Hermessence Osmanthe Yunnan

Osmanthe Yunnan is a shape-shifting beauty, just like osmanthus and much like Yunnan as well. This perfume has been a treasure of my collection for nearly a decade and a half, and it's only recently that I finally have some thoughts written about it that I am happy with. Perhaps because it and I are finally at a stage in our relationship where its shape-shifting no longer catches me off guard, I know what it's capable of, and I look forward to seeing what side of its personality I will get this time - as opposed to scratching my head and wondering "where the heck did that come from?" First thing to note is that you cannot experience Osmanthe Yunnan on a blotter. It's never worked on a blotter, it only works on skin. Perhaps that's why the YouTube and online forum fame-sters, glad-handers, and wannabes are impartial to it, vague, or generally just ignore it. It requires time, patience, and attention in ample amounts - something we humans are very unwilling to supply these days. After several attempts on blotters, I've resigned myself to accounting for OY based upon on-skin experience only, and that's fine and as it should be; having a secondary method is an intellectual convenience, but it's not how perfumes are meant to be experienced. Secondly, OY will shape shift its character depending upon how much you spray whereas most perfumes will shift their vocal volumes a lot more than their character (if at all). OY seems to know if that if you spray a little, you want quiet accompaniment like a shadow, spray a lot and you want a partner with a clear personality. These two factors are noticeable from the get-go with a striking tea accord. Spray a little and you'll simply get a faint aldehydic volatility, almost like alcohol evaporation; spray a lot, you'll get a tangible feeling of steam rising up from a fresh brew of woody and rooty tea. Jean-Claude Ellena is no stranger to tea notes. He gave us the OG after all, Bulgari's Au Thé Vert, the tea perfume to launch perfumery into a tea-hunting frenzy that continues to this day (and still hasn't been truly olfactorily captured). ATV was launched in 1993, and OY in 2005. Twelve years seems like a long time, but all of the Hermessence perfumes were launched from 2004 to 2005, and, despite JCE's incredible skills, there's no way he did 12+ perfumes in two years - especially not Hermes' exclusive line. No matter how much Hermes want their perfumes developed quickly from a cost perspective, they wouldn't let JCE rush through their exclusive line, they would want the perfumes to be properly composed and made to stick around and buck trends. Therefore, work on OY likely started a long time prior to its release, and perfumers are not opposed to using old tricks in new perfumes. There are some vague but highly familiar characters in OY's tea notes. This also seems to be where it loses a lot people who smell it. The steam is palpable, the tea is bitter and woody and rooty. To some it smells like perfume alcohols off gassing. I get tea (when I apply the perfume thickly), and to me its striking and intellectually curious. Even when thickly applied, Ellena's signature style is still immutable: lightweight, airy and breathable, a palpable mist hovering over your skin. When the tea dries down a very light freesia aroma on the breeze makes an appearance juxtaposed right next to a leather note. The freesia is minutely sweet, floral, and fruity, and the leather is weird. The leather has a strange, oily, rind zest type quality that is somehow devoid of any citrusy aspects, and there is only the slightest hint of the smoky element that comes from cured animal hides and tanning, almost illusory. Relatively speaking to the rest of perfume's notes, this leather note is dense and fleshy - like a citrus rind - but it never dominates or growls like an animalic leather. In light applications the freesia and leather aren't juxtaposed, rather present as one form like the aroma of someone's new suede jacket as they walk by you. In the perfume's final dry down we are given beautifully smooth, fruity, and sweet apricot and clean soapy musks; spotless, legible, feathery, and just plain pretty. Over the years I've used two perfumes as reference points for every osmanthus perfume I've smelled, The Different Company's Osmanthus, and Osmanthe Yunnan. The Different Company's perfume is osmanthus in a naturalistic state, with each facet of its complex personality dialed up to the same vocal volumes on a level stage; DC's is a literal representation of osmanthus. Osmanthe Yunnan is naturalistic, sure, but not enough to be called so. OY is the spirit of osmanthus, connecting this beloved East Asian flower to the mystical persona of Yunnan: an expertly brewed cup of tea to warm the body and stimulate the mind; the scent of a flower on the breeze as you look upon a temple, and the smell of leather - the human touch in this mystical landscape; fruit and cleanliness, life-sustaining gifts from nature and a cleansed soul. Both The Different Company's Osmanthus and Osmanthe Yunnan were composed by Jean-Claude Ellena. He did DC's in 2000. Funny, that.

Since I started to have a interest in perfumes, I knew Hermès was my favorite house. I love the Jardin line and many others. There is something enigmatic about each of their creations, and even the perfumes I would never wear or buy, I somehow admire. But I'm a person who unfortunately get sick of perfumes very easily, so it's hard for me to finish a bottle (I always buy the 30ml size, but still). Also, I don't like perfumes with sillage, I tend to prefer colognes and edt's and like easy going perfumes. They can be green, citrus, florals, even woody and vanilla I love. I would say I like all "families" of perfumes. BUT I like very, VERY few perfumes. I'm the kind of person who can NEVER blind buy. So I decided to buy a box from Hermès with 4x15ml, from any scent of the brand. I picked up Sur le Toit, Monsieur Li, Jour d'Hermès and... I could not decide for the last one! Then I decided to get one from the Hermessence line, but I didn't like any of them enough to buy. Until Osmanthe Yunnan! I'm in love with this scent. I cannot describe it in notes, but I get the floral, the fruit and the green and the same time. It has a green roughness that I love, but it's still delicate. It's floral, but not in a vintage way. It's fruity, but not sweet. Yet, it has so much PERSONALITY! I've never smelled anything like it, so it's very distinctive. It's not a scent that could be anything, any brand. Yet it's not invasive, not intoxicating, it could be wore by all ages, I believe, but it tends to the feminine side in my opinion. I would also wear it the whole year, it has freshness for summer and depth for winter. Would not recommend blind buying.

Chinese tea houses - the old ones - have a particular scent to them. I think it has to do with the old wood tabletops, chairs and floors that have had tea spilled on them through many years. It also has to do with the people and the variety of fabrics not to mention the variety of tea on display in wooded cubbies. This fragrance doesn't duplicate that smell but it almost suggests it. Which makes my brain fill in the blanks and almost makes it more real than real. I went into a Hermes shop to buy another bottle of Eau D`Orange Verte which I ran out of and ended up walking out with this one too. This was literally love at first sniff as well as being teleported 1200 miles in a milisecond into the past. It is dried white tea fresh and the apricot is beautiful. Nothing artificially sweet about it. It's moist and has a bit of citrus. When you sniff it for the first time you can feel the fuzz on the peach skin just before you take a bite but it's sooo much more. It has this strange acidic milky quality wafting in the background - familiar to anyone who has smelled the evaporating liquid while homemade mozzarella cheese is being made. But, in a super fresh, subtle and silky sort of way. This is a fragrance I wear to transport myself - even for a split second - to a foreign place and time. This is a fragrance that smells so unlike anything else yet conjurers up memories of specific & familiar scents. This is more magic than wearable fragrance to me, although it is absolutely wearable.

The pellucid beauty of Osmanthe Yunnan may elude those who favor bravado to that of nuance in their fragrance. The notes of osmanthus and tea, by their very nature, cannot be bold and highly diffusive. I truly believe any perfumer worth their grain of salt knows that any attempt to give either muscle would collapse the limpid beauty of each, rendering them into something harsh or even grotesque, or, depending upon opposing forces, buried and indiscernible. Be that as it may, Ellena's creation here is full of presence, and his minimalism works to his benefit here. The osmanthus uses the natural absolute with other materials to broaden and exalt the accord, and the tea is a natural pairing—I do love to sip osmanthus tea, with its bittersweet, floral, apricot flavor. There are citrus and herbal facets that come through as well, and hints of that smoky undertone that we come to expect from black tea. I also praise Ellena's restraint with the leather as this transitions into the heart, seamlessly, appearing to use Suederal or something similar in a way that I can appreciate, nuanced and clear. This is a perfect fragrance for a space of reflection or introspection. Apply some of this, write in a journal, read some poetry, or just let your mind meander. If worn for others, having intimate company and your willingness for others to lean in will result in others potentially appreciating it as well.

I would probably never buy this perfume for myself. Or at least that's what I would have said based on these reviews. First off it isn't a perfume that I like note wise. I'm more into woody, deep, rich scents. Also I like perfumes that project and hang around. Once again looking at these reviews, this isn't one of those. Let this be an example to me of changing my mind I was going through a wardrobe and found a big sample of this and another from the collection called santal massoie or something like that...I read about both here, thinking to myself, well this isn't something I'll like, but I'll give it a try. Boy was I wrong... I love this light, bouncy, cheerful tea smell. It's made for either men or woman, and this really seems to go between the two sexes...one minute it's light and flirtatious, the next it's a little smokey and more masculine. It's just really pleasant. And boy does it last! At least on my skin it does. Sprayed two blasts on my chest before bed and woke up the next morning with it still flooding my head. Projection seems mild. At the price this costs, I still probably wouldn't buy a full bottle, but I'm very glad to have found a few millilitres. And I'm also glad to have a perfume that has caused my perception and assumption to vere from reality Scent 8/10 Projection 5/10 Fortitude 8/10...contrary to many reviews here, it lasts well on my skin