In 1828 a perfumer named Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain opened a boutique on the rue de Rivoli in Paris, and in 1853 he made a cologne for Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III, in a bottle decorated with the bees of the Empire. The bee has followed Guerlain ever since. It is on the Bee Bottle, it is in the name of the lip oil, and it is the whole premise of Abeille Royale, the skincare line the house introduced in 2010 after twelve years of research into honey and royal jelly. Guerlain says its team analyzed 300 honey samples along the way, and the line now uses honey from the black bee of Ouessant, a small island off Brittany where the house supports a conservation association. It is honey skincare taken very seriously. I think that is the most Guerlain story possible: a very old house, a very specific ingredient and a lot of patience. The first row is the Abeille Royale core. The watery oil serum is the lightest way in, the Double R serum is the one for a lifted look and radiance, the day cream is rich without being greasy, and the eye serum targets the look of puffiness and dark circles.

Meteorites came out of the same house in a different mood. The illuminating pearls are a jar of little colored powder balls you swirl a brush through, and they set makeup with a soft glow rather than a flat matte. The pressed version is a color-correcting, blurring setting powder for anyone who wants less shine. Rouge G is a customizable lipstick, where you choose the bullet and then the case, which makes it one of the few lipsticks I would give as a gift. Kiss Kiss Bee Glow is a honey-infused tinted lip oil, the bee again, this time in your handbag.

Guerlain began as a perfume house, and the last row is a short tour of it. Mon Guerlain is lavender, jasmine, sandalwood and vanilla, warm and easy. L'Heure Bleue is a softer floral with iris and vanilla, and it smells like a much older world in the best way. Shalimar L'Essence is an intense vanilla eau de parfum, and Aqua Allegoria Rosa Rossa is a light rose and lychee eau de toilette for summer. What I would skip is testing all four on paper strips in one visit. Put one on skin, walk away, and come back to the rest another day.

If you are new to the house, begin with the watery oil serum and the Meteorites pearls, since those two explain Guerlain quickly. Add a perfume once you have smelled it on skin for a full day. The bee is not decoration here. It is almost two centuries of the same fixation, and it still shows in every row.

For a shorter tour of the house, I also put together the Guerlain products that carry the house's whole history.