Eau de Gentiane Blanche

Eau de Gentiane Blanche, a review. I am a proud owner of four Hermès scents: Terre, Bel Amis, Equipage Géranium and now Eau de Gentiane Blanche. This is a beautiful artisan quality scent. This is like what Jicky is to Guerlain, a scent quite a few people may be put off by because it utilizes uncommon notes, the scents less travelled. It’s what I call a “Pachamama scent”, that is, a fragrance that feels like it’s in harmony with mother nature. Have you ever tried Tactics by Shiseido? Well, it gives off that kind of naturalistic vibe, a bit zen, a bit mysterious, but not too much so, there is a balance present here. Interestingly, the gentian flower was the emblem of the Minamoto clan, a surname for emperors during the Heian period in Japan; but I doubt that’s what Jean-Claude Ellena had in mind. Growing up in France, he no doubt had in mind the alpine zone of the Massif Central that straddles the regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie, where the gentian flower grows wild. It gives off a distinctly Mediterranean forest and telluric vibe. This naturalistic quality is what makes it a winner, in my opinion. There are many ways to describe this vibe: Picture the smell of a pavement during a hot day that has been drenched with a bucket of water, and lets off a subtle smell of cooked earth. Or the smell of rain pouring down on a rock in a meadow: a smell of soil with a distant aqueous note, with a hint of plant flowers in the background. This aqueous note is not artificial smelling in the slightest, it’s very personal and true-to-life smelling. The sillage is good on this one. About 4-7 hours, seems to last well on fabrics too. So, who should buy this fragrance? I agree with some of the other reviewers here: this is a one-way scent, what you see is what you get, it doesn’t evolve or go through different phases, that’s not what it’s trying to do. Personally, this does not diminish my satisfaction with this scent in the slightest. I think it’s the sort of scent people will bemoan not having bought while it was still in production, it’s one to treasure, a sort of Hermès black swan for the ages. I see why it doesn’t appeal to so many people for being a more subtle creation, but really, it is a fantastic scent to own; it’s honest, unpretentious, and surprisingly natural. So, when to use this scent? For me, it would be perfect for a hydraulic engineer who works outside in a dry climate, an outdoorsy type, a hiker or mountain climber, a yoga teacher, diplomatic interpreter, etc. Or a bookseller in a wet climate who wants to evoke a sense of mystery. Male or female, this is a pure perfume for anyone with an open nose. It is like an olfactory vignette: if Terre de Hermès offered us the sensation of a forest full of oranges, Eau de Gentiane Blanche is even more specific: think humid plateau tucked away in a foggy mountain, with wet rocks and lush vegetation, and of course the smell of the eponymous gentian. The sound of water, smell of soil, a person at peace. It’s an 8.4 out of 10 for me. It saddens me seeing this fragrance still languishing under the 4-star mark. For example, Jicky (which I love) is rated at 4.11 as of June 2019, so I hope Eau de Gentiane Blanche gets up to the 4.15 or even the 4.20 mark, because I believe it’s deserving of it, and Jean-Claude Ellena, you deserve a lot of credit for your efforts with this intimate and personalised fragrance, merci beaucoup maître!

Soft, smooth, bitter flowers. Lovely. Iris and other cold, somewhat bitter florals wrapped in a little bit of light musk to soften and with added aromatic depth. A linear scent with a surprising staying power. "Figurative and generous expressions of instant pleasure, the Hermès Colognes offer a series of material-based olfactive vignettes." This suggests a simpler, linear scent, one that doesn't develop a story going through a sequence of top, heart and base notes but stays the same throughout its relatively short life. The linear character is certainly true. A couple of seconds after the initial cloud of alcohol disappears, the actual scent of this fragrance becomes clear and established and once it's established, it remains the same until it slowly fades a few hours later. I was nicely surprised at longevity of a fragrance deemed to be a cologne. It stayed noticeable for at least three hours, maybe as long as four. Quite impressive for me as I often lose any traces of a scent couple of hours in, and I kept catching bigger and little reminders of this now and then for much longer than that. So it's a linear scent, freely admitting to being a vignette. One would thus expect a fairly simple accord, a base more than a complete fragrance, but Jean-Claude Ellena, responsible for a long list of Hermes' fragrances as well as several other rather rarefied creations for niche perfume houses, including Acqua di Parma, the Different Company and L`Artisan Parfumeur, has created a rather complex thing here. The official notes include gentian, iris, incense and musk. There are florals - incredibly fresh yet intense. I'd call this aspect of the fragrance green, but it's a strange green, very much alive yet rather grey. If you look at the colour of the bottle, held against light, you'll get the kind of pale-grey green I am talking about. There is a lot of iris there, which is probably responsible for that grey. But there is also gentian in the notes, and although I don't know what the gentian flower (an alpine plant, see the other pic) smells like, I feel that it must be contributing there with a purple/grey element. Actual gentian flowers are vivid royal blue, but in the scent the purple-blue is diluted, less saturated. None of this makes for a weaker fragrance, but decidedly shifts the focus from the floral to the aromatic incense aspects. There is bitterness there, a medicinal quality so typical of many incense fragrances, but it's a a bitterness that's both smooth, set against a soft background of pale musk, and also fresh and open, like a scent of a meadow known far and wide for being particularly abundant in medicinal (and perhaps even hallucinogenic) herbs. I have seen the word etheral repeated in comments about this fragrance, and yes, it is etheral, as in being airy and a bit unearthly, but not at all weak or vulnerable. This is not a scent of a shrinking-violet young damsel in teary distress. This is a scent that makes me think of Galadriel.

When I'm wearing Eau de Gentiane Blanche it creates a mental image of a forest. But it's a pretty specific forest. It takes me to an early spring day, just after a cold and slow rain, the sky is gray and the mountain peaks are still covered in snow. You can smell the humid cold air, almost misty. A running water is nearby and the grass is just starting to grow here and there. There is also a hint of "blue" flowers in the air. Gentian is a mountain flower that smells a bit herbal and a bit sour. The iris here is in no way powdery, it is rather green and sharp, with the smallest hint of sweetness. There is also incense in this fragrance, which might lead you into thinking this would be a smoky autumny fragrance. But here, the incense is toned down a lot, sometimes not even being aware it's there. To my nose it just acts as a complement to the greenness of the fragrance, making it a bit more balanced, "rounding" the green sharpness. Eau de Gentiane Blanche ticks all the boxes necessarily for me to consider it being a masterpiece. It is beautifully crafted and blended, having one of the most naturally pleasing smells I have come across in the fragrance world so far. It's my favorite of the whole Eau de Cologne line of Hermes and I'm really excited to have it in my collection. The performance is also amazing on me, having a very decent sillage (an arm's length for a good 3-4 hours) and really great longevity (I can trace it up to 10-12 hours after application, sometimes even more than that). The only problem I have with it is its versatility, as I find it hard wearing it most of the times. It's my current go-to rainy cold day fragrance, or when I go in vacation to the mountains, but other than that it's pretty hard to find other contexts in which I can pull it off. It's also a pretty weird scent to some and sometimes gives a feminine vibe (I'm a guy), which to me is not necessarily off-putting, but to some it may feel odd or awkward. Some may even say it smells a bit "medicinal" and I can totally understand that, it can smell like a green tincture if you think of it that way. But I prefer sticking to my mental image of a rainy misty cold forest. My "marks", 10 being highest: Scent: 9.5 Sillage: 7 Longevity: 9 Uniqueness: 10 Versatility: 4

The first thing that comes to mind when smelling any Hermes perfume is expensive. Not in a bad or tacky way, on the contrary, it feels more like Hermes spares no expense in giving us these beautiful, interesting, refined scents. It is an expensive gift, chosen perfectly, nothing extraneous. I have two sample sprays of Eau de Gentiane Blanche, both from an Hermes boutique and both only half full. After trying it today, I will nurse every precious drop until I can buy my own bottle. I didn't know what to expect with this fragrance as I had never heard of a gentiane flower. Plus, I grow Iris in my yard, but they are mostly scentless. So the word Blanche is what I focused on-would this be a white flower smell? No, it isn't a typical floral at all. For me, it can only be described in adjectives. I spray, and I am again 18, sitting on large rocks by a deep blue, glittering alpine lake, smelling the forest, the first sun of the year warming my shoulders, a soft breeze blowing my hair, little pockets of snow still lingering in shady parts of the woods. The rocks I sit upon are warming to my brown smooth legs, and I hear spring birds fluttering overhead. The scent of pine and forest green and lake water wafts over me with each puff of breeze. This is my youth in a bottle. Hermes actually and perfectly captured an afternoon of my youth and put it in a bottle. To me, this is a unisex fragrance. I'd be crazy about it on a man. I'm crazy about it on me. It stays the same from first spray to dry down, but that does not mean it is uncomplicated or doesn't tell a story. It whispers to me, and it may whisper something different to you. I think it is flexible for both day and night, for all seasons, beyond all seasons. It's beautiful. It seems to last on my skin, although I can't help but spraying it every couple of hours just to deepen it. But I must resist, to save it. Oh...just a bit more....I think I'd drink it if I could. It's my favorite Hermes scent so far, although I have liked them all, this one I love. It's next on my "to be purchased" list.

Eau de Gentiane Blanche is a magnificently photorealistic depiction of gentian flower and damp humus, with deep, shadowy, savory vegetal elements that I've only ever encountered in Eau d'Italie Bois d'Ombrie (which I unfortunately never replenished). It opens with a spiky, sharp green tone for which I have a penchant (artemisia, wormwood, and thuja notes are so appealing to me as well). This sensation is much like that of metallic leaves of pelargonium (not the rosy-scented type) foliage under the sun, tomato leaves, green peppers, various nightshades, there's just something so wonderfully evocative, but it doesn't end there: the iris, which while not pronounced, provides a softer, shadier, almost somber counterpoint to it all, a shift from sun to shade, maybe filtered light, a waning summer or early autumn sensation. This is most evident in the heart and the base, as a subtle smoke enters the picture, the incense element, shading the experience even further, which is an interesting contrast to the damp earth and leaves effect. For an EDC, this has the longevity of an EDT or even an EDP is your skin holds it well. While relatively linear, save for the more pronounced irones and incense in the drydown, it is really artfully composed and just beautiful to my nose. It really is the kind of fragrance that those who are drawn to a reflective, even pensive vibe would be enamored with. I am one of those thinkers and dreamers and I love it.