Perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena talks briefly about Jour d’Hermès. If you missed the fragrance commercial, it is here.
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Hermes Jour d’Hermes ~ perfume review
Just in time for the holiday shopping season, along comes Jour d’Hermès, a brand new feminine pillar fragrance from perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena at Hermès. Longtime readers know I’m a fan, but just how much of a fan? Thanks (or not) to evidence provided by the damage polls, I can report that I’ve spent just over $2000 on fragrance in the past five years (ouch! bless me Donatella, for I have sinned) and about 28% of that apparently spilled directly into the coffers at Hermès. And yes, that includes the mumble-$100-something I spent on a bottle of Jour d’Hermès.
(If you’ve spent a like proportion of your perfume dollars on a single brand, do comment. I will add that if the entire works of Serge Lutens had been available in the US over that same time period, in the more-affordable export bottles, I’m sure I’d have done a better job of padding his coffers too. It does help, though, that Hermès maintains a boutique in my local mall, conveniently situated just outside the front door of Neiman Marcus, another favorite spot for spur-of-the-moment purchases.)
But back to Jour d’Hermès. It starts with bright citrus…
Cartier Declaration Three Ways: Eau de Toilette, Essence and Cologne ~ fragrance reviews
I remember smelling Cartier Déclaration when it was released almost 15 years ago. I didn’t like it one bit: “too dirty.” What smelled “unclean” to my nose back in 1998, today smells almost fresh, and not because of reformulation, but because so many of my perfume dislikes turned to likes over the years.
I must have been in the minority back in 1998 when Déclaration Eau de Toilette was released because it’s been successful and spawned flanker after flanker. At this moment, there are four Déclaration formulas for sale.
Original Déclaration Eau de Toilette
Original Déclaration Eau de Toilette was developed by perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena and includes notes of birch, bergamot, bitter orange, juniper, artemisia, cardamom, cedar, vetiver and oakmoss. Déclaration Eau de Toilette goes on strong with bitter orange…
Hermes L’Ambre des Merveilles ~ fragrance review
Flankers are much maligned by perfumistas, here as much as anywhere else. At their worst, they’re endless — and often, mindless — series of minor variations on perfumes that weren’t all that interesting to begin with. There are flankers of flankers, and flankers of flankers of flankers. There are good flankers and bad flankers, flankers I hope never get made (anything having to do with Diorissimo, thank you) and flankers I can’t believe ever were made. There are flankers that outsell the original pillar fragrance, flankers that eventually elbow the pillar aside, and flankers that just can’t hope to best their elders. Flankers do well, of course, but they’re annoying, not least because there are just so very many of them.
In theory, of course, it’s not a bad idea: take a beloved fragrance, and explore some facet of its composition in more depth. And sometimes that works. There are flankers that I like better than the pillar fragrance…
