Blanc Canvas fashion editorial, photo by Corrie Bond for Marie Claire Australia, Aug 2012
As the new fragrance director of Hermes, Christine Nagel came out of the gate with Galop d'Hermes and followed it smartly with last year’s popular, award-winning Twilly. But the Hermessence range was Jean-Claude Ellena’s signature, each fragrance characterized by his indelible elegance. In Hermessence, Ellena showcased his rare ability to layer raw and synthetic materials in a way that gave his perfumes a radiance and translucence unmatched in modern perfumery. One wondered quite what Nagel would do with the line: continue Ellena’s trademark style or stake new ground.
Christine Nagel, photo by Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello
The answer is both. Agar Ebene, which my colleague Clayton Illolahia wrote about here a few days ago, and Myrrhe Eglantine, which Ida Meister reviewed, have a filmy sparseness that fits well with lucent Ellena creations such as Iris Yukoie and Poivre Samarkande. But Cedre Sambac is a departure and bears Nagel’s stamp in bold typeface; a creamy, multifaceted, jasmine with a transparent overlay of cedarwood that glances at the style of the earlier renderings.
Flora by Titian, c. 1515-20
The opening of Hermes Hermessence Cedre Sambac made me think it might be an homage to Ellena: from the neck of the bottle a green stem-water lily note floats up alongside fresh, incandescent jasmine. But the moment it hits my skin, this Fragonard ingenue turns Titian; creamy, honeyed expanses of white petals, pinches of spice and the smell of warm flesh make me realize this is no Ellena tribute.
Photo by Zhang Jingna©
While only jasmine and cedar are listed in the notes, the nutmeg spiciness of the early stages signals gardenia, while Hermes Hermessence Cedre Sambac’s butrytic tang would make me swear to tuberose also. This is not a virginal, green, woodsy or indolic jasmine but all of them at different moments. It is jasmine squared.
Mustard Seed Forest, art installation by Yang Li©
The second stage – and I would say that Cedre Sambac has essentially two stages rather than the classic three – is a cedar note, its characteristic melancholy lightened and refined. The roles of flower and forest are reversed: the white blossoms are heady, dense, tactile; the woods watery and lucid. The middle and dry-down tumble into each other in the sense that I am caught unaware that a soapy musk has entered, the white flowers have become satiny and quiet. The lactonic facets remain prominent but are muted by the weave of woods and musk. The buttery jasmine stays forward while the cedar returns as a looping melody, reappearing from time to time like a lovely spectre.
Harbor Puff by Mark Divincenzo, gouache on paper
If Ellena’s work for Hermes was the art of a watercolourist, Nagel’s Cedre Sambac opts for gouache: a denser, more pigmented variation on a theme, and one that is very much her own.
Disclaimer: Sample of Hermes Hermessence Cedre Sambac generously provided by Hermes. My opinions are my own.
– Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Hermes Hermessence Cedre Sambac courtesy of Hermes©
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