Hermès Hermessence Epice Marine (2013): Two Taste Masters Get Together and Cook Up a Storm {New Perfume}

The eleventh Hermessence by Hermès is called Epice Marine. It is inspired by the spice palette used by French chef Olivier Roellinger who hails from Brittany, mixed for further intrigue with the scent of sea-shore fog and Bruichladdich whiskey. The composition is signed by in-house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena...

Chef Roellinger

The nose struck up a friendship with the 3-star Michelin chef, one of those who have decided to relinquish the distinction after two years (too much pressure and performance-oriented cooking), when they met during a radio broadcast.

Ellena travelled to Cancale to study the place. One of the chef's specialties is that he roasts his spices. The perfumer was attracted to his roasted cumin whose essence was later extracted in Grasse. As a result of both processes it smells less sweaty than a traditional note of cumin in perfumery and more like warm, human skin, with nuances of sesame, toasted bread, hazelnut.

The fragrance to be launched in September of 2013 features notes of cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, bergamot, a synthetic molecule which smells of algea and "oceanic water" but not of the sea, a smoky fog accord inspired by Bruichladdich whiskey, oakmoss.

Since we're speaking of autobiographical congruences, let it be known that Jean-Claude Ellena has a predilection for the cumin note for the reasons that it was illustrated on a grand scale by his master Edmond Roudnitska in Eau d'Hermès and to a lesser extent in Diorella, which his wife wore when they met.

His daughter Céline Ellena did a marine fragrance for l'Artisan Parfumeur called Côte d'Amour

The oceanic theme is well present at Hermès with l'Eau des Merveilles. Ellena has been thinking about the marine landscape for a while with Eau Claire des Merveilles and L'Ambre des Merveilles

Via Vanity Fair.fr ; Ouest France