Muguet Porcelain by Hermès 2016

June 23, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 31 Comments

Post by Portia

Hello Fragrant Friends,

Sandra did a great review for Muguet Porcelain recently. You might like to trot back and read a more in depth review. Special thanks must go to Gene at Sydney City Hermès who always makes sure I get a sample of the latest offerings. Ask for her if you’re in shopping, nobody knows the products better or is more charming.

Muguet Porcelain by Hermès 2016

Muguet Porcelain by Jean Claude Ellena

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Lily of the valley, green notes

So, I really like Lily of the Valley (LotV) even though it can sometimes skew bathroom deodoriser from my childhood, it was my mum’s favourite. So I’m always happy to read that there’s a new one on the market. We’ve had a small bunch of them lately: Miu Miu, Jessica Mauboy (Australian songstress) and every year for May 1st Guerlain produces a new and glam LotV frag.

Now, when I first smelled Muguet Porcelaine I thought it was a dead ringer for Jessica Mauboy’s Be Beautiful. Now I have them on side by side and while they do share some similarities they are not exactly the same. They both seem to be a combination of melon and LotV, both are green and crisp though Hermès has that famous JCE oily petrol slick note that I adore, both of them are cologne like in their longevity though Muguet Porcelaine does last longer.

An hour in and they are very similar to my nose, Muguet Porcelaine is a little dryer, packed with some extra LotV and galbanum, a hairs breath more nuanced but to the average nose it’s pretty much the same. Better noses than mine, of which most of you are, will probably pick up details I miss but as a price comparison Jessica Mauboy’s Be Beautiful is AUD$20 and Muguet Porcelaine AUD$325. I will buy a 15ml travel though because I love to have a couple of the Hermès in my just in case travel kit.

Further reading: Australian Perfume Junkies and Now Smell This
All Hermès stores have Muguet Porcelaine so go spritz yourself

Muguet Porcelain GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Muguet Porcelain by Hermès manufacturers sample (my blogging sample)
1 x sample Be Beautiful by Jessica Mauboy (from my bottle)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Tell us a fragrance that is springlike for you

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close TOMORROW Saturday 25th June 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 29th June 2016 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Muguet Porcelain by Hermès GIVEAWAY WINNER

May 29, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Post by Portia

Woo Hoo APJ!

Thanks for joining in.

Let’s see who our lucky winner is.
Portia xx

Muguet Porcelain by Hermès GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Lily of the valley, green notes

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

The winner will receive:
1 x 4ml Muguet Porcelain by Hermès
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Saturday 28th May 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winner chosen by random.org

Koyel

The winners will have till Wednesday 1st June 2016 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Muguet Porcelain by Jean Claude Ellena for Hermès 2016

May 25, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 53 Comments

Post by Sandra

The 1st of May has a long history of being a celebration for spring and more recently it has become known as May Day – an International Labour Day. Living here in Europe it gives us a day off and we can celebrate outside with family and friends.

France has a beautiful tradition of gifting a loved one with muguet – lily of the valley – on 1 May. This dates all the way back to 1 May 1561 when King Charles IX of France received a bouquet of lily of the valley as a gift. According to Wikipedia, King Charles IX enjoyed the gift so much that he „decided to offer a lily of the valley each year to the ladies of the court. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became custom to give a sprig of lily of the valley, a symbol of springtime, on May 1. The government permits individuals and workers’ organisations to sell them tax-free.“ The tradition lives on today with people receiving a bunch of lily of the valley flowers or if one is lucky enough a bottle of perfume centered around the flower.

Just in time for the 1 May celebrations, Hermès has launched the 13th fragrance in the exclusive Hermessence collection – Muguet Porcelain – signed by in house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena. Several of his creations are all time favourites of mine and I could not wait to get my greedy fingers on a sample of the Muguet Porcelaine. Looking at the bottle and seeing the stunning green leather around the cap hints at what we are about to experience.

Muguet Porcelain by Hermès 2016

Muguet Porcelain by Jean Claude Ellena

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Lily of the valley, green notes

Muguet Porcelaine opens up with a beautiful air of lily of the valley. It is green, fresh and bright early in the morning with dew still clinging to the flowers with a smidge of jasmine thrown in for interest. It is a cool perfume at the start, temperature cool, which I can only assume will be great in the heat of summer. But as it warms on my skin magic begins to unfurl and it is as if the sun has peeked through the canopy of trees to warm up the blanket of flowers covering the forest floor. The memory of sniffing a bouquet of lily of the valley lingers and slowly fades. It is a delicate and elegant perfume just like the flowers themselves– quite gauzy and dewy in feel.

This is my experience with the new Muguet Porcelaine and I have begun to question my nose and my sanity after smelling it with two lovely perfume loving friends who strongly stated “ooh melon and ooh how indolic“! Seriously, I get no melon whatsoever and certainly no dirty, decaying, poo smell at all. Is it my nose or is it my understanding of dirty or sensual? Who knows. I chalk it up to everyone will interpret perfume differently.

Hermès

About the perfume’s longevity, my skin devours certain perfumes and unfortunately Muguet Porcelaine falls into the category of „oops – gone in a flash“ perfume. I have to spray generously and on clothing as well.

So, in honour of the tradition of giving lily of the valley on 1 May, I would like to offer one 4 ml sample of Hermessence Muguet Porcelaine to one lucky winner. Please let me know if you are fond of indoles and/or fresh perfumes and if you have ever interpreted a perfume quite differently from a friend.

sassisamblo

Muguet Porcelain by Hermès GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

The winner will receive:
1 x 4ml Muguet Porcelain by Hermès
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Tell us if you are fond of fresh perfumes or have you interpreted a perfume differently from a friend

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Saturday 28th May 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 1st June 2016 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Poivre Samarcande by Jean-Claude Ellena for Hermes 2004

March 31, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey there Hermès fans,

I know there are a bunch of you out there. There’s something ultra lux, a feeling of family and extra care, about Hermès that none of the other multinationals have retained. That’s my personal take on them anyway, the company is probably as money hungry and paracious as the rest but with better marketing, who of us will ever really know?

Poivre Samarcande by Hermès 2004

Poivre Samarcande by Jean-Claude Ellena

Hermès Australia

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Virginia cedar, patchouli, paprika, oakmoss, caraway, green notes, oak, pepper

Released as part of the original Hermessence range in 2004. I tried it around then but was overwhelmed by the incredibly over the top grandeur of Ambre Narguile and for the longest time felt no need to even bother with the others. It’s funny, both reviews that I have linked below write of similar experiences but with different of the five first scents. Clearly JCE had his bases covered, but then if we bypassed Poivre Samarcande then did the rest of the world too? Now 12 years on and we still find Poivre Samarcande in the Hermessence range and both Birgit and Clayton have come around to its charms.

London Crew 2014

Three years ago while in London with Michael, Val, Tara and the London crew our last stop of the evening was Selfridge & Co. We were all dog tired and emotionally exhausted from a super fun day shopping, eating, sniffing, laughing and generally being mayhem. Tara and I scooted off to Hermès to try the newest in the range at that time Epice Marine and were given some samples, including Poivre Samarcande. The samples were drained and I bought Poivre Samarcande in a Travel Set, yet I’ve never written of my love for this quietly elegant stunner, so here goes……

WikiMedia

How does Poivre Samarcande smell and make me feel?

Well, it opens wet and spicy, An unusual green that is cut through with fresh cracked black pepper and the taste of cutting into a capsicum (bell pepper). Then the green turns a different shade and I’m smelling a cross between electric sawing green wood and the sting of a pickled caper. None of these describe the scent accurately but Poivre Samarcande is hard to pin down. It has the sheer, wet, metallic, oily signature of Jean Claude Ellena yet the nuance is so subverted from the note list that I can only give my impressions.

How does it make me feel? Well, I enjoy smelling like this. Actually, it’s more than that I LOVE smelling of a JCE creation. They are clever and classy, never over the top but weird enough that I enjoy the fun of the fragrance, the mad whimsy that seems so buttoned up until you lavishly overspritz and suddenly they fragrance becomes a thick, ropey, cage of scent. You can see through it but you are captured, overwhelmed and must live the scent story alone.

Flickr

Further reading: What Men Should Smell Like and Olfactoria’s Travels
Available at Hermès stores, online and some large department stores
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/0.5ml

Which of the Hermès line do you love?
Portia xx

Le Jardin de Monsieur Li by Jean-Claude Ellena for Hermès 2015

September 12, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Post by Portia

It’s time to bid farewell to Jean-Claude Ellena at Hermès. I’m sad because he really came to embody so much of what I think Hermès is famous for: the interesting, not fashion, best of, made to last, made to use, made to love and for people who can still feel love. JCE being the nose at Hermès felt like their visions were aligned, sheer beauty could sum up Hermès or Jean Claude Ellena’s fragrances for Hermès. Here is Le Jardin de Monsieur Li: his last opus for the company, his last fantastical garden……

Le Jardin de Monsieur Li by Hermès 2015

Le Jardin de Monsieur Li by Jean-Claude Ellena

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Kumquat, jasmine, mint

The garden series are polarising, as much of Ellena’s work is. One of the interesting things about them is that we have been able to see into this particular artists creative journey with some of these scents through his own, and others, written words. Though we know little it’s more than we know of other perfumers and that for me makes JCE a bit of a mate, a friend or acquaintance that has let me a little behind their eyes into the workings of their brain. WE have been there when the unripe mango triggered a fragrance, through some of the depressing routes that led to failure and we also know something of his love of fragrance, his bringing home freaky scents the kids asked for, the love for his wife and his engaging personality that has made him a fragrance lovers household name.

So, how does Le Jardin de Monsieur Li smell? Bittersweet, ethereal, sweet and cool, sparkling yet curiously oily too. Le Jardin de Monsieur Li is about drinks in the shady garden in the afternoon as the sting of the days heat abruptly cuts off, the gardeners are watering or maybe there’s just been an afternoon storm so the air is clearer, less dusty and the fragrance has changed from dust to fecund wet earth and grass and you have a champagne fruit punch that is so delicious and the first one hardly even touches the sides of your thirst. Refreshing, lifting, light and elegant, Le Jardin de Monsieur Li is a fond and fervent farewell.

Photo Stolen Hermès

The Le Jardin de Monsieur Li artwork looks like they have a new artist too. The modern/retro feel of the watercolour is so much more computer-generated looking than previous pictures and while I think it lovely there is a feeling that the Hermès crew is already moving on from the JCE years. Moving away from the lovely home made feel of the naughties and into a more hipster/art-without-creativity/big-business-boring feel for the future. It’s a shame if it’s true, one of the things I love about Hermès is their quaint and homey version of world domination. The free spirit has been caged and trained.

Further reading: Candy Perfume Boy and Perfume Shrine
Hermes stores and some larger department stores carry the Jardin range
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

What is your favourite Jean Claude Ellena fragrance for Hermès?
Portia xx

Kelly Calèche by Jean-Claude Ellena for Hermès 2007

August 23, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Post by Anne-Marie

On Kelly Calèche, and how to deal with change……..

Recently as I’ve considered what fragrances to review, my mind keeps turning to Hermès Kelly Calèche. I’ve rediscovered this fragrance after years of finding it merely pleasant at best, and for the moment it’s the closest thing I have to a signature scent. However, the dashing review Portia gave Kelly Calèche a while ago on APJ really can’t be beaten.

I’ve realised that my mini-obsession with Kelly Calèche is because it represents a shift in taste for me. So, today I thought I’d ponder awhile on how it feels when you own enough perfume to scent a small town, but reach for just the one same bottle over and over again.

Kelly Calèche by Hermès 2007

Kelly Calèche by Jean-Claude Ellena

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

First, here’s a quick reminder of the notes in Kelly Calèche EdT,

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: grapefruit, narcisuss, lily of the valley
Heart: mimosa, rose, tuberose
Base: leather, iris

The airy clarity of the fragrance is a hallmark of its creator, Jean-Claude Ellena. He has produced many works in this style, but Kelly Calèche happens to be one I especially like. What I can’t seem to deal with are dense, sweet fragrances which feel like they are gripping my skin like a tight glove. Kelly Calèche is not a gripping glove, it’s a veil.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

As a chypre lover from way back, I’ve never cared for really sweet fragrances and own very few gourmands. But nowadays I can’t wear even mildly sweet fragrances. My prized bottles of L’Ambre des Merveilles (which normally I adore) and Bottega Veneta are neglected. Calvin Klein’s Obsession – the only oriental I really love – is also languishing unattended. It’s not especially sweet, just too dense. Lancôme’s Cuir de Lancôme– a masterpiece! – annoyed me all yesterday by sticking to my skin and not letting me breathe.

It’s the feeling that I’m being stifled and can’t quite breathe – that’s what I can’t tolerate. I need fragrances with lots of space between the notes. The nice thing about Kelly Calèche is that it has good longevity as well as airiness. It’s still too cold where I live for me to get out the summer colognes, but goodness I’m looking forward to that moment!

Photo Stolen Hermès

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Bois de Jasmin
Kelly Calèche is available from all Hermès stores
FragranceNet has $112/100ml before Coupon
Surrender To Chance has EdP samples starting at $3/ml

So what about you? Do you know the feeling when you find yourself needing just one style of fragrance, and rejecting the rest? Do you try and resist, or do you just swing with it? How long does it last?

A side note: soon I’m off to Paris (!!!) for a week, and when this post is published I’ll likely be about to step on a plane. I’ll be replying to comments but do forgive me if I’m a bit tardy.
When I’m back I’ll have Parisian adventures to share. In the meantime, keep spritzing!
Anne-Marie xx

Where Did My Scented Journey Begin….

August 19, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

Post by Liam

Good Evening Scentspeople!

Detracting from the norm, I wish to tell you about my experience with scent, and how my writing escapades began.

Where Did My Scented Journey Begin

When I was a wee chap I would pinch my father’s fragrances. Polo Black, Fahrenheit by Dior, Bvlgari Black – I would rock up to school with strong officious scents. Whilst my peers and teachers thought this was odd, this didn’t bother me in the slightest.

At 13 or 14, as an early and initial fan of Marc Jacobs’ style, I was thrilled when Bang (the silver bottle) hit the markets. Spice! I have always loved spice! The trio of peppercorns and the resinous notes present in Bang were distinctly different from other scents, and it had this wonderful duality going on: hot spice and cool woods. I finished that bottle and moved on to Burberry’s London (pour homme). Again, this is another spice theme. These two scents acted as a precursor to my obsession and a clear barometer of my taste. Spiced creations with rich interplay.

And then I was treated to a bottle of Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanille. Warm boozy vanilla and sensual tobacco notes. Dried fruits for weight and tonka bean. An almost edible honey note…

Then, visiting the scent section of David Jones late 2013, I spritzed on Terre D’Hermes (parfum), and that was the beginning of the end. I snatched up Terre D’Hermes and wore that as an everyday scent, and journeyed into the Hermes boutique and purchased Eau De Orange Verte. This is where I began to learn the specifics of scent. I was devastated when I couldn’t figure out why this Eau de Cologne would last only a brief moment in time on my skin. This prompted intense research … I was beginning to learn about sillage, evaporation, citrus, orientals … You name it.

Fast forward to June 16 2014. The most important day of my fragrant life. From memory, the day plays out like a perfect vignette. Picture a wet and raining Melbourne day, made romantic with long coats and brollies. I had a collection of about 5 perfumes now, and was even wearing the female marketed Black Orchid by Tom Ford. But, I had yet to find something that grabbed me, and I was determined to find a scent that was truly ‘me’.

Brin de Reglisse by Jean-Claude Ellena for Hermes 2004

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Hay, lavender, licorice

I walked into Hermes, went over to the Hermessence scents and picked up a bottle – Brin de Reglisse – and on first sniff my knees began to buckle. It was heaven in scented format. Everything I loved. The sun kissed smell of lavender from Provence, the caramelised spiciness of long black liquorice, a facet of coffee, and a feature of hay and caramel. Everything I loved was captured in scent. It was a study of liquorice. A snapshot of Provence, reminding me of my times in tearooms scented with lavender and refinement.

I was so thrilled by this reaction that I had to tell someone. And so, I started my blog: Olfactics. With only a year of proper experience under my belt, but indeed a lifetime’s experience of wearing scent, I felt I was prepared to tell the world what scent is to me, and how it moves me (or sometimes, fails to!).

Brin still lies close to my heart, right next to Habit Rouge and Portrait of a Lady (and… and… So many more).

So APJ’ers, what scent started your obsession?

-Liam.

Blogger at Olfactics

Santal Massoïa by Jean-Claude Ellena for Hermès 2011

June 17, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Post by Liam

There is no secret that I dislike gourmand perfumes: I can’t stand them! But, there’s another side of myself that secretly adores the sort of gourmand that doesn’t make itself out to be one. Shalimar and L’Heure Bleue are considered gourmands to an extent, but perhaps because whilst they themselves are totally and utterly edible perfumes (Shalimar oscillates beautifully between incense oriental and vanilla dessert amazingly), they do not actively come across as perfumes designed to be eaten. This is where my distinction is drawn. I am a gourmand loving anti-gourmand fan, who happens to love vanillas, chocolatey patchouli and milky woods when they don’t market themselves as edible.

Santal Massoïa by Jean-Claude Ellena for Hermès 2011

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords: in one line:
Massoïa wood resin from New Guinea, coconut, peach, butterscotch, sandalwood, milk sweets, dried fruits

Jean-Claude Ellena (my favourite perfumer) has treated Santal Massoïa as a meditation on the characteristics of wood notes in perfume. ““There are linear, vertical woods like cedar, and others that are horizontal, round, supple and velvet-smooth, such as sandalwood and massoïa”. Ellena grapples the curvaceous facets of sandalwood and massoïa, and bolsters it to intensify comfort, like an embrace or a soft blanket. Gone are the vertical conventions of wood found often in masculine scents, as Santal Massoïa has been scrubbed down to reveal a genderless woods fragrance, with its apparent lightness an overall illusion.

The result then is a creamy creation, round and indirectly delicious, pushing Ellena’s trademark minimalism to the very edge, described by Chandler Burr as: “maximal minimalism”. Massoïa wood and sandalwood maintain inherent lactic qualities, cradled gently in a bath of warm milk and carmel. To add complexity, Ellena adds an additional dimension of florals and fruits, taking indolic creamy white florals (jasmine, and perhaps tuberose stripped of its carnal severity) with moreish fruits, such as apricots and the sweet skin of green figs. Together, this creates an encompassing impression of coconut and dulce de leche (custard), again, this is warm, decadent and skin-like. A sort of luminism with a clear depiction of calm, and a natural stillness creating beauty.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

The sandalwood here is assertive and importantly doesn’t smell synthetic, opening with a tropical humid quality that at certain angles appears wet and nutty, with a tame oiliness. Thus, there are pleasantly pungent aromatic hits from time to time, which is nasally very pleasing and thankfully breaks the wooded monotony. Inviting yet distant, Santal Massoïa trails away with frothy lactic notes and a green fruitiness, but always pulls back into familiarity with gourmand impressions of creamy desserts and scintillating florals.

This fragrance becomes a very elegant second skin that moulds with the wearer and additionally with the seasons. It smells clean and inviting, with it smelling dense in nature but not heavy. I wear this for quiet periods and nervous moments, as I closely project a welcoming and warm presence.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Non Blonde
Hermès stores stock the Hermèssence range exclusively
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml

What’s your second skin fragrance?

-Liam

Rumba by Jean-Claude Ellena and Ron Winnegrad for Balenciaga/Ted Lapidus 1988

June 6, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Post by Anne-Marie

Got a spare $20 or $30? Spend it on Rumba. Stop reading this review and go do it. Tell them Anne-Marie sent you.

Still here? Want the full story? Well, Rumba is a complicated fragrance to review. Although it was released by Balanciaga in 1988 (or 1989, according to some sources), the rights were later bought by Ted Lapidus and the fragrance is now packaged (identically) under that name. I don’t know when the switch occurred; less than 10 years ago, deducing from various online reviews.

Rumba by Balenciaga/Ted Lapidus 1988

Rumba by Jean-Claude Ellena and Ron Winnegrad

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured notes:
Top: Bergamot, plum, basil, peach, orange blossom, raspberry, mirabelle
Heart: Honey, jasmine, tuberose, carnation, heliotrope, magnolia, gardenia, lily-of-the-valley, orchid, marigold, rose
Base: Ambergris, vanilla, leather, tonka bean, patchouli, musk, sandalwood, cedar, plum, styrax, oakmoss

I’m reviewing the Lapidus version. The notes are almost identical (mirabelle, ambergris and rose are added). I have not smelled the Balenciaga, so please comment if you have compared them. From reviews, it sounds as if the Lapidus team opened a window to let some fresh air to circulate between the notes. I’m glad of that, because even the Lapidus is one helluva fragrance.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Spraying Rumba is like letting the 1980s out of a bottle. Hop over to Spotify and pull up a 1980s playlist. That. At opening, intensely cooked fruit is modified – very interestingly – by a damp herbal accord (bergamot and basil). The next phase is not so pleasing. I get a harsh and, well, vulgar white flower accord, tuberose in particular, typical of the era. Oakmoss is supposed to be a basenote, but dear God! Here it is already.

Eventually Rumba calms down, and although it’s been fun, I’m glad. I can’t listen to Bonnie Tyler and Def Leppard all night, sorry. Vanilla is NOT a note I love unreservedly but here, unsweetened, it is wonderfully balanced with dry, smoky, leathery notes. So it’s goodbye to the 1980s, and hello to today’s niche/experimental style of fragrance. (And how much of that can you get for under $40?)

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Rumba is an unsubtle scent; not a morning fragrance at all, really. Apply it in moderation in the afternoon, well before leaving the house, and it will take you into evening and on until the following morning.

Further reading: Now Smell This and Bois de Jasmin
FragranceNet has $23/100ml before coupon

I suspect that Rumba is often treated as an historical curiosity, more talked about than worn. Because yes, it was co-developed by Jean-Claude Ellena, famous now for his elusive, delicate etudes for Hermes. But give Rumba some skin time, judge it on its merits, and have fun!

Anne-Marie XXX

Vétiver Tonka by Jean Claude Ellena for Hermès 2004

May 16, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Heya APJ Frag Family,

You might remember that I bought an Hermès 4 x 15ml Travel Set while on holidays. Vetiver is one of my favourite notes, not just for its amazingly versatile scent profile but also because the grass is so useful in many different ways, anyway here is one of the clever ways Jean-Claude Ellena sees vetiver.

Vétiver Tonka by Jean Claude Ellena for Hermès 2004

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords in one line:
Hazelnut, Lily-of-the-valley, Praliné, Sandalwood, Tobacco, Tonka bean, Vetiver

I really enjoy the melange that Vétiver Tonka offers up while still wet on your skin; it’s like the whole note list wants to meet you all at once. In the first 10 seconds I smell quite distinctly the austere, dry yet fresh greenness of vetiver, the sweetness of sugared lollies and nutty sweets, creamy sandalwood and a whisper of the dewy fresh prim white floral that is lily of the valley. They all pop out in succession as if you are meeting them on a conveyor belt.

Then something interesting happens on my skin, at about the two minute mark they all decide it’s time to get friendly and create a fragrance. The beautiful slightly salty, little bit bitter green smoky dryness of vetiver is front and center but everything else then becomes a fragrant cushion that surrounds and bolsters the star.

Photo Stolen Hermès

As we go further into the heart of Vétiver Tonka the sweetness starts to really shine through. A lovely shiny patina of creamy caramel with the slightly dry bite of nuts waltz through and around the vetiver creating some very interesting fragrant formations that keep my nose fresh to the scent and my wrist lifted permanently in front of my face. Thank goodness I’m home and not out, it would be embarrassing.

It’s interesting wearing Vétiver Tonka to review rather than as my scent of the day. I am much more able to detect subtle differences in its moods, during a regular wear I get occasional wafts of sweet creamy woods that make me smile through the day but in my room on close inspection the heart is caramelised and smoky, the nuttiness shines through more too. A sweet dryness prevails to the end, very elegant and totally unisex.

Longevity is really good most days but some days I spray on Vétiver Tonka and it seems to disappear before the two hour mark. No I can’t work out why, there seems to be no defining circumstances but I have only worn a 3ml sample in the past and now this is my fourth wear since buying my 15ml four pack.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Further reading: What Men Should Smell Like and Olfactoria’s Travels
Hermessence are available only in Hermès stores or onlineSurrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml

How do you like your vetiver? Dry and stark or warm and delicious?
Portia xx