The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Helicriss was launched in 2016, and it carries the combined signatures of Sylvaine Delacourte and Irène Farmachidi. The name points directly to immortelle, the flower known as helichrysum, whose honeyed, curry-leaf warmth sits at the composition's core. Delacourte's background shaped the brief: her time at Guerlain, where she served as Creative Director and created over 70 compositions, gave her a fluency in classical French structure. Farmachidi, working alongside her, brought a modern hand. Together they built a scent that places the immortelle flower at its center, with rosemary and citrus arranged around it in a tight, deliberate orbit. The result reads as warm-spicy, a composition that lets the flower's natural character lead without ornamentation or excess.
What makes Helicriss unusual is its citrus-on-spice architecture. Here, grapefruit and lemon run through the middle of the composition, keeping things bright and almost sharp while the immortelle does its work underneath. The rosemary in the opening isn't decorative. It functions as a bridge between the bright citrus and the warmer heart, the way a sprig of fresh herb pulled from a garden connects to something cooking on the stove. The grapefruit has a pulpy, slightly bitter edge that wakes up the composition, while the lemon adds a cleaner, more crystalline brightness.
The evolution
The first twenty minutes are the loudest Helicriss gets, and even then it's not loud, just present. Bergamot and grapefruit lead, rosemary threading underneath, with cinnamon sitting just below the surface like heat you can feel before you smell it. The bergamot has that classic bitter-peel character, slightly astringent, while the grapefruit leans toward the pink, juicier end of the spectrum. Within the first hour the citrus begins to retreat and the immortelle steps forward. It brings that specific immortelle character: a warm, slightly medicinal sweetness with edges of maple and burnt sugar, but here it stays dry rather than sticky. Tonka bean rounds the edges while benzoin adds a low, vanilla-adjacent warmth.
Cultural impact
Helicriss has found its audience among wearers who appreciate immortelle as a central material rather than a background note. Its composition, built around citrus brightness and herbal clarity in the opening, gives it a freshness that distinguishes it from heavier, more resin-driven immortelle interpretations. The fragrance wears close, making it a composition for the wearer rather than the room. Its character, warm but not heavy, spiced but not aggressive, has made it a choice for those who want something distinctive without being loud.
