Almost as much as I love perfumes I love gardens, flowers, herbs and lush flowerbeds. I am also the outdoorsy kind, and love being out in the nature, to see the small changes in nature each day, when I am walking my ordinary round together with my husband and our dog. When a flower I´ve planted are about to bloom for the first time I am following the event from the little green bud until the fully evolved flower. The patchouli seeds that I´ve planted some time ago, aren´t really coming along that good, one tiny plant has come up, but after all I only need one to get me my own patchouliplant.
Even tough I love flowers, floral perfumes aren´t usually among my favourites, even tough there is exceptions. I was hoping that the Hermes Un Jardin-perfumes would be such an exception.
The names get my imagination going. Un Jardin En Mediterranee, Un Jardin Sur Le Nil and Un Jardin Après la Mousson, they are all created by grand perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, in house-perfumer at Hermes. But, none of them is created for me.
The first among them that I´ve tried was Un Jardin Aprés la Mousson, a garden after the monsoon and I was hoping for wet greenery, stunningly beautiful lotus flowers and other oriental flowers, but on me Un Jardin Aprés la Mousson smelled liked pickled cucumber (commonly served to hot dogs in Sweden). In my imagination a garden after the monsoon smells nothing like a swedish hot dog wagon, but what could I know, I have never been in a monsoon garden.
There after I tried Un Jardin En Mediterranee, and it should contain some familiar scents since I´ve at least visit the mediterrean area. And yes, here it is dense, spicy greenery. Like mediterrean herbs in the late summer after surviving the heat of the sun during a whole summer, and tomatos and feta cheese! No, actually no feta cheese, that´s the only thing missing to get a really jummy greek salad. Un Jardin En Mediterranee makes me hungry, and I realise that I have everything I need for a good salad at home, except of the feta cheese, of course!
Un Jardin Sur Le Nil become my favourite among the three. It is an auquatic, fruity and adorable floral scent. It is both sheer and strong at the same time, perfect right now during hot weather. Even tough it has notes of carrot and fruits, it remind me more of a beautful garden than of anything I would like to eat. The only among them that actually makes me think of gardens... Unfortunatly I don´t manage to feel that Un Jardin Sur Le Nile is a perfume for me, even tough I like it. It is rather a suitable summer perfume for those of you prefering white summer clothes and rosé whine (as refering to yesterdays post).
Now all I could wish for is to smell Un Jardin Le Cercle Polaire (pardon, my bad french!). Yes, I know I am nagging about that, but I do miss some nordic inspired perfumes!
Hejsan!! I just found your blog cause you commented on mine - I've just added you to my blogroll :) I really enjoyed this piece on Hermes' Jardins. I once sniffed en Méditerranée at Munich airport while in transit after a vacation in Greece and it gave me a huge jolt of pain, that's how evocative it was! My favorite of the 3 is also sur le Nil which I own. I always liked it but it never really seemed "me". I then received it as a gift and it has become a favorite during summers.
SvaraRaderaIt's very nice to meet you by the way. I lived in Sweden for a year and used to speak quite a bit of Swedish. Unfortunately I've almost completely forgotten the beautiful language by now :( Although I still get some strange flashbacks sometimes. (as in, passing a church my brain will suddenly remind me: "Kyrka!")
Hej! Nice that you stopped by. Thank you for adding my blog to your blogroll. :)
SvaraRaderaI belive Sur le Nil can be the kind of perfume thats slowely becomes better and better, I´ll see if I miss it when my sample is finished.
Nice to meet you to and to hear that you have lived in Sweden. I live in a small town south of Stockholm, but I am originally from way up north in Sweden.
As a co-incident my oldest son is visiting Amsterdam this week... (I really like Amsterdam, one of the most relaxed cities I´ve been to). I hope I don´t have misunderstod that you´re living in Holland!?
You've understood correctly, I live in Holland :) Oooh, your son is lucky, we're having amazing weather lately so he is in for a rare treat. It rains all the time here, but it has been so sunny and beautiful this past month. I am glad he gets to see Amsterdam like this, it is so much more beautiful when the sun is out. The Dutch go slightly insane with happiness when the sun is out so the atmosphere is even friendlier, hahah! :)
SvaraRaderaWell, Sweden isn´t really spoiled when it comes to hot summer weather either. But it has been really hot the last 10 days so it´s the same here, everyone going to the beaches and strolling around with very little clothes on.
SvaraRaderaThe last time we visitied Amsterdam it was raining constantly, so I think my son will have a better impression this time (and also he was only 13 back then).