Some of you may be aware that I own a bottle of Terre de Hermes. In fact it was one of the first bottles of perfume I was given during the first year in which I fell seriously in love with perfume.
Perfumes come and go, as we all know, but Terre de Hermes has become, in my view, a modern classic. It's smell is instantly recognisable, perhaps not as much so as say Le Male, but once you've smelt it, I hazard a guess that you will never forget it. Not that it is a polarising fragrance, mind you. In some ways it is a fairly straightforward perfume - orange, woods and a mineral accord, with vetiver. But as is so often the case with the truly great perfumes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and what Jean Claude Elena did here is nothing short of genius.
It's not often I say this of a mainstream fragrance, but Terre de Hermes is in my opinion one of the best perfumes released in the last decade, mainstream or niche.
Incidentally, I don't often receive compliments on my perfumes, but a lady at my work complimented me on Terre de Hermes and it isn't the first time this has happened when wearing this one!
Yes! Absolutely! Vetiver, grapefruit(?) and slate, pure genius.
ReplyDeleteSometimes when a fragrance is a great big success I think perfume people drop it, because it's not recherche anymore. But this one is really a brilliant perfume.
Blacknall, yes I think you're correct, it is a grapefruit note, I believe, although to me the overall vibe of the perfume is orangey. I agree that a lot of very good perfumes get overlooked that way, in the rush to review or try the next big thing, niche or otherwise.
Delete