Jour d’Hermès

IMG_2144So 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

  • Eva S says:

    This one is lovely, and the bottle truly is gorgeous! I’ve been using it a lot lately.

  • Datura5750 says:

    Thanks again for a great review, I really love this and just feel happy every time I put it on!

  • rosiegreen62 says:

    Tom, you really have to stop torturing me. Now I really want to smell this. I love the idea of the virtual vacation complete with iced G&T, it is my favorite drink.

  • tammy says:

    I will take the heavily muscled footman, and leave the Jour d’ Hermes for everyone else to enjoy.

    Because I’m a giver.

    (And because this doesn’t sound like my kind of thing.)

    But mostly ‘cuz I’m a giver.

  • Ann says:

    Hi, Tom! Glad you mentioned this one — I kind of liked it, too. Most of the Hermes releases (save for the Hermessence range) leave me sort of blah. And that melon one (Mousson?) sent me scurrying out of the boutique as fast as my legs would carry me. But this one is quite pretty and wearable. Now is it just me or does that pretty bottle deserve a far, far better-looking cap?

    • sasha says:

      Ann, I hate the cap. Hate it. I got a deal on a 30ml bottle at duty free and am still kind of ambivalent about the scent. It’s really pretty, but there’s a slightly sour/synthetic note in the drydown that I can’t quite come to love.

    • tammy says:

      Agreed! That cheap looking cap ruins an otherwise gorgeous bottle. Better in person, maybe?

    • Tom says:

      I think the cap looks better in person, but I’m not a big bottle person.