Guerlain’s gorgeous gift of Liu

The glossy black glass, the elegant art deco-style typography, the perfectly scaled atomizer, the lush but pretty scent and the sparkle: Guerlain’s just-for-the-holidays Liu Shimmer Powder is a beauty in myriad ways.

The super-fine powder, which can be spritzed onto face, body and hair, takes Guerlain’s 1929 perfume as inspiration. The original fragrance crafted by Jacques Guerlain, paid homage to femininity and true love. It was inspired by the heroine of Puccini’s Turandot opera, where a young slave chooses suicide rather than reveal the name of her master with whom she is in love. The scent symbolized the power of her secrets via a sensual mix of aldehydes, roses, vanilla, iris and wood.

Guerlain offers this Liu as part of its holiday cosmetics collection, where Creative Director Olivier Echaudemaison has interpreted the essence of Liu’s romance into an opulent gold-ruby-and-jet-black makeup collection as stunning tribute to Turandot’s ill-fated beauty.

The Liu Perfumed Shimmer Powder makes a perfect gift for the beauty in your life, but think selfishly too. After all, last year’s little black dress will be made anew with a dusting of Liu’s iridescence, leaving décolletage, chignon and even calves to shimmer in cocktail-hour candlelight.

Divine.

Guerlain Liu Perfumed Shimmer Powder for Face & Body, $100 (17.5 g), www.guerlain.com