The latest fragrance from luxury house Hermès is Un Jardin sur le Toit ($90 or $125). It's the fourth scent in the Jardin series that has captivated me. Rather than looking to foreign lands for inspiration, Hermès sniffed closer to home in a small plot of green on the roof of their headquarters in Paris.A secret garden, hidden in the heart of the city, in Paris. A fruity, vegetal, floral Eau de Toilette appreciated by both women and men. With Un Jardin sur le Toit, Hermès celebrates its deep connection with contemporary craftsmanship and invites us to discover its garden, a little slice of nature and poetry shaped by man's hand. Secret, hidden in the heart of the city, it stands at the top of the historical 24.faubourg building in Paris. A hanging garden, which surprises and fascinates. Wild grasses, an apple tree, a magnolia...A perfume of light and delight is born and offers a feast for the senses and mind.
Un Jardin sur le Toit (A Garden on the Roof) was created by in-house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena. WWD said that Catherine Fulconis, Hermès Parfums’ chief executive officer, used words like “crisp,” “vegetal,” and “luminous” to describe the new fragrance. Un Jardin sur le Toit’s outer packaging, with garden green and white coloring, features an illustration of a Paris cityscape by Philippe Dumas, a member of Hermès’ founding family’s fifth generation, who has known the garden since childhood.
Despite the flowers that contributed to its inspiration, Un Jardin sur le Toit is very green and fruity. The notes are grass, apple, pear, rose, magnolia, and rosemary. There's some online talk of mulch too, but I don't smell the woody notes. Andy Tauer's new fragrance Zeta dries down with strong woods (I will feature it in a few days - just got it). This lovely green fragrance dries as itself - a charming green, fruity fragrance that charms in the same way its Jardin predecessors do. I have now purchased so many bottles of the Jardins, there's a retired Neiman Marcus fragrance sales woman with whom I had a secret joke. Every time I walked by her, she asked if I needed some more. I had so much Un Jardin sur la Nil, I had a giveaway contest early last year.
Is this new one incredibly different from Un Jardin en Méditerranée? Maybe not to an unsophisticated nose like mine. Is it worth trying if you own the other Hermès Jardin fragrances? Absolutely! If that sales woman were still there, she would be asking me if I needed a second bottle. I did purchase my Hermès Un Jardin sur le Toit at Neiman Marcus. I must acknowledge and thank Kathy Shoreman at Neiman Marcus for knowing I would love it.
Photo courtesy of Hermès