Pastry Chef Pierre Hermé Art Directs Three Perfume Creations at L'Occitane (2015) {New Perfumes}

Pierre Hermé is renowned amongst gourmand people for his gustative research often inspired by the refined sensations of perfumery. With Jasmin-Immortelle-Neroli, Pamplemousse-Rhubarbe and Miel-Mandarine he signs a new collaboration with fragrance house L'Occitane en Provence...

The limited-edition collection is inspired by brand founder Olivier Baussan and Pierre Hermé's common love of Corsica where they spend their summers. The Island of Beauty is reputed for its fragrant atmosphere; not surprisingly, it is the region of origin of one of the founders of modern perfumery, René Coty.

Baussan designed the perfume bottles and packaging which evoke cakes but also hat boxes.

Hermé said that he realizes that what he went for was to create perfume compositions that you almost wanted to eat.

Technically speaking, he closely art-directed the compositions working with a team of perfumers. As a specialist of taste he obviously had a massive input into the birthing of the fragrances. Suffice it to watch him critique his own pastry work to see how exacting he is. L'Occitane in-house perfumer Karine Dubreuil took a step back for this project, as she did not participate in it.

Jasmin-Immortelle-Neroli is a feminine floral scent with top notes of petit grain, pink peppercorn and lemon leading to a heart of jasmine, Corsican immortelle/everlasting flower, neroli and orange blossom. The base features amber, white woods and musk.

Pamplemousse-Rhubarb is a unisex fruity hesperidic scent. It opens on top notes of grapefruit, rhubarb, lemon and cypress seguing into a heart of clove, nutmeg and lavandin while the base rests on cedarwood and vetiver.

Miel Mandarine is called an hesperidic gourmand. The scent appears in beauty products and not in fine fragrance. Top note is mandarin; heart is Corsican Everlasting and beeswax; base is tonka, benzoin and cistus.

All three fragrances are available in a range of ancillary, makeup and bath and body products.

Via press release