Un Jardin sur le Nil
Hermès (2005)

Very vegetal, green watery citrus scent. This is super strange, i get the tomato leaf right away, its sharp and green. It pairs very well with the unripe green mango. This is one of the strangest summer scents i tried so far, its rather challenging to my nose. I will need more wears to truly get this...

Anyone who has spoken with me or has read my words on various perfumes will note that I levy very few criticisms towards Hermes. Call it a bias or a preference if you want, or just a big ol' blind spot, you might be right, it's true that there is a very, very small number of Hermes perfumes that I think are substandard; especially for a designer house, my opinion is that they deliver a strong quality perfume far more often than not. The only consistent criticism I have of Hermes is their nonsensical marketing, particularly as it relates to the silly and/or misleading names of their perfumes (I still can't believe they named their flagship feminine Twilly, what a silly name for an otherwise tremendous perfume; or their latest flagship masculine H24, denigrating a very interesting new style of masculine with some faddish name suited to a hipster coffee bar or brewery). The Jardins are the most frequent recipients of this criticism, whose names have precious little to do with the perfume itself and seem to be more of a braggart that some Hermes hotshots and Jean-Claude Ellena got to travel all over the world to find "inspiration" for them - who do they think they are, Louis Vuitton? Anyway. Nothing about JslN evokes a garden on the Nile, but it is evocative in that JCE's signature style is deftly executed once again and this perfume is an easy pathway to an easy smile. The top notes of mango and grapefruit are lovely. Citrusy zesty, rich and tropical thanks to the mango, clean, fresh, luminous, transparent, and endlessly breathable. I don't know about you, but nothing about mango or grapefruit says "Nile" to me. The heart notes of a gently rooty iris accord and a floral of some sort have been given the same treatment. Apparently, they are calamus and lotus according to Hermes. Calamus and lotus are Southeast Asian. JslN eases its way almost indistinguishably into the base note of a sparkling, resinous, and "green" frankincense accord (which is Oriental) that keeps the perfume going much longer than you'd expect for a modern EdT but yet manages to feel light and fresh throughout its lifespan in keeping with 'leur Jardins' mandate. If you're looking for something that transports you to African locales reliant upon that bringer-of-life, the Nile, look elsewhere. If you want a light, effervescent, zesty and gently fruity and floral, luminous, refreshing summer cologne in that JCE minimalist style, this one is for you. It's for me, too. I love it.

Grapefruit and I have a rocky relationship, at least when it comes to my skin. While I love the taste and aroma, something happens where a grapefruit-forward fragrance will read as quite sulphurous and acrid when I wear it. The exception to this is Un Jardin Sur le Nil. Leave it to Jean Claude Ellena to make grapefruit "work" for me.

Opening bright and sour, juicy and sunny, its radiance on my skin is a summer salve. A tomato leaf that comes through a few minutes in begins to feel like a walk through a victory garden, all manners of vegetable and fruit, not quite yet ripe, still green, harbingers of a harvest on the vine. Then Ellena's usage of a cassis base with other elements does render the feel of an immature, tart mango.

Further into its heart, onward to its base, the grapefruit seems to seamlessly crossfade into an ever more watery, impressionistic floral, with a softer green, feeling more herbaceous over time. At a certain point, it feels as paced and still as a tea ceremony, with a breeze rustling some bamboo. It feels lucid down to its final traces.

Lathering hotel shampoo on a potted plant. Soapy carwash of a 2005 Mazda Tribute. Cracking black pepper on a Macy's employee

I spray it on every year thinking I might finally appreciate it, but it's just as sharp and cheap smelling as I remembered it being. Too bad...the bottle is the only pretty thing about it.

Mangos, tomato leaves, and carrot. It doesn't smell like V8, because the grapefruit brings it out of being too dense. As many have mentioned, Hermes' Garden line is like watercolour. It's transparent, clean, green, and a bit fruity. You're letting the whites of the smooth hot-pressed watercolor paper to shine through the green colours. With high quality paints like Daniel Smith watercolors to get the vibrant orange tone of the mango and carrot, and vibrant blue to capture other florals.

There's some layering of the notes to give it a blended smell, but it is never cloying or dense. It's not an acrylic or oil painting so it comes at the expense of longevity and performance.

This was one of my favourites from Hermes for being so green and calm, but I've moved onto other scents like Neon Graffiti from Jazmin Sarai and Viola from Fiele Fragrances for doing a better job portraying green notes. However, this is still a must-try. Give it a test at an Hermes boutique or a department store.