A haze of sensation
A few years ago, motivated by a desire to overcome her innate fear of horses, Hermès perfumer Christine Nagel went to the stables at the Saut Hermès show-jumping event.
When she came to the last stall, a chestnut horse approached her…and pressed its head against her face. All at once, her apprehension vanished.
For the first time, Christine Nagel smelled the primitive tang of muscles warmed by exertion, the velvety breath of the animal mixed with the scent of sawdust. A new sensation settled in a corner of her memory.
This warm and captivating animal smell fascinated her. It remained etched into her memory until, several years later, it became the starting point for a new story.
When Christine Nagel discovered an exceptional oud, a divine essence with warm and sensual notes…the buried memory was immediately awakened.
The new Hermessence, with its simple, direct composition, recreates the emotion of her original sensation, blending oud with a natural, ‘‘petal-like’’ rose hydrosol and a rose oxide to create Oud Alezan.
The extraordinary sensory quality of these two materials gives the impression that they have been close companions for millennia, made to captivate and complement each other, when in fact, their idyll was born of chance.
The affinity between rose and oud is equal and mutual: neither ever dominates nor rides out alone.
The secrets of an object
The plum-brown-lacquered bottle is our introduction, echoing the unity between the chestnut colour of the horse’s coat (alezan, in French) and the tones of the essence of oud and rose.
The cap, sheathed in chalk-coloured soft leather and sewn in saddle-stitched thread – know-how central to the house’s founding métier – bears the ‘‘Hermès Paris’’ signature engraved on a saddle nail.
The collection will be available in stores and on hermes.com/hk from 15 February 2024.
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