Jour d’Hermès

So the other day I had a few moments off and decided to sidle up to Saks and see what was around. One thing I didn’t care for, this one I did. Quite a lot in fact.

Jour d’Hermès is perhaps one of the most perfect antidotes to winter doldrums I can think of: it’s a soft, rather quiet and somewhat aquatic floral with a light skin0musk dry down that while I’m sure would be a great scent in summer, in winter is the olfactory equivalent of collecting vacation brochures from the Riviera or Rio. You can imagine yourself sitting on a sunny terrace at some beachside resort while you contentedly write poetry in your (no doubt Hermès) journal, while a tall, heavily iced gin and tonic is offered by a tall, heavily muscled footman.

Jour d’Hermès is Jean-Claude Ellena all over: the way it manages to almost weightless but at the same time pervasive. It’s almost ghostly in the way that you seem to always seem to have just smelled it on you, but only a breath of it. It has great lasting power: I got about 10 hours out of it. At $149 for 2.9 oz in the big crystal bottle it’s even reasonable. There’s also a refill that’s $130 for 4.2 oz if you really fall in love.

Available at Saks (where I tested) and other stores with a Jour d’Hermès counter.

Photo: my iPhone