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Post by Margeaux

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Hi Stinkies! My my how time flies and here we are in June already. As the days got a little cooler, I came to realise that most of my scents are geared towards summer. As I embark further on my fragrant explorations, I’m becoming more adventurous and so I recently purchased a box of samples from My Perfume Samples. A very big box. I can now safely call myself a junkie because that box contained no less than 36 vials of stink. Junkie = Yes!. Problem = No! I’ll be the best smelling boy on the block or I’ll die trying lol

Terre d’Hermes by Hermes 2006

So the first one out of the box in true lucky dip style is Terre d’Hermes by Hermes. Now this is a decant of the EDT, not the parfum, and was created in 2006 by the talented Jean-Claude Ellena.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica lists the following featured accords:
Top: Orange, Grapefruit
Heart: Pepper, Pelargonium
Base: Patchouli, Benzoin, Vetiver, Cedar

Looking at the ingredients above, this should be an absolute slam-dunk of a fragrance for me. I love woods, pepper, patchouli and vetiver and can’t wait to give this a go. Doing these reviews I’m practically bathing in the smell so that it invades the space and demands my attention. I can get a little distracted so I’ve found that this is the best way for me.

Spritz, spritz, spritz….. wait for the alcohol to go and then inhale. Mmmm, now that is delicious – full of the citrus fruits that smell clean and sweet but not so sweet as to be sickly. Terre d’Hermes is refreshing, delicious sweetness. I’m not usually a huge fan of orange in particular, or perhaps those fragrances from before that include it just weren’t well made. But here, orange and grapefruit work so well.

Photo Stolen wikinut

My nose is still quite naïve and is slowly starting to work properly again after smoking for over 20 years, and these reviews force me to look closer at the ingredients. I had no idea about Pelargonium but read that it’s a type of geranium and commonly used in masculine fragrances to provide a flowery note. Now that I know this, it’s easy to spot it as the middle ingredients lift the curtain on the second act. The pepper doesn’t run wild and to my nose, it’s the pelargonium that does most of the heavy lifting here.

As we hit the final act of this Hermes production, I’m overwhelmed by just how good Terre d’Hermes is. These last notes swirl together like best friends, in a classy joyous embrace that is at once astounding and yet comfortable too. It’s not overtly masculine (one reviewer described this scent as what a lumberjack would likely wear!), and in fact I could see this easily being worn by women that love the notes offered.

Photo Stolen wallpaper-source

Sillage is fantastic, and many hours later I find that although I can easily smell the Terre d’Hermes that I sprayed onto the back of my hand hours earlier, while I type and as I pause for the next word, I can’t help but draw my hand to my nose for a deeper, full sniff. This is divine and what truly great fragrance should be like.

Further reading: Portia on AustralianPerfumeJunkies and BoisDeJasmin
My Perfume Samples has Terre d’Hermes from $2.50/ml to $7.50/5ml
FrangranceNet offers a 50ml from $67

See you next month.
M xx