jean claude ellena: 39 posts

Jean-Claude Ellena, the current Hermès nose, is a creator of an amazing range of fragrances, from elegant Van Cleef & Arpels First and vivid Balenciaga Rumba to ethereal The Different Company Divine Bergamote. Here is an excerpt from one his interviews, in which he discusses the materials he loves.

“I admit that there are some materials I dislike, with which I feel uncomfortable, vanillin, heliotropin, all that is sweetened in general. I prefer salty and bitter. Anyway, I always made sure not to confuse cuisine with perfumery. Among my favorite ingredients are hedione, of course, helional, and those which I like to call “trace” materials, because they are so expressive: violet leaf, lovage, and everlasting flowers.”

Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

Jean-Claude Ellena’s take on citrus results in a brilliant clarity supported by a minimalistic and subtly sensual foundation. When The Different Company Divine Bergamote first debuted in 2003, my expectations were of a straightforward citrus fragrance supported by a cedarwood base—a common pairing in perfumery. However, from the first explosion of silky sweet and astringent bergamot to the base notes of soft delicate musk, the fragrance never developed like I imagined.

Ellena used 70% of natural bergamot in the composition and fused it with ginger, which highlights the spicy and chilly quality of the top notes. Like Frederic Malle Cologne Bigarade, another Ellena creation, Divine Bergamote is ornamented beautifully with both floral and verdant touches, none of which are distinct enough to be readily recognized. Yet, they weave seamlessly through the composition, modifying and softening the astringency of citrus. One moment, I smell a cup of chilled ginger tea; the next, a crushed flower bud. Through this impressionistic mélange, I notice a delicate scent of skin after a day in the sun. There is a mere hint of warmth, yet it is enough to lend a whisper of sensuality to the drydown and a doze of interest to what could have been just a sparkling citrusy fragrance.

Notes: bergamot (70% of natural bergamot), ginger, orange blossom, leaf green, rhubarb (wood), musk.

Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

Continuing with the gardens theme Hermès started in 2003 with Un Jardin en Méditeranée, in 2005 Jean-Claude Ellena created Un Jardin Sur Le Nil inspired by the travel in Egypt. Jean-Claude Ellena’s is one of my favorite contemporary perfumers, along with Maurice Roucel, Olivia Giacobetti, and Chris Sheldrake, however his creations for Hermès have been somewhat less innovative than some of the fragrances he has done before. Un Jardin Sur Le Nil is a masterfuly composed fragrance, possessing signature Ellena’s trademark of presenting the fragrance form as if illuminated by opalescent light.  The scent has been my summer staple, accompanying me on my exploits in Kiev and cooling me down in July heat of Chicago.

The explosion of green grapefruit segues gently into green mango with its piney floral fragrance, enhanced by translucent sweetness of lotus. While the initial impressions are not of much more than a pleasant fruit salad, resins and ashes seep through the fruit juices in the base, blurring distinctions and distorting the pretty affability of the composition, thus managing to lift the fragrance out of the domain of predictable. While I do not envision the street leading to a Nubian village where Jean-Claude Ellena discovered the mangos that inspired him, I am reminded of heavy clusters of fruit hanging from mango trees in India. Where one association does not resurface, a score of others are eager to take its place. I would also note that this fragrance is composed to blur masculine/feminine divisions, without being a typically conventional androgynous creation.

Photo: Tom Tidball.

Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

Black pepper is one of those multifaceted smells that create one expectation but suddenly emerge as something else. Expecting the rush of spice and heat, I took one whiff of Hermes Poivre Samarcande and immediately envisioned a scent of hot stones heated by the sun. It is a scent of a Japanese garden, capturing its simplicity of weathered stones amid the rippling sea of sand. The pepper vacillates between assuming woody and floral forms, all the while creating a sensation of dark, yet transparent warmth. Its initial rough edges are smoothed by undulating movements of warm dry cedarwood, slowly leading one from the sun and into the shade. The breath of vetiver, oakmoss and a whisper of cumin envelop the warmth of the composition further polishing the hot stones into the vision of radiant perfection.

Created for Hermèssence collection in 2005, Jean Claude Ellena’s signature is unmistakable, in the quiet opalescence of the composition and a warm skin undertone one finds in his other fragrances (Cartier Declaration and Frédéric Malle Cologne Bigarade, in particular, come to mind). On a man, Poivre Samarcande would be a clean, elegant scent, with a subtle sensual edge. It could definitely be worn by a woman, who enjoys dry fragrances, exploiting the affinity between woods and somber spices. Poivre Samarcande is one of my favorite fragrances for when I would like to take a break from the overt sensuality of white florals.

Photo: Japanese stone garden, from explorejapan.com.