Twilly d'Hermès Eau Poivrée
Eau de Parfum, Hermès (2019)

Unneeded review:
Clockwork Alice calls it right
Let me harmonize

As Twilly d’Hermès
Dragged by Patchouli back to
Conventional space

Where Fruitchouli Rose
A fruit, not a veg’table
Sephora goddess

Throws X chromosomes
Like Australian boomerangs
And speaking of which

Along comes Pepper
Like Australian Sandalwood
Pink but not too Pink

Wearing her Black hat
But let me repeat myself
As Twilly d’Hermès

Slides into Normville
By all these tricks and then some
There is some magic

Remaining conserved
Some lovable Twilliness
That makes us all smile

Which Twilly is best?
Redneck the Barbarian
Laughs but answers not!

Like the original, a simple sequence of three core notes with a few sidelines, but the result varies accordingly.

Here the pink pepper clearly leads the opening gambit, but I get whiffs of a gentle incense impression superimposed during the initial phase.

The drydown adds a rose core. It is a rose that is quite rich on the one side, but it is a dull richness that neither sparkles nor impresses by intensity.

The base presents a soft and somewhat unimpressive patchouli that is very inoffensive, lacking any earthiness, sharpness or vividness.

I get moderate sillage, very good projection and seven hours of longevity on my skin.

Compared to the original, this flanker has a bit more pepper in to that provides a nicer balance to the sweet components without giving up on its overall richness. On the other hand, it shares the generic character and the synthetic character with the original, but the latter is less egregious compared to the original. The rose is nothing to write home about. Overall not bad but not enticing either. 2.75/5.

I thought at first - oh, an even more pink bottle with more boring notes. No ginger that made Twilly so lovely! Ah. But I still tried it next to original - how could I resist?

The interesting thing is that they actually used these completely different main notes - pink pepper instead of ginger, rose instead of tuberose and patchouli instead of sandalwood - to achieve the same mood, the same idea and the same feeling. I mean, you spritz each on your different wrists, and you smell them, and you get the feeling that these are two paintings of the same landscape (or portrait, or nature morte), just done with different colours.

They are very different, but they still are sisters.
I really liked that.

I think I even liked the new Poivrée version a tiny bit more than original - but of course, my favours may change in the future. The original is still probably more unique with its sour ginger, as pink pepper is really prevalent everywhere nowadays – as is rose. But I thoroughly enjoyed the really punchy pepper (it starts off stronger than it's usual for pink pepper, it's similar to black pepper to me at the start, though it mellows down and softens later, unfortunately) and I liked the slightly sour combo of rose and patchouli probably a bit more than slightly sweet and creamy combo of tuberose and sandalwood of original.

For now, I'm not planning to get myself neither one of the sisters, but I'd be really glad to get any of them as a gift. They both are pretty cheerful and energetic, and optimistic, and young, and carefree, and stylish, and pretty. Just like the ad says.