Fragrances Boutique

I don’t think the new Eau Claire des Merveilles from Hermès has officially launched yet, but it’s on counter at Hermès boutiques and at Nordstrom. Depending on how you count, it’s the 3rd or 4th flanker to 2004’s Eau des Merveilles, which has already been joined by Parfum des Merveilles and Elixir des Merveilles.

Eau Claire des Merveilles, which was developed by Hermès house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, is pretty much exactly as it was described in the press materials: delicate, soft and sparkling, with powder notes and vanilla. The start is wonderfully fizzy citrus soda; that softens into a creamy-sweet (but airy) cosmetic powder, lightly vanillic, with just a hint of the salty woody amber from the original Eau des Merveilles underneath…

Hermès will launch Eau Claire des Merveilles, a new flanker to 2004’s Eau des Merveilles, in September…

Radio Netherlands Worldwide talks briefly to Serge Lutens, Jean-Claude Ellena and Thorstein Biehl in the radio show Enjoying the scent-uous experience of perfume as artwork for the nose. About 5 minutes long. Many thanks to Alison for the link!

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…

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…