Perhaps it is befitting that I start my blog with a post relating to Hermes. Hermes being a preeminent luxury brand with a storied history dating back to the 1830s, is one of the few global brands today that still maintain a true sense of luxury. Hermes started with leather saddle making, and today makes everything from saddles, to silk scarves, to ready-to-wear clothing.
I read about Hermes' perfume business in Dana Thompson's book Deluxe. The stories about "the nose" or perfumer, and the work and ingredients that he puts into the Hermes perfumes fascinated me. It seemed that every Hermes fragrance was accompanied by a story about the perfume--A Garden on the Mediterranean, A Garden on the Nile, and A Garden after the Monsoon--a story that should lead you to fantasize about the aromas. I wanted to experience the smells of A Garden on the Nile. I was giddy with anticipation while illusions of these smells ran through my head. I daydreamed that I would be transported to the Nile and smell the lotus flowers, the rich earthy soil, and perhaps if I was lucky, a mysterious fragrance that would enchant my senses.
Whatever it was going to be, I was excited. I went straight to the perfume section of the Hermes store and one by one, I removed the caps of all the bottles of perfumes and took whiffs. Grass, incense, wood, citrus, vanilla, each bottle smelled of these different elements. Before long, a sales clerk was politely standing behind me as I took in more aromas from the bottles. I soon started a conversation with the sales clerk by asking him if Hermes sells any colognes being that I am a man. He responded by gently saying that colognes were actually lower quality perfumes, which I immediately remembered reading the difference between perfumes and colognes was perhaps just nominal. It was stated somewhere that if there is a difference in composition, colognes simply contain more alcohol and therefore have the stronger alcoholic smell that we associate with fragrances for men.
The sales clerk asked me if I was seeking a masculine scent to which responded yes. He started off by spraying a mist of Voyage d'Hermes on a scent card. I took one whiff and I liked it. There was certainly a prominent alcohol smell, characteristic of many men's fragrances, but it was not overpowering, and well balanced out by notes that I associate with the ocean, fruits of the northern hemisphere, and a bouquet of flowers. I was told it was Hermes' new scent, which had only been on the market for a few weeks. I could see why--Voyage d'Hermes did not smell unique or particularly natural compared to the perfumes that I would soon be given. This fragrance reminded me of a mix of Aqua Di Gio and CK One. Perhaps Hermes intentionally made this fragrance to be more democratic and in line with all the other mass fragrances of the day. The sales clerk soon pulled out another bottle from a drawer and sprayed. I smelled incense, grass, herbs and leaves. I was transported back to an old apothecary store I entered as a child that sold incense and voodoo magic items. Next up, I smelled something that reminded me of Chinese beef jerky. He seemed both shocked and amused when I told him and said, "let's move on because I doubt you want to smell like beef jerky." This fragrance didn't smell bad. It simply reminded me of weekend trips with my family when they brought along a host of Chinese and Asian snacks.
The sales clerk handed me card after card of fragrances and I smelled everything from tobacco, to pure musk, to roots and plants and everything in between. In the end, I came to love Un Jardin Apres La Mousson. It smelled of fruits of the tropics, sweet delicate flowers, with hints of candy and maybe even a little bit of vetiver. Everything about Un Jardin Apres La Mousson was understated and incredibly refreshing. It also smelled natural, unlike much of the other scents on the market these days. It led me to imagine that perhaps a lush fragrant garden in India does smell like this after a monsoon--when the cool rain waters have toned down an otherwise overbearing cacophony of smells into soft notes of fruits, hints of flower, and delicate vetiver.
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