Hermes Fragrances: Timeless Or Tired?

Hermes is a French luxury goods house founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermes. The perfume adventure began in 1951 with Eau d'Hermes, composed by Edmond Roudnitska, one of the greatest creative spirits in the world of fragrances.

The house's first women's perfume, Caleche, was launched in 1961, confirming Hermes' involvement in the craft of perfume creation. Since then, Hermes has released numerous fragrances, each signed by the great names of perfume design.

The Terre d'Hermes line, launched in 2006, is a woody spicy fragrance for men. The top notes are orange and grapefruit; middle notes are pepper, pelargonium and flint; base notes are vetiver, cedar, patchouli and benzoin.

The scent is described as earthy, woody, and citrusy, with a dry down of warm cedar and earthy vetiver. It is versatile and can be worn in all seasons, predominantly in the daytime. It is a mature, sophisticated, and confident scent, suitable for confident wearers of any age or gender.

The Terre d'Hermes Parfum, launched in 2009, is a denser and more concentrated version of the original. It has a stronger citrus opening and a deeper, richer dry down. The parfum is suitable for spring and summer daytime wear and has good longevity and moderate projection.

The scent of Terre d'Hermes over the years

Terre d'Hermes is a woody, spicy, and citrusy fragrance for men, launched in 2006 by the French luxury brand, Hermes. It was created by Jean-Claude Ellena, who was the exclusive in-house perfumer for Hermes at the time. The scent is inspired by the richness of nature and includes notes of cedar, patchouli, vetiver, orange, and grapefruit.

The original Eau de Toilette version of Terre d'Hermes was reinterpreted as a Pure Parfum in 2009, followed by a Tres Fraiche version in 2014, an Eau Intense Vetiver in 2018, and an Eau Givree Eau de Parfum in 2022. The fragrance has garnered generally positive reviews from critics and the public, with the Eau de Toilette version receiving a rating of 4 out of 5 stars on Basenotes and the Pure Parfum version receiving 4.5 out of 5 stars. It has won several awards, including the Men's Fragrance of the Year - Luxe at the 2007 FiFi Awards and Best Classic (Men's) Fragrance for 2012 from Basenotes.

The 1980s and 1990s EDTs

The 1980s and 1990s saw a number of different Eau de Toilette versions of Parfum d'Hermes, with the scent varying depending on the year of the bottle.

The 1980s

The 1980s bottles of Parfum d'Hermes typically had a pale yellow colour, although some turned a little darker or took on an amber hue over time. However, there were also notable exceptions: bottles whose liquid had turned a cognac or mahogany brown. These were bottles that had lost some of their top notes, resulting in a stronger emphasis on the base notes and a heavier, more oriental scent.

One such bottle from 1985 is described as having a "spring bouquet" of dewy green and purple hyacinths, with brisk, chilled, lemony bergamot and plush, rounded oakmoss. The aldehydes are softer and milder, and the galbanum is surprisingly mellow and smooth. The jasmine provides a quiet sweetness, while rose and orange blossom add a delicate hint of fruitiness. The base notes include spicy patchouli, soft woods, and warm resins.

As the fragrance develops, the jasmine becomes richer and more indolic, engulfing the hyacinths in a syrupy, musky floral scent. The rose also grows in intensity, becoming jammy sweet and acidic, with a naturalistic, complex, and beefy aroma. The oakmoss and patchouli add a spicy, verdant character, while the myrrh and labdanum resins give the fragrance a darker, more oriental feel.

By the end of the third hour, Parfum d'Hermes becomes a swirling kaleidoscope of chypre greenness and oriental darkness, with notes of syrupy jasmine, spicy patchouli, red sandalwood, smoky myrrh, toffee'd labdanum, and a sliver of vetiver. The fragrance continues to twist and turn, with the rose retreating and custardy ylang, vanilla, and benzoin taking centre stage. In the final hours, it becomes a dark haze of spicy, resinous, sweet-sour, floral velvet.

The 1990s

The 1990s bottles of Parfum d'Hermes had a pale juice and were sweeter, more vanillic, more iris-y, and more floral. They were painted in pastel hues and dusted with sweetened powder, making them feel safer, simpler, airier, and more youthful than the original.

The 1994 bottle has a heightened degree of bitterness and citric oiliness in the first 30 minutes, with strong, immediate, and prominent jasmine. The hyacinths are weaker, and the aldehydes are softer. The overall scent is a creamy, vanillic, yellow-hued floral infused with moderate-to-minimal amounts of citrus freshness, spiciness, greenness, woodiness, and ambered warmth.

The 1998 bottle is quite different, with a softer and weaker opening of aldehydes and bergamot, dry oakmoss, and bitter galbanum. Thin streaks of ylang-ylang, powdery iris, jasmine, and vanilla are also present from the start. As it develops, musky, leathery resins and smoky myrrh emerge, followed by rose and iris. It becomes a richer, sweeter, and more vanillic bouquet, with custardy ylang and syrupy jasmine coated in silky, smooth vanilla.

In the later stages, the benzoin and vanilla explode, and the flowers dissolve into a hazy, jasmine-ish, ylang-ish blur. The fragrance becomes a cozy, lightly powdered, sweet golden blend of benzoin amber and smoky vanilla, laced with patchouli and creamy sandalwood. It ends as an ambered, vanillic sweetness.

The 1990s versions had lower projection, sillage, and longevity than the 1980s bottles.

The 1990s Eau de Toilettes

In the 1990s, Parfum d'Hermes underwent some reformulations, but the original formula was largely intact or the same in 1994. The 1998 version, however, was quite different, with a diluted scent and a formula change. The 1998 Parfum d'Hermes opens with aldehydes and bitter, raw bergamot, followed by oakmoss, bitter galbanum, and hyacinth petals. The focus of the bouquet is on the bergamot and oakmoss, with streaks of ylang-ylang, powdery iris, jasmine, and vanilla in the background. The aldehydes are tame and mild compared to the 1985 and 1986 versions, and the overall scent is lighter and weaker.

The 1998 Parfum d'Hermes changes frequently, with musky, leathery resins stirring in the base about 30 minutes in. The rose appears at the end of the first hour, and the iris grows stronger. The result is a richer take on the Chanel signature: a mix of aldehydic citrus, aldehydic rose, and fluffy, cool iris, all encased within hefty amounts of jasmine, ylang-ylang, and spicy patchouli. The jasmine and ylang-ylang are the main flowers, while the rose is a pale, wan, pink thing. The fragrance is sweeter, faintly powdery, and more vanillic than the earlier version.

With a smaller quantity of scent applied, the oakmoss-chypre accord and the darker, myrrh-driven oriental notes are weaker, and the impression is of a pastel, fluffy, powdery floral bouquet infused with vanilla. The florals blend with the silky vanilla and sandalwood, resembling the middle/late stages of the 1990s Egoiste EDT.

Regardless of the quantity applied, the 1998 Parfum d'Hermes always ends with a drydown of benzoin amber and smoky vanilla, laced with patchouli and a sliver of creamy sandalwood. The fragrance has a creamy, velvety texture from the sandalwood, ylang-ylang, and vanilla. In its final hours, only an ambered, vanillic sweetness remains.

The 1998 Parfum d'Hermes has lower projection, sillage, and longevity than its prior versions. With two sprays, the fragrance opens with about 2.5 inches of projection and roughly 5-6 inches of sillage. After 3 hours, the projection is an inch, while the scent trail extends about 3-4 inches. The fragrance typically becomes a skin scent after 6 hours and lasts just under 12 hours.

The vintage extrait

The extrait is "very expensive for its tiny sizes" and was "very powerful and forceful" when it was released. It is "suitable for confident wearers of any age or gender" and is "not hard to find or painfully expensive".

How to recognise and date vintage Parfum d'Hermes

To recognise and date vintage Parfum d'Hermes, you need to look at the batch code on the bottle. This will be a letter, sometimes painted on, and possibly accompanied by a number. The letters correspond to the following years:

• G—1984
• H—1985
• I—1986
• J—1987
• K—1988
• L—1989
• M—1990
• N—1991
• P—1992
• R—1993
• S—1994
• T—1995
• U—1996
• V—1997
• W—1998
• X—1999

The letters O, Q and Z were not used.

The bottles may also have a gold "saddle" around the neck, with the words "HERMÈS Paris" written in gold letters. The boxes had red ribbons on them during the 1980s, but this may have continued into the 1990s.

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