee Bottle design is limited to only 3,960 bottles.