Hermès has launched five new fragrances in the brand’s luxury Hermessence line. Agar Ebène, Cèdre Sambac and Myrrhe Eglantine are available in the Eau de Toilette concentration typical of the series; Cardamusc and Musc Pallida are in oil-based Essence de Parfum.
All were inspired by the Middle East, and developed by Hermès house perfumer Christine Nagel, who notes that they can be worn alone or layered…
[Christine] Nagel recounts how, when the fragrance industry discovered many women enjoy sugary and caramel notes in a scent, brands only wanted to test perfumes with a quantity of these notes.“For this reason, we started with one sugary perfume, two sugary perfume, three sugary perfume. And now, when a big brand wants a perfume with a lot of success, they put these ingredients in it,” she says. “For me, it’s terrible because it’s stagnant.”
— Read more at Perfume perfection: Hermès in-house perfumer Christine Nagel spills her scent secrets at Vancouver Sun.
The background: Twilly d’Hermès is the latest fragrance launch from Hermès. It’s aimed at young women and was inspired by the freedom and creativity with which they “transform” Hermès scarves, and “appropriate Hermès’ codes to do other things”.1 A twilly, in case you don’t know (or care) from scarves, is the brand’s long thin silk scarf (see example here), and indeed people wear them all sorts of ways: as neck scarves, as headbands, as belts, as purse accessories, etc. At the moment, a 32″ x 2″ Twilly runs $160 in the US.
The juice: Hermès house perfumer Christine Nagel decided she would likewise “transform” or “twist” her raw materials…
[Millennials] twist everything, they transform. They appropriate Hermès’ codes to do other things. I said to myself, it’s an interesting way to see things, and perhaps that could simply be a way to formulate [perfume] differently. If I take the major codes of perfumery and I shake them up a little, can I obtain other textures? So I started with that idea. I chose to twist three of perfumery’s raw materials: ginger, a white spice; tuberose, a flower that is a bit disconcerting, and sandalwood, an elegant wood.
— Perfumer Christine Nagel on the inspirations for Twilly d’Hermès. From Twilly d’Hermès Scent to Court Millennials at Women's Wear Daily (paywall).
Hermès will launch Twilly d’Hermès, a new fragrance for women, in August. Twilly is aimed at young women, and named for the brand’s narrow Twilly scarves…