Santal Massoïa is the tenth fragrance in the Hermessence Collection from Hermès, and like the others, was developed by house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena. Unless you’re new to the collection, you probably already have some idea of what to expect, that is, you know not to expect Santal Massoïa to fit neatly into your idea of a sandalwood (or massoia) fragrance, and you know that this isn’t the place to go looking for the functional perfume to last through your 8 hour workday. I’ve already gone on and on about my take on the collection, and if you’ve been reading here regularly you also know that there’s about a 50-50 chance that I’ll want at least a small bottle of Santal Massoïa, and I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: thank you, Hermès, a million times over, for the lovely little 15 ml bottles.

And I’ll save you time and start with the outcome: yes, it’s 15-ml-bottle-worthy, no, it isn’t going to join Osmanthe Yunnan and Vetiver Tonka in the 100-ml-bottle-worthy category. Given the size of my overall perfume collection, the 100-ml-bottle-worthy category, mind you, is now very narrow indeed, but another way of putting it is that I really like Santal Massoïa but I’m not head-over-heels swooning, although once upon a time I might have said the same of Brin de Reglisse and now I’m in the position of having to replace what I had of it…

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To demonstrate how he develops an idea, Mr. Ellena digs into his pocket and pulls out a small, curved piece of wood. "Fifteen years ago, I came across this marvelous massoia wood, not well known in perfumery and used in Indonesian cuisine. The odor is startling, unforgettable, mysterious, a sensual riot of exotic spices, fruit and milky coconut. It's what I call a horizontal scent," he says. "It's round, supple, almost carnal, lascivious—in a word, feminine."

— Perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, from A French Perfumer's Seductive Sense in the Wall Street Journal. He's talking about the new Hermès Santal Massoïa.

But his vision for a perfume, he explains, "stops the moment it is put on the market."

"From that point onwards it is a child setting off on its own. Its [sic] is no longer mine to own -- people make it theirs, and that is fine by me."

— Perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, from Meet Jean-Claude Ellena, 'scent writer' for Hermes at Yahoo News.

Hermès will launch Santal Massoïa next month. Santal Massoïa will be the tenth fragrance in the Hermessence Collection, and like the others, was developed by Hermès house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena…

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While the rest of the nation has suffered from heat, we’ve had moderate temperatures and summer rain. I’m not talking about the wild, ozonic thunderstorms that erupt late afternoons in the eastern states. (How I miss them and fireflies.) I mean cold rain that eases earthy smells from the city, while soft, warm air pillows its splatter. In other words, it’s been perfect weather for Frédéric Malle Angéliques sous la Pluie.

Angéliques sous la Pluie was part of Frédéric Malle’s initial release of perfumes in 2000. Among the house’s line, Angéliques sous la Pluie doesn’t seem to get a lot of attention. I think it’s worth a second look.

Iconic nose Jean-Claude Ellena created Angéliques sous la Pluie, adding notes of angelica leaves, juniper berries, coriander, musk, and sweet cedar. In Perfumes: The A – Z Guide, Luca Turin compares Angéliques sous la Pluie to a wormwood-based Swiss liqueur, and not favorably. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a Swiss liqueur, so that comparison doesn’t prejudice my opinion…

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L’odeur est un mot, le parfum est la littérature / Odor is a word, perfume is literature (7). In brief entries dating October 29, 2009 to October 13, 2010, Journal d’un Parfumeur reveals a year in the life (or, rather, the mind) of perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, and celebrates the connections between language, contemplation and perfumery. Ellena offers a selective self-portrait via bright anecdotes, thoughtful vignettes and philosophical musings, blended with a hearty dose of opinion and a splash of high-brow name-dropping. Places and dates anchor the journal entries, along with brief titles, many of which would would make terrific perfume monikers: Plaisir; Nébuleux; Juxtaposition Toujours la menthe; Classique; Clin de nez; Bill Evans; Bricolage; Moleskine; and Shazam (yes, as in the iPhone app, and yes, related to identifying smells on the streets of Paris).

It turns out that language plays a vital role in Ellena’s creative process as well. Le nom est un son qui doit accrocher tous vos sens, il est le premier contact avec le parfum / The name is a sound that must capture all the senses; it is the first contact with the perfume (40). Describing works in progress — perfume formulae that may never be produced — Ellena explains that names help him to organize and track his creations. Féminin H, Vétiver de Calèche, Cuir de Bel Ami, and Fleur de Porcelaine could have been assigned numerical codes, but only words hold keys to each perfume’s histoire (which fittingly means both history and story in French). My favorite of these draft names, Eau de mandarine bleue, evokes Surrealist writer Paul Eluard’s poem, “The earth is blue like an orange…”

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Un Jardin Sur Le Toit, the latest in the garden series from Hermès, spurns the exotic inspirations of its predecessors (Un Jardin en Méditerranée, Un Jardin Sur Le Nil and Un Jardin Après La Mousson); instead perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena celebrates the rooftop garden at the Hermès building at 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris (although for some of us, a rooftop garden on the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré is hardly the stuff of everyday life).

And what, pray tell, do we get from the Hermès rooftop garden? Apples and pears, apples and pears. Apples and pears, though hardly new to perfume, seem to be the notes du jour, and as I’ve already mentioned they’re not exactly my favorites.

Jardin Sur Le Toit starts out grapefruity-citrusy and sharp…

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After we launched the first Garden perfume, other companies came up with the same approach. We wanted the fourth perfume to be a surprise. Also, no one could come up with a perfume like Un Jardin sur le Toit because we drew inspiration from our very own garden. This reflects why we don't really need to find another world when happiness can be very close to us.

— Perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, quoted in Familiar scents close to home at the Bangkok Post.

Hermès will launch Un Jardin Sur Le Toit (garden on the roof) in April. The inspiration: the garden on the roof of the Hermès building at 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. The new unisex fragrance is the fourth in the garden series that already includes Un Jardin en Méditerranée (2003), Un Jardin Sur Le Nil (2005) and Un Jardin Après La Mousson (2008)…

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Regular readers know I look forward to anything new from perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena at Hermès. I have called myself a fan girl in the past, but now feel compelled to point out that I just really like his perfumes; I don’t think he’s a rock star and I do not have a poster with his face on my wall. Ok? But in all truth, a rather large portion of my fragrance spending ends up in the (surely already brimming) coffers at Hermès. Many of us like to think that brand doesn’t really matter — it’s the juice that counts — but it’s hard to completely ignore brand influence even if you try. In this case, it helps that I like Hermès despite the fact that nearly nothing on earth interests me less than spendy handbags and silk scarves. I like Hermès because they consistently put out a respectable, well-made product. The fragrances are interesting and wearable, the packaging is generally worthy and sometimes it’s spectacular (Voyage d’Hermès), and their advertising doesn’t make me cringe. They don’t alternate high-end vanity projects with cynical, focus-grouped garbage designed to capture the lucrative ‘tween-to-teen market. To my mind, Hermès is the last great hope in the mainstream prestige fragrance market: let’s just hope Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy stays far, far away.

That is not to say I like everything Jean-Claude Ellena cooks up over there. Of the Hermessences, the exclusive (and expensive) perfume range at Hermès, I own five out of the nine, and thanks to the fact that it’s possible to find them in comparatively affordable 15 ml bottles, I own all of them that I want to own.¹ The latest of the nine, Iris Ukiyoé, is not going to join my collection….

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