The Different Company has launched its sixth perfume, Sel de Vetiver.
It is the second entry in the line from perfumer Celine Ellena, and includes notes of grapefruit, cardamom, Bourbon geranium, lovage, Haitian vetiver, patchouli, iris and ylang ylang. Inspirations for the fragrance are said to include the scent of salt drying on the skin after bathing in the sea…
You can watch a brief piece on perfumer Jean Claude Ellena on France3 (in French, obviously). Choose the broadcast from March 21, and then go to the last segment of the show. Thank you to Anya for the link!
Terre d’Hermès is the latest fragrance for men from Hermès. It was created by perfumer Jean Claude Ellena, and it is worth repeating the fragrance description I posted back in December:
The vegetable and mineral juice, made without animal by-products or musk, sparkles with orange (specifically formulated for Hermès by Albert Vieille) and grapefruit that blends with flint for a mineral note, and combines with pepper, bay rose, geranium, patchouli, benzoin and vetiver around the central note of Atlas cedar to enhance its Earthly tones. (via cosmeticnews)
According to Escentual, the fragrance is meant to be the masculine counterpart to Hermès Eau des Merveilles: “This is for the man who has his feet firmly on the ground, but his head is in the stars.”
What struck me when I smelled Terre d’Hermès was how accurately the smell of the finished product could be determined by the information given above…
Perfumer Jean Claude Ellena is profiled in the latest issue of Forbes. On the creation of the upcoming Terre d'Hermes, said to have been inspired by the writings of Jean Giono:
“Little by little, I had the idea to create a fragrance using only mineral and vegetable scents–no animal notes, no musk. The easy way would have been to build it on a base of vetiver, but that’s already been done…
Yesterday’s Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert is a very light fragrance, with minimal lasting power. In response to the demand for something stronger and longer lasting, Bvlgari introduced Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert Extreme, aka Green Tea Extreme, in 1996. Like the original, it was created by Jean Claude Ellena, and the notes are also the same: bergamot, orange blossom, cardamom, coriander, pepper, rose, jasmine, green tea, oakmoss, tonka bean, and beeswax.
As you would expect, the Extreme is a deeper fragrance than the original. It starts with the same mix of citrus and spices, but the spices are heavier, and I find the pepper to be much more pronounced in relation to the cardamom and coriander…