Voyage d'Hermès and Jean-Claude Ellena

Jean-Claude Ellena is, without question, one of the best and most innovative noses working today, and his work for Hermès represents some of the best work he's done. One of the striking aspects of his fragrances is that he is unafraid to return to various themes and permute them in various directions. The peppery top-notes of Cartier Declaration occur, in purified form, as the central element of Poivre Samarcande; the cumin in Declaration makes a strong appearance in Cologne Bigarade, one of three fragrances Ellena created for Frederic Malle; the light vegetal elements found in Kelly Caleche also recur in the Jardin trio; the sparkling grapefruit in Eau de Pamplemousse Rose pops up again in Rose Ikebana, and the rose in those two fragrances grounds Cologne Bigarade; the savory bergamote of Divine Bergamote provides a citric top-note for Eau d'Hiver.

Because of this, Ellena is sometimes (unfairly) accused of plagiarizing himself. These recurrent themes don't represent laziness, but rather a return to the same ideas, a technique followed by many artists with a mature style. Having said this, there are times when certain themes give diminishing returns, and unfortunately this is the case with Voyage d'Hermès. Here, Ellena marries the gin-soaked vegetation of Angeliques Sous la Pluie (another of his fragrances for Frederic Malle) with the sweet ginger base of Declaration. Unfortunately, Angeliques Sous la Pluie wasn't very good the first time around (it smells powerfully of gin, and I don't know why I'd want to smell like that), and although marrying it to a woods-and-ginger accord is an improvement, the result is still a disappointment. This is a perfectly okay fragrance, but I've come to expect more from Ellena.

EDIT: Upon reflection some years later, Angeliques Sous la Pluie is awesome. I was insane when I wrote this.