Un Jardin Sur Le Nil

Let me first say before I write this that I am part-Egyptian. I have lived in Egypt, stayed in the countryside, and visited the area near where this perfume was "inspired" by. This is a wonderfully fresh perfume that was inspired by the smell of the banks of the river Nile in Aswan (a city in the south of Egypt). For me, when I smell this I get the impression of reeds and vegetation by the side of a tropical river. I heard that Jean-Claude Ellena wanted to evoke the smell of green Mangoes here, and I get that. This is not a sweet smell, this is a sweet & sour, very tangy aroma of grapefruit, tomato leaf, and carrots. I also get very distinctly the smell of bulrushes, which are the long plants that grow on the bank of the river. I also get a hint of Lotus flower. Lotus is one of the national flowers of Egypt. I have taken a boat on the Nile and it's quite a common sight to see these white flowers floating on the river surface, and they naturally form very beautiful green patterns on the waters surface. The white Lotus was sacred to the ancient Egyptians, who believed that all life was created from this flower at the dawn of time). For me it's very evocative. I also get a little hint of Hyacinth, which adds to the sharp, green and watery vibe here. I notice a hint in the background of Labdanum and Incense, and this also in my opinion gives the fragrance a little character and stops it becoming like any other of the "aquatic fruity-floral" category designer creations. This is a very well-crafted fragrance and one done with a lot of time, effort and care to get perfect. Wearing Un Jardin Sur le Nil is like being transported to a place. For me, it's the smell of the plants and vegetation by the side of an African river, and I consider myself fortunate to have lived in Egypt and experienced the beauty of the Nile first hand. This is why I appreciate what Ellena has managed to achieve here as something truly special. That being said, what you will get out of this is a slightly sharp, green, almost aquatic floral... but done in such a tasteful, natural an refreshing way. It's not fair to really call it an aquatic because that word has been overused and produced very boring fragrances over the years. Here you are smelling a work by Jean-Claude Ellena. I get a very naturally fresh experience which always surprises me each time I wear it (I always notice something new about it every time). It's perfect for hot, dry and humid weather, and so fresh you almost want to drink it. Like a bitter Lemon and Lime tonic water with ice cubes. For people saying projection is bad, I can only say (after trying), that if you overspray this it will overwhelm you. So it does have good projection. I would just say reserve it for the warmer months and enjoy it in the heat. Green, sharp, fresh and tropical... Un Jardin sur le Nil is one of my favourites!

Many moons ago, while shopping for baby clothes at a Ross store (we were in the midst of the adoption process...had no idea if the Lord was going to bless us with a boy or girl, so I was buying every adorable piece of infant clothes on their clearance racks...private adoption is very expensive and hubby was still making a meager salary in the military), I stumbled across a beat up bottle of Pacifica Lotus Garden body lotion, of course on clearance for $3.00. I fell in love with that refreshing scent. It is very citrus, green and floral. I tried finding more at every Ross store I came across (I may have found 2 more bottles. This was way before discovering eBay). I tried being stingy with it under the impression I had found something lovely that had been discontinued. Well, citrus fragrances as we very well know, have a habit of "turning" if not used in a timely manner...especially in lotion form. Just as my last bottle was taking on that rancid celery overtone, I discovered eBay. This is where smart people buy up discontinued fragrances and flip them for an outrageous profit. Oh wow, there was a EDT of my beloved Pacifica Lotus Garden...for $150 for a 1.7 oz bottle!!! Me, broke and sad had to live without it. However, purely by accident, while going over Fragrantica's page dedicated to Pacifica Lotus Garden, I noticed there was a quite large amount of votes under "this perfume reminds me of" for this fragrance, Hermes Un Jardin Sur Le Nil. I went straight away to eBay, cringing all along with the name HERMES, along with $$$$ pounding in my head. I found a seller asking $45.99 or best offer with free shipping for a 3.1 oz bottle. We agreed upon $40 even. It just came in the mail. It is an exact dupe for PLG, but with much better longevity and silliage. Many thanks to Fragrantica for reuniting me with a fragrance I thought I would never have again. Now, when I wear it, memories of a most difficult time, our adoption, ending in the most wonderful day in my life, picking up our 2 day old son at the same hospital I was born in (if that's not destiny, i dont know what is). I was wearing Pacific Lotus Garden the day we picked up our baby. I just put on my Hermes dupe and heard from another room, our teenage son saying, "Mom, what is that smell???it's so nice! It smells so familiar!" 😉

Bring the garden with you! A walk through a lush vegetable and flower garden with your lover or friends during a cool summers morning. The sun beginning to heat up the dew from the night on the green leaves and powdery floral pedals. Laughs are had, memories are made, and as always: Life is good. As soon as you spray this on you are smacked in the face with a juicy, freshly squeezed grapefruit over a medley of freshly picked, dewy, and green vegetable leaves, the most prominent being the tomato leaf and this earthy, slightly musky carrot accord. Wow. As it dries down, the green/vegetal notes and citrus co-star with these super clean and powdery florals. What an underrated summer gem! Super refreshing, uplifting, and intriguing citrus green scent that dries down really nice and powdery. It really does smell like my aunts backyard during the summer, as she used to grow veggies and flowers to give as gifts during the summer. Really blown away this doesn't get more hype than it currently does. Great freshie that I will 100% cycle into the weekly rotation for the upcoming hotter months. First time I wore this I compliment too, so take that as you will. Very very good projection for the freshie profile, respectable performance as well. Hermes fragrances typically stick well on me though so take it with a grain of salt. 9.3/10. Signature Scent Worthy. Song vibe - Slide by Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, and Migos EDIT I have worn this so much that it’s kinda astounding. It’s so refreshing and green that it just puts a smile on my face every time I wake up. One of my top fresh fragrances of all time, and easily now a 10/10

I love the Jardin line. They provide a transportive, abstract experience, and wearing them is like a guided meditation; it connects you to a time and a place, in the most ephemeral, fleeting, sheer way (ephemeral because the perfumes in the Jardin collection lack longevity on the skin). I bought this scent because I searched for a replacement for my beloved, long gone Mon Jasmin Noir, which was my first real perfume, at age 17. They are almost the same. The grapefruit is the same, and so it the undisclosed mango note that was in Mon Jasmin Noir. But Sur le Nil is in someway better, because it instead of sending me home in nostalgia to the comforts of Mon Jasmin Noir, it sends me, through a guided mental tour, to the surroundings of the Nile, to an exotic place I've never been to. It's romantic almost. In terms of sillage and longevity - this is the best the Jardin line has to offer. if you overspray, sillage is great and lasts for exactly 4 hours. Ellena's grapefruit (which is the same on that exists in other creations) is such a refreshing scent; but if you live in a truly humid and hot environment, mind you that the mango as well as a cinnamony note that is there in the background can get a bit cloying and almost too sweet at times. I love it. In three words I would describe it as: Refreshing; Romantic; Tropical.

I wish I had a discerning nose that can detect different notes, but alas, I'm stuck with classifying scents into into categories of good, neutral, and bad. This is fragrance is GOOD! Fruity without being sticky, like unripe fruits forming on a tree. It's clean and fresh in the same way a flowing river is. Enlivening and refreshing like shade or a breeze. I agree that is disappears in cold and dry climates. I have been working through a second-hand 50 ml bottle have finally finished it! I never found the carrot or tomato leaf note, but I've also never smelled a tomato leaf. I can look for the carrot note in my mind, but I think I'd be making it up if I identified it. Anyways, the fragrance does not last long at all, maybe 1-2 hours and certainly does not last on clothes. I think for second hand pricing (~$30 for nearly full blind-buy), the value isn't bad when having to reapply throughout the day, especially for something so well composed. Perfect bag and travel companion. At this moment, I shall not repurchase simply because I want to try more of the Un Jardin line and work through the other fragrances I have already.

Un Jardin Sur Le Nil has more personality and character compared to Un Jardin Sur La Lagune. I am testing both these perfumes side by side and I can tell immediately that Un Jardin sur Le Nil is more interesting/the superior one. Unique and bright. You have here contrasting notes like grapefruit and tomatoes leaves, peonies/lotus and iris/hyacinth, then there’s mango and carrots, bulrush, ladbanum, cinnamon and incense. It’s a lot thrown in to be honest but the result is a very different fresh, aromatic, citrus, floral, fruity scent with a warm, resinous, incense, soft spiced base. I can distinguish clearly between the opposite facets and I really love what I smell as a result. Without being something impressive when it comes to performance, Un Jardin Sur Le Nil is certainly an interesting scent as scent profile goes. I personally haven’t smelled anything like it. I will be adding a bottle of Un Jardin Sur Le Nil to my collection this summer if I can find a good deal. This is a beautiful perfume just right for warm, sunny days. Stunning creation Monsieur Ellena!!!

When a student in the 90s, I spent a year working as an intern in Paris. For my leaving gift, my colleagues gifted me a bottle of Fleur d'Eau by Rochas, which I instantly fell in love with. It was the start of my experimentation phase with perfumes and I was always looking for something new and different, which meant I never re-bought another bottle when I finished it. After it was then inevitably discontinued I got a hankering for the feeling Fleur d'Eau gave me on summer days - uplifting, not-too-fresh, not-too-fruity, not-too-floral. It's probably been 20 years since I last smelt that long-lost love and I'm sure if I put them side to side they are probably quite different, but something about Jardin sur Le Nil gave me a huge bout of nostalgia as soon as I put it on. This might be the one I've been looking for to hit those same notes I got this a part of a 4-piece Hermes discovery set (JslN, Eau des Merveilles, Twilly, Eau de Rhubarbe Ecarlate) that was going cheap at TKMAXX, and I already think it might be full bottle worthy.

Unique Teleporting Cheat-code. I have never smelled a perfume like this. The naturals in here are so natural if that makes any sense. This is something people would love spraying on as the first thing they do after waking up or the last thing they do before going to bed. It’s a transportive fragrance in every sense of the word. Takes you to another place free of mundane everyday stresses. Performance is very average but that’s a result of its effervescent quality and the naturals used. If they wanted to make a longer lasting version of this they’d have to kill the very essence of this olfactory idea. If someone tells me this is their daily, I would automatically think this is a very wise person who is extremely comfortable and quietly confident in who they are and isn’t obsessed with outside gratification. The notes tend to say summer daytime only but I’d use this whenever I’m feeling down or the weight of the world is on my shoulders. This takes it all off your shoulders in just a few sprays.

this one opens like boom there is the perfect citral, cant be better, its pure, clean, really the wow factor. a few min later it does have something like pink pepper while this note is not listed, but everything starts to round, the sharp citral calms down and turns more and more to an Orange and the Incense comes through like some burned wood at a beach far away, very very summery all and I love it! not sure about the Labdanum, cant detect it thus far but this perfume I really like, its also very flowery, but I cant really tell what flowers are into it, its just perfect mixed, a flow tweak with each other. this is a summer frag, daytime and nighttime, addictive, fresh but same time there is something deep into it, prob its the Cinnamon and Incense. this one is falling perfect on my skin. Edit: in the drydown its most like a pond in a luxury garden, you even can smell the rotten leaves and algae into such filter, its very very sophisticated all done, this leans to high-end if isnt it already.

It has a lot less going on than the notes might suggest. Still, a timeless one. The opening is a very nice grapefruit (supported by methyl pamplemouss). It does have a refined, tropical fruit opening as well. It's got the signature Hermes opening with the bergamot, very classy. This also carries that signature vetiver base that Hermes is known for, and the projection is decent for a freshy. Almost immediately I pick up on that clean vetiver smell. Seriously, it reminds me of Terre D'Hermes Parfum but without all the creaminess and less oakmoss. (It's like they took the parfum but stripped it of the patchouli and oakmoss). It ends up smelling slightly like a men's classic fragrance. Somewhat disappointing mid and drydown when the citrus has mostly faded. Still a very good pickup (I saw some on Ebay for 45$? If thats true, it's well worth 45$, in my opinion.

I had read about this fragrance and I specifically went out of my way to sniff it irl before buying. I don't blind buy or buy anything designer or fancy in the 'grey market' as a rule. In the beautiful fragrance hall of Bloomingdale's in NYC I finally had the chance to smell this and I purchased it a few hours later. The gentlemen at the Hermes counter there were just lovely and my experience there was so wonderful. This is a masterpiece. This is not news, as it seems to be a very popular scent. If you like citrus and grassy notes without those sort of 'aromatic' or mentholy or typically 'masc' type vibes...get this! I have not smelled anything cheap which captures this same vibe. It has a citrus opening and a woody almost sweet dry down imo. It is appropriately named I think, even though I have never seen the Nile. I just love it and it makes me so happy.

Tried this today on a hot humid summer day. Opening is bright and strongly citrus and green, almost similar to the lemon lysol wipes or lysol toilet bowl cleaner. However, opening lasts maybe 30-90 minutes max., then it turns into a "clean laundry" scent, awfully similar to one of "Clean" brand's Warm Cotton, Fresh Laundry, Rain or Fresh Linen, (can't remember which one), but a bit more complex. It doesn't project very far, maybe a few inches away from yourself. Longevity is about 2-4 hours. For most of the day, it smells like a laundry sheet. This bottle is priced at more than $100 in my area (I have a decant). Typical price is $160, which in my opinion, is far too high. If you want to save money and simply smell like a laundry sheet, then just buy the Clean brand perfume for cheaper ($24-$65 total) - No, I am not affiliated with Clean brand perfume

I was a little afraid of the combination of tomato, iris and incense, but I still wanted to try out what Garden of the Nile smells like. I had a sniff at a perfumery and I was not too excited. But I had no idea what awaited me on the way home in the hot sun. It smelled wonderful. It's a fresh, lemony scent. There is something vegetable about it, but I perceive it as mystical, mysterious, like a river where sun and shadow alternate, all underlined by humidity. And the incense is so subtly smoky. Really beautiful, especially for a tropical summer. I perceive on my skin a bit of a similarity to Byredo Bal d Afrique - maybe it is the lemon, the relaxing effect or the connection with the continent :-) So beautiful. After spraying it, it is quite pronounced and projects into the surroundings, gradually fading away - a very nice effect. My first Hermés.

Finally, a summer freshie that doesn’t bore me to tears. No offense meant to light and fresh fragrances, I do like them, it’s just that I’ve smelled so many at this point that it takes a lot for one to truly stand out to me. Anyway, I bought Un Jardin Sur le Nil after reading the book The Perfect Scent which describes the development of this fragrance. (I also wanted to explore more Hermes fragrances and figured this was a good starting point.) I figured it would be a perfect perfume for hot and humid summers, based on the description. My expectation was on point, it is indeed refreshing while still being interesting. Perfect balance between green, aquatic, and fruity notes while still feeling like a “perfume.” It’s love. I will be happily burning through my 30 ml on the hottest days this summer.

Still my favorite in the Jardin series. This is lush, green, fruity and refreshing - one of the best things in the world to wear in the heat! I read Chandler Burr's novel on the creation of this scent, which certainly deepened my love for this artful and beautiful perfume. This is one I'll always have in my collection - it's such an easy reach, crowd pleasing (not that I care too much about that!), and unique. I really don't think you can go wrong with Ellena's work - I love his creations SO much. I acquired Jorum's Gorseland last summer and feel like it's the alternative, kooky cousin to Sur Le Nil. It shares the same natural vegetative greeness but is far more bitter, and raw - imagine Un Jardin Sur Le Nil left out in the Scottish elements for a winter! I love both!

I find this more feminine-leaning, and I initially thought it was a women's fragrance... I love it, very green and fresh, sweet mango. Clean, not soapy. I just wish it lasted a tad bit longer and projected more. I still can smell it on my skin by the end of the day but there is *almost* nothing left, esp. considering the price. It's not the highest but don't like my 3 eur perfumes outperforming my 80 eur perfumes (only 100mil bottles around here!), y'know? Best worn in the summer on hot days, it basically does nothing in cold weather (I tried because I LOVE smelling like this). All and all, I really do like this fragrance. Willing to try a dupe (if there is one) to test out, for curiosity's sake, but I might just re-buy this...

I LIVE AND BREATHE THIS FRAGRANCE. I have a 50 mL bottle and both a 40 mL body wash and lotion. She's fizzy, fresh, and clean; she makes me feel like a Florentine woman on a rewarding summer shopping spree after a grueling morning in the garden. I get the grapefruit and carrot quickly and easily, but there are strong lime, cucumber, and mint notes that I’m very surprised aren’t listed. The drydown is a light musk that is very intimate. I understand why it can read to some as soapy, but I feel as though it smells like the aftermath of a shower rather than the soap itself. I smelled this for the first time while in Paris for the Olympics and it has consumed my life since. Such a wonderful smell.

I LOVE THIS SMELL. If you like fresh, spa like scents, this is for YOU. It's earthy and citrusy, very "real". I first tried it on a trip to NYC 4 years ago and have NOT gotten it out of my mind! I DOUSE myself in this scent, and wish I could scend everything with it. Plug ins? I wish. Candles? YES! At first you get the citrus scent (I always thought lemon), then soon after the leafy notes from the carrot and tomato creep in... It's literally like smelling lemon leafs just ripped off of a tree!! SO refreshing. I love the way it smells if you can't tell. Can't get enough of this!!! Let my 5yo get a spritz of it and she also told me, it smells like leafs. Lol

Dang. This is one of the most freshest fragrences I have ever smelt. Absolutely a natural smelling beauty. It smells very green and tropical on me, with a clean citrus and vegetable opening. The dry down is a clean floral that is not overly sweet. Soft musky and powdery at the end. The whole life of it is incredibly beautiful and unique to anything else I own or have smelled. The ingredients smell crisp and natural and transport you to an Egyptian garden. Perfect for the hot summer days. Very versatile thanks to it's moderate projection. Doesn't last long so over spray or keep some on you. 9/10

This is my signature scent. I've been a perfume hater my whole life. Everyone around me liked stronger scents, so I always thought perfume was terrible and didn't wear any for years. My mom got gifted a sample of this and gave it to me. It was instant love. My only complaint is that it didn't last long, but this ended up being an advantage for someone like me. If you're someone that's sensitive to strong scents, this is perfect. It smells like a luxury spa and lasts quite long on the skin actually(8 hours for me). Got the full bottle and it's been my signature scent for a year now. 10/10