Still Life with Fruit and Ginger Jar by Paul Cezanne (1895)

In the course of trying new fragrances there seem to be streaks of similar aesthetics that seem to arrive in bunches. In the last couple of months it seems some of my favorite perfumers are out to make me work for my pleasure as they present slightly discordant, but amazing, compositions. While I appreciate this kind of perfumery a steady diet of anything is not the way I like to take my pleasures. I am the epitome of variety is the spice of life. After this course of complex perfume it was a joy to receive samples of the two new Hermes Eau de Colognes, Eau de Mandarine Ambree and Eau de Narcisse Bleu by Jean-Claude Ellena; these turned out to be the perfect antidote.

After being challenged so much recently one of the unintended by-products of getting these two fragrances after that was it really made me examine them more closely. When I’m reviewing a fragrance full of discordant notes it is like being on the deck of a ship in rough seas. It takes work for me to keep my focus, and balance. Like those imaginary seas it takes a while for me to notice that the water has calmed and the sun is out. As a result I was more keenly tuned in than I might have been at a different time when wearing both of these. This was a good thing because I think for the first time I see the fine balance M. Ellena uses to create his effects and I really enjoyed both of them. Like the pair that was released in 2009, Eau de Pamplemousse Rose and Eau de Gentiane Blanche, one is very much an easy to wear crowd pleaser and the other one is a little less eager to please.

Eau de Mandarine Ambree is the one that I think will be the easier of the two to wear. It is a simple set of notes with the titular notes of amber and mandarin joined by passionfruit. It is the note that is not in the name that is the key to my enjoyment of Eau de Mandarine Ambree. The opening is a blast of mandarin and passionfruit. The passionfruit is so prominent on me at first I wondered why this wasn’t called Eau de Passionfruit Ambree . It turns the early moments of this into something akin to a paper umbrella cocktail but it then settles down pretty quickly into a really nice balance of fruit.  The orange is slightly tart so as to play the perfect foil to the intensely sweet passionfruit. While all this is nice it is when the amber begins to radiate a heat from below that this really takes off. At first I notice a very slight shift to less sweet and that intensifies over the next half an hour or so until at the end the amber acts like a bit of summer warmth shining down on the fruit. I really like the way this developed on my skin as it was never uninteresting and it is as easy to wear as a t-shirt. I have a feeling this is going to get a lot of Saturday morning chores and shopping wears because it is such an easygoing fragrance but with something more interesting there to enjoy.

Eau de Narcisse Bleu is a cologne of a different color, no pun intended, as here there is a much more focused effect centered on the narcissus at the heart. In this case M. Ellena starts with a very green galbanum which is quickly matched with the narcissus. Pretty soon there are some synthetic woods which appear and together this gives the impression of the leaves, stems, and flowers of a narcissus in bloom. The galbanum almost reached a challenging level but it was the narcissus which overrides it and puts it in its place. Eau de Narcisse Bleu is more about a complete effect than a real development as it stayed pretty steadily this way throughout the two days I wore it.  From a purely creative aspect I think Eau de Narcisse Bleu is the better fragrance but as it was with Eau de Gentiane Blanche I won’t be picking it up as often as I will its partner.

Both of these Eau de Colognes have about 6-8 hour longevity and above average sillage.

I am very sure that both of these will appeal to the same audience that Eau de Pamplemousse Rose and Eau de Gentiane Blanche did four years ago. Depending on which of those was your favorite I expect that it will break along the same lines for most who try the new ones. In this current evolution of the eau de cologne currently going on Eau de Mandarine Ambree and Eau de Narcisse Bleu show different ways to re-interpret a classic olfactory architecture without getting all Bauhaus with it. I like the simplicity, or as EIC Michelyn Camen likes to say about M. Ellena’s fragrances the simplexity, of them. These are both excellent choices for a summer day.

Disclosure: this review was based on samples I obtained from the Hermes store in Vienna, VA.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor