Kelly Calèche

The opening is woody and green. Yes woody. The opener is supposed to be grapefruit but it's so deep and dark that it smells a like the damp sandalwood of a Santal 33 with some green leaves around it. The opening is reminiscent of other frags like Hermès' own Un Jardin Sur Le Nil and Memo's Kedu. It's almost a dead ringer for the former and similar with differences to the latter. While Kedu's grapefruit is accented with Bergamot and pink pepper, here it's deepened by narcissus. It's deep, dark, concentrated, leafy and serious but also beautifully blended. So beautifully blended that it smells like proper high end perfumery. There's also something minty going on in the background that reminds me a little bit of Balenciaga's Florabotanica. This sort of masterful blending is why Jean-Claude Ellena remains my favorite perfumer. I have to mention that like a few frags in Hermès' Jardin line, this will warm up your skin a little. It's nothing to be alarmed by. After about 10 mins the sandalwood scent disappears and the deep minty grapefruit takes over. At no point do I detect cheap ingredients. Everything smells high quality all the way. After 45 mins the minty grapefruit open is starting to fade. > 2 hrs in, the open is still holding on. It's almost gone and turning into a soapy (a very high end soap) scent but it's still refusing to give up the ghost. > 10 mins later it has completely gone soapy. Drydown is remarkably similar to Florabotanica's 7 hr mark. > 3 hrs in I started detecting pencil shaving notes which is usually the stand in for "leather" in leather frags geared towards women such as in Bottega Veneta's EDP, Armani's Cuir Amethyste and Goutal's Tenue de Soirée. In fact I think those are pretty much it's competition. > 4 hrs in, apparently this transitioned to florals somewhere along the line. I just didn't notice. It's so well-blended that the transitions are barely perceptible except for maybe a change in density. The floral heart accord also does a great job mimicking the grapefruit and narcissus top notes which help make the transitions seamless. The downside is it makes the Kelly Caleche seem linear. Based on how this is progressing, my guestimate for longevity is 5-6hrs but that remains TBD. I think this could be a unisex scent but leans fem. > 7 hrs in and it's still kicking. It's long been a skin scent and you need your nose up close but the fact it hasn't disappeared into the ether is a marvelous surprise. It's not very often you come across an EDT that outlasts many modern EDPs. Certainly skin chem plays a factor but I'm now thinking this is an 8hr-10hr frag. Recommend for anyone 25 and up or anyone in their early 20s that want to be taken seriously. UPDATE: Yup. Just about gone at 10 hr mark.

'Those horses are so spoilt I swear they sleep on straw strewn with rose petals.'. An equine huff of a laugh, he rears his head back, raises a riding crop from his side to tap a glowing forehead. He breaks a smile and with a click of the heals of long riding boots he turns, showing off his golden mane as he does and is gone. But it is he who smells of roses and leather and the early summer. It is he who smells exactly as you do. He came, a messenger from 'the Gods': the judges. Those venerated men and women in whose hands your equestrian fate now resides. How much simpler for the show-jumping powerhouses, projecting into the air with flair and barely controlled strength. Their task is merely to dazzle, to defy sense with their penetration and precision. They can be judged objectively: all they need to do is make no errors and achieve the required time. And the masculine three day eventers? As long as they stay the course and come up reeking of earth and animal and grass, well, who cares? Yours is the more difficult task. To harness horse sans Equipage into a wholly pleasing whole. Combine film star glamour and princessly Grace into three minutes of animal ballet. The final preparation for your dressage moments in the ring. You and the beast exchange whispers, with a flick his tail throws a shower of fine white powder in the air, you adjust the saddle: the finest French leather, cured and scented so not even an allusion to the abattoir might upset the ride. You mount and breathe deeply, the breeze brings the hint of wild yellow irises from the meadows lying fallow beyond the stately home. The same wind brings your name made tinny by tannoys. You bridle for a moment. Your desire to perform, the urge bring pleasure makes an anxious knot of your insides. Walk on. The arena, the illustrated sports photographers' flashing bulbs, the hubbub, the crowd, the swell and the excitement. First silence. The smell of his roses, your rose, the bridle and the horse. Then music. The dance begins. Kelly Caleche is a perfume that exists above all to bring a message of pleasure. Bright, gorgeously groomed citrus, yields instantly to early summer roses and the unmistakable hue of the most luxurious leather. This leather, is the distinct Hermes note, high and clear and carrying a fragility that is to my nose slightly haunting, or perhaps more precisely yearning. It is this quality and the sparseness - as one critic put it - of this relatively simple composition that raises this perfume above the thorny crowd. One for time when life is about giving and receiving or desiring pleasure.

I sniffed this on a test strip a few months ago and thought - hmm too much grapefruit. I wasn't keen on Sur le Nil by Hermes and thought it might go too much in that direction. But! Seeing that it was available on Ebay for a song, and I fancied something fresh and elegant for spring/summer, I bought 50mls of the EDT and I'm enjoying it very much. I sprayed it on when it arrived and immediately said 'nice', then 'Oh!Very nice!' Though I'm a tad sensitive to grapefruit (and the opening is quite bracing) this is a very transparent grapefruit in the classic Jean Claude Elena style, but it's matched with a soft suede note, I immediately envisage blonde suede - not so much worn leather and definitely not the birch tar minimalism of Cuir de Russie's leather. Also, this suede note, even though it's mildly animalic, is by no means a synthetic sort of smell, as some suedey perfumes are. It has a sort of biscuit-like scent, mildly buttery.(actually that's probably the narcisuss which often smells a little buttery to me) The perfume as a whole reminds me of suede-toned eau de cologne, which in turn reminds me of travel and adventures. So if you can picture yourself on a morning flight to somewhere exotic, wearing your coolest trench coat, and loveliest leather bag, sipping a small glass of freshly squeezed grapefruit, you've got it. But there's also a note that seems quite tea-like to me - dusty/tanin-like. I also get echoes of Au The Vert, but Kelly Caleche has more 'body' I'd say I'm not really noticing rose/tuberose/lily of the valley, but they're obviously all blending together to give an elegant impression. Definitely unisex, as elegant cologne style perfumes tend to be. This is one I'm going to enjoy this summer. I can absolutely see why other people here describe it as 'signature worthy' -you can't go wrong with a perfume like this and it'll be a welcome alternative to my other easy-to-wear daytime favourite, Infusion d'Iris. A champagne-like perfume, uplifting elegance! Sillage and longevity seem moderate to me

I used to love this baby. It was the perfect fragrance to stand out in college when the girls at the frat parties all smelled like Lolita Lempicka, Britney Spears Fantasy or Angel. Where those were all powdery fruit, caramel and white chocolate, this was a leather corset on a bed of roses - a lady in the street and a freak in the bed. This was a scent that could hang with the boys, possibly drink them under the table - and maybe take one of them home to have her way with him. Very femme but down-to-business. Definitely a scent for a bold, sophisticated woman with a corner office - and a whip in the closet. This is definitely a modern woman. Alas, over the years those green top notes (likely the lily-of-the-valley) really started creating a pungent body odor smell on my skin, only made worse by the new-leather smell it opens with, so I gave this one up for a number of years. I tried a tester on my left arm recently for old-time's sake, but alas, the top notes were still pungent. I tested another on the other arm, found it more pleasant and bought that one instead (Marc Jacobs Daisy), but over the course of the afternoon while the inoffensive and girlish Daisy kept on with its breathy soprano, Kelly was settling in, the leather was wearing in like a vintage pair of boots, and I found myself sniffing my left arm more than my right. Kelly Caleche, that old sexy bitch, was drowning out Daisy with that leathery contralto, with curtain-call bouquets at her feet, and it was awesomeness! Both are floral and beautiful in their own way, but Daisy's the innocent girl I will grow out of and pass down to my daughter one day. Kelly Caleche is the chairwoman of the board, and doesn't give a shit what you have to say about it. She's the woman I want to mature into. The takeaway is this - don't give up on Kelly if she comes on too shrill and pungent at first. Try on that leather corset, and let her sink in. You will be rewarded.

It's funny I automatically thought I would fall for the parfum version of this over the toilette and while I like the parfum version I really love the toilette version the best. Kelly Caleche toilette smells exactly like my childhood farm on a very cool early spring morning. It is early the sun has just risen, the air is cold and damp. I can still see my breath as I breath in and out and start to absorb the beauty of a new day on our farm. Kelly smells of tree mosses, green shoots of plant life springing forth from a newly awakened ground. Mother Nature is working her magic and while I still felt the chill of winter deep in my bones it was really spring, and she has just arrived. I turn my head and to my happy surprise the jonquils and narcissus have just bloomed! Their scent is still very green almost like mint. They are young and quite virginal having just woken from a long winters rest. The smell of green new earth, the plants, the cool dampness of air mingling w/ saddle leather was a favorite smell of mine growing up. Kelly Caleche toilette captures the scent of the dawn of a new spring day on a farm in a bottle. The earth, the plants, the flowers, the leather scent of work gloves and saddles for horses. I am transported back to early spring rides on our horse Pal. I love this perfume beyond words. It has given me back the best part of my childhood memories. Full bottle worthy if you love the smell of cool spring country air and hints of supple leathers.

Kelly Caleche Hermes EDT opens with the best of the grapefruits. Generally I don't like citruses; orange, lemon, bergamot, grapefruit etc, they all seem easy to me, generic. Sometimes I just plain hate it right way when companies choose the easy way of creating a fresh perfume for women by using just citruses, or just dominantly citrusy perfumes which are so generic, all almost identical. Not in this case. Hermes makes the best citrus full stop. Tom Ford as well. They made me like the citrusy notes much more. So if you are totally bored by the typical citrus thingies (e.g Chanel makes typical citrusy openings and a lot of other mainstreams like D&G Light Blue, which I hate) do give Kelly Caleche a shot. It's a crisp, truly lemony grapefruit, sour, bitter and minty, you just can't go more bitter than this...Grapefruit stays. Then you have leather. Ladie's leather handbag. Seamless blend, you won't even notice when leather settles. And let's not forget about rose, that plays a major role in here. Sets powdery and leathery, with the grapefruit behind. Hence the lady leather handbag feel. Hermes leaves me speechless again, not really because of the creativity; well, it's just citrus, rose and leather, but because of the quality. It smells expensive, realistic, refined. Multilayered and rich in scent. Wafts beautifully and the more I smell it the more intoxicated I get. A yes from me

More than one person can tell you how much I love leather. I love handling it, wearing it, and especially smelling it. Frankly, I even get a little turned on by the scent. It was one of the reasons I loved my much-mourned Cerruti Image Woman. I also love rose, the freshness and sweetness of it. So I had to jump at this one. Others before me have covered the scent palette much better than I can. What I can say is that this is an odd beast. The leather is definitely a "rough" leather, miles away from fine kidskin gloves or a lambskin blazer. It's more like Frye boots and cowhide work jacket, nearly salty in its pungency. This is what I smell when I put my nose to my wrist and sniff. No grapefruit, no roses. Just raw leather, almost akin to a rawhide chew toy. But the magic really happens in the sillage. Then the fragrance becomes a heavenly aura around me, blending the salty leather with the sweet roses and fresh grapefruit. It hovers, so that when I move and catch a whiff I am again overcome by how this contradiction works so well. For this reason, I can see myself wearing it especially when I work out - that ever-moving aura with breaths of frustratingly delicious fragrance. Nothing will replace my Image, but this has taken a bit of the edge off the pain.

I have been dying to try this for months and fought hard to resist a blind buy based on everything I have read here on Fragrantica. Today my daughter brought me over several samples and I am sooooooo happy I didn't invest any money in this perfume. By the descriptions here I was expecting a wonderful leather scent...one of my favorite notes. Instead all I got was something piney and green.I'm assuming this is the grapefruit that I am smelling. No rose, no white flowers, no leather. Just Pine cleaner.. EDIT: I was looking through my old reviews today and was shocked to see what I had written and left here! Yes, my first testing of this perfume was a big disappointment but I knew I must be missing something as this is a much loved perfume. So, I tried it again and again and each time I smelled something different. By the 5th day I was in love and had to purchase a full bottle. Yes, the grapefruit opening is a bit bitter and tart, but that soon changes to a delicate rose and mimosa mingled with the most gorgeous, realistic leather scent. I have smelled. I am in love with this beautiful perfume. It is exactly the beautiful leather scent I have been looking for.

When I concentrate on smelling leather here I understand that it's a very good approximation of a non-sweet leather scent. But when I relax and then get a whiff without trying to sniff it, I am transported to a dry pine forest in the summer. Something about the way the crisp, zesty grapefruit note mingles in smells just like the campground where my family spent so many summer vacations. That said, I see "pine forest" is not a popular opinion, but our senses do what they do. Left on autopilot, that's how this translates in my brain! While I don't necessarily get "rose" there is a slight floral lilt at times adding feminity. Dinkey Creek had wildflowers, meandering streams, a pine-needle floor and occasional wood smoke from campfires. This association makes Kelly Caleche a nostalgic gift to my senses and takes me back to a time and place that was wonderful. Do I always want to smell of this? Maybe not, but it is a fun, comforting ride to go on sometimes. All of these accords are subtle, unobnoxious and seem so natural. Now that's a fantastic fragrance!!

Imagine a young, or young-at-heart woman who looks elegant in a t-shirt, trench coat and trainers. She's low-key, wears minimal makeup, loves the outdoors, but most of all she loves horses. She super-organised, maybe she works as a personal assistant to some high-end celebrity. She's good at it, but it's not really what she wants to do, Not deep down. In fact, she's better than that. She's nobody's 'assistant'. Rather she's someone who wants to run a stud farm of beautiful horses. She wants to save money, buy up that land, or farm, or ranch if she's in the US, with a friend or partner. When she does, she'll still always look elegant, effortlessly and minimaly elegant. Exuding the aroma of fresh grapefruit juice imbibed that morning, the leather of horse tack and saddle-soap, the roses and florals of her morning shower. That's Kelly Caleche edt. Wearing it makes me feel 'put together', ready for the day and practical, yet elegant. I'm not actually this practical, kick-ass and elegant mind you, I love the way it makes me feel it though! Big like.

Oh WOW. This is just gorgeous. First of all, Kelly Caleche is reminding me of something I can't quite put my finger on. Whatever it's reminding me of must of been a good thing though, that's for sure (do hope I figure it out soon though as it's driving me nuts). The Grapefruit, Leather & Mimose just SING together, perfectly, in harmony! On my skin, those three notes are the stars of the show. However the florals in this dance their way in and out as well, especially that deliciate yet prominent Iris note. This is just so feminine, so elegant, so fun - but not in a juvenile sort of way, more in a sophisticated sort of way. Sophisticated fun LOL! I'm usually wary of Grapefruit as it tends to take over on my skin - but not with Kelly Caleche. Black Orchid will always be my signature, but this is definitely a new favourite. It lasts forever, silage is great, projection is fantastic..and it just continually evolves while it's on my skin, especially that yummy leather. Just beautiful :)

Ohh my oh my This one took me by suprise I got a sample of this in a swapp and thought well lets try it again , last time i was not to pleased mith it. But now .. Oh my G.. I feal like im walking on peacefull clouds . Its like in another world , angelic kind beings surrounding me with light and hope . A lighte pink ray of hope lingers a cool wind of serenity and calmness This is what the fragrance did to me ;) I can feal the cooling Rose and juicy grapefruit mixing with a slight leather note, mimosas and narcissus warming it up slightly slightly. The violet keeping the cooling affect with a dash of Iris just like a powder puff on top ;) wonderfull wonderfull . I cant detect much Tuberose in this one ( luckely) This makes me think i must have gotten a bad sample at an earlyer stage . I thought i could not care for this one but now.. This one goes right on top of my wish list . lovely just lovely nead a bottle :)

When it comes to perfumes, I definiately have a sweet tooth. So I don't have a clue why I fell in love with this one. I just ordered a sample because I yearned for something new, something different, and I got it... It starts with ugly citrusy smell, like you poured out a bottle of pine-scented toilet freshener, but thats for only the first 10 seconds. Then it settles, and becomes the most beautiful leather scent I've ever smelled. Somehow I smell camomile in it, so this scent is a unique mixture of a new leather handbag and camomiles to my nose........one strange thing is that I've smelled it before, not he perfume, but the smell. I don't know when or how but I know I have. You know, this is one of those childhood memory scents to my nose, so I am totally in love, and wrapped whit good feelings when I wear it. :) Both projection and longetivity are good on me.

This is stunning! I first bought the EDP and enjoyed it immensely, the non-sweet tuberose is rather prominent in that one to my nose. Then, a friend got the EDT as a gift and did not like it, so she gave it to me. Oh, how I love this!! To me, it is a crisper, starker, more crystalline version of the EDP. It has a bite to it similar to Earl Grey tea.. A very ethereal, sparkling scent. For me personally, it is also very nostalgic. It reminds me of my late mother, when I was a child, a crisp sunny September day, she is wearing her suede jacket and its velvety plush scent is interwoven with her Chamade perfume. We are on a walk at the park, cool September breeze brings about wafts of the yellowing leaves and the sky is electric blue. This scent is a photorealistic impression of that memory. I love it!

I had both, and although they are equally nice I do prefer the EDT to the EDP. In the latter the rose and violet and mimosa notes are more prominent, the powdery finish they gift the leather with is therefore heavier. And I don't like much rose in my perfumes, it got me bored to death in scents. In the EDT the grapefruit is a constant presence throughout to drydown, which makes the fragrance less evening scent, and more day wear. Also, the leather is subtler though persistent. For me a definite better combo, much more uplifting and delicate. Kelly is uber classy, sophisticated and the epitome of grace. I absolutely love the EDT. Longevity and sillage are worth every penny for this summery winner. Not a winter scent, it doesn't perform as well in cold or wet climates.

This is another Hermes that I wanted to sample out of curiosity. Rose is one of those notes that can be tricky on my skin and coupled with the leather, I wasn't sure what to expect. Well, I fell in love with it! The rose doesn't do anything funky on my skin and it smells like a fresh bouquet of roses at first application. Then as it's drying, the leather makes it's entrance. On my skin, it's more of a suede leather aroma that doesn't change the smell of the roses, thank goodness. I've added this one to my want list already because I'm glad I found another rose that goes so well with my chemistry. A very romantic frag with hints of toughness with the leather note that has good longevity with moderate sillage.

At first spray, I could only detect soap. I *hate* soap in perfume; it registers as sharp and gives me terrible headaches. Wondering how a JCE fragrance could be so disappointing, I put it away in a drawer. A year and a half later (today), I retested Kelly Caleche. Some magical alchemy has occurred and I smell minty and juicy grapefruit paired with soft leather. Wow. Airy loveliness. There is something delicious and sensuous in the combo of effervescent grapefruit and that gentle leather. Incredibly glad I gave her a second chance and didn't sell my bottle at some point. Kelly Caleche is the bolder sister to my beloved Osmanthus Yunnan, which is what I hoped when I originally bought it. ♥️

I am not a big fan of floral smells, but every rule has an exception. I was shopping and caught a whiff of this and HAD to have it. Citrus cuts the floral scent which moves the granny roses into something much lighter, and it harmonised well with other flowers. The lily is a fantastic addition. The leathery undertones turn the fragrance from sweet and fresh to slightly dangerous... Like the librarian with a wild side. It's the perfect daytime treat. I bought it on the spot. I wore the heck out of it until three weeks later when a guest knocked it off of my front door table. I have yet too replace it. It comes at a high price, but everything worthwhile comes at a cost!

A reviewer below noted that this fragrance evokes a pine forest in the Sierra Nevadas of California and I couldn't agree more. To me it smells of driving through the dry golden foothills on a hot summer day and then ascending into the cooler pine forest. Everything about it just sings of the glorious outdoors. The leather note reads to me more like standing outside a hay barn in the foothills, like there is an illusion of leather because you know there are saddles in the tack room off to the side. I'm totally head over heels for this one and I can't imagine ever taking it off my list of top 5 fragrances. Absolute beauty.

Sometime ago I said that one day I would flip and get Kelly Calache for me. At that time females' scents were off bounderies. Not any more. Some are too complex to be offered as masculine and at the same time not at all feminine themselves, rather manly like. So it was a matter of time before I finally bought me a bottle. Kelly Caleche is a sweet leather sprinkled with very light citrus and an even more discreet flowery accord. It is also green, but not in the Chanel No 19 way. It smells very unisex, and I have Prada L'Eau Ambree in the other arm, and that makes the leather stronger. I love it. Them.