Posted by Robin
on
16 March 2010
Voyage d’Hermès is the latest from perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena at Hermès. Reportedly he wanted the unisex fragrance to say “It’s calling to me” rather than “It reminds me”; that is, Voyage d’Hermès — unlike the Jardin series — is not intended to evoke any particular place or time. Hermès is calling Voyage a fresh musky woods, but so far as I know they have not released a list of notes — presumably in keeping with the intention that “this perfume would not smell of a kind of wood, a flower, a particular raw material, but of the unknown in all its glory”.1
In the event, Voyage d’Hermès does not remind me of any specific place, but it does remind me of other Jean-Claude Ellena fragrances, so much so that it’s tempting to see it as a voyage through his career, with nods to the heritage of Hermès along the way. The opening is green-ish citrus, rather dry and very tart — think of the grapefruit + lime peel citrus in the opening of Un Jardin Sur le Nil (minus the mango) or Eau de Pamplemousse Rose. In Voyage, the citrus sparkles over a generous dose of black pepper, and possibly some ginger as well, and I’m probably dreaming but I would swear that for a moment or two, there’s a flash of green tea (Bvlgari Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert). Whatever might be in there, the early stages are lively…
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Posted by Robin
on
20 January 2010
Hermès will launch Voyage d’Hermès, a new unisex fragrance, this coming April.
The fragrance was developed by Hermès house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, and is reportedly a fresh musky woods…
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Posted by Robin
on
12 August 2009
Hermès has introduced a new Parfum version of 2006’s Terre d’Hermès fragrance for men:
The newest addition to the Terre D’Hermes fragrance range for men. This pure perfume spray has a new denstity [sic] to the woody vegetal, mineral fragrance, with key ingredients of Grapefruit, Orange, Flint, Pepper…
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Posted by Robin
on
19 May 2009
Eau de Pamplemousse Rose (above center) and Eau de Gentiane Blanche (above right), along with longtime favorite Eau d’Orange Verte (in new packaging, above left, and celebrating its 30th anniversary this year), make up the new trio of unisex colognes from Hermès. I went to visit them recently at my local Hermès boutique, and had Pamplemousse Rose purchased and packaged within minutes. One of these days, I need to sit down and figure out the proportion of my perfume spending over the past few years that has been made up of fragrances from perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena — I’m guessing it’s substantial, and certainly it accounts for many of my on-the-spot purchases.
But I’ll start with the good news: I did not need a bottle of Eau de Gentiane Blanche. Amy Verner, writing in the Globe and Mail1, called it a “haute fresh laundry fragrance, soapy yet subtle”, and that’s right on the money: it’s possibly one of the nicest laundry-clean fragrances I’ve ever smelled, but there’s really almost nothing you could do with a laundry-clean fragrance, haute or otherwise, that would make me want to own or wear it…
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Posted by Robin
on
16 April 2009
I was an apprentice essential oilmaker in Grasse at the age of 16, on the night shift. Among other essential oils, we made a lot of oakmoss, and after I'd put the distiller on, I'd lie down on a bed of it and sleep.
— From A Hermes Perfumer: Hermès’ master perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena on fragrant memories and fantasies at the Wall Street Journal, with many thanks to Kevin for sending me a copy. Image is Oak Moss [cropped] by Noël Zia Lee at flickr; all rights reserved, used with permission.
