All my adult life, I’ve been employed in offices where perfume was adored by my co-workers. (Yes, my passion for fragrance sometimes fueled this interest.) As I wore new perfumes each day, stocked up on samples of rare and unusual and hard-to-find colognes, almost everyone in my office wanted to smell what I was wearing, give me their on-the-spot reviews, serve as “second-skin” guinea pigs, and enjoy all the samples I gave them.

That atmosphere vanished last winter when I began working in a place where few people wore perfume (and nobody had any interest in it). Though there was not a “no-perfume” office policy, I immediately started wearing light, citrus-y perfumes at work, perfumes that didn’t extend their reach far beyond my person. I’ve been preparing for summer by making a list of possible new perfume candidates for office-friendly wear. Hermès Terre d’Hermès Eau Très Fraîche shot to the top of my list.

I like original Terre d’Hermès (2006), but I’ve never bought a bottle…though I’ve come pretty close…

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