Leather be light
Few scents are as intoxicating and identifiable as leather. What we actually smell when we enter a luxe boutique of handbags is its cured version — smoky, earthy and oddly, clean. Our brains equate it with luxury and, upon touching the source of the scent, expect something soft but strong.
On the other end of the spectrum, there is rose, a metaphor for femininity. Its scent can go from delicate to robust. It’s a scent that perfumers go to great lengths to translate into something youthful, as it has a tendency to register as “old.”
What Hermès in-house perfumer Christine Nagel has accomplished with Galop d’ Hermès is new in the fragrance world — there are leather perfumes and rose perfumes, but none so harmoniously together or as unbridled.
Nagel worked on Galop d’ Hermès for a year, drawing inspiration from Doblis calfskin in the Hermès library. She chose the Turkish rose, the yin to its yang, to mix it with. The resulting eau de parfum is described as “spirited, free, frenetic, bold and cerebral,” maybe because as it merges with your skin’s chemistry you wonder: What else is in this?
It is, primarily, a rosy scent. You encounter the leather the longer it lingers, along with a spice that turns out to be saffron to accentuate the leather, and quince, a sour fruit that gives body to the rose.
Jean-Philippe Collins, regional marketing manager of Hermès Parfums explains the name Galop d’ Hermès: “What is unique about this perfume is that there is a very strong connection of leather and rose, they are dancing together. It’s very tough thing to accomplish in perfumery because usually whenever you put leather, the result will be much stronger. With this perfume, they are in love with each other. There is no one note stronger than the other.”
While other fragrance brands always test scents on the market before launching them, Hermès doesn’t do any tests. “It’s the creator who decides on the perfume. She has the full freedom. When she made Galop d’ Hermès, it’s definitely a unique perfume and it didn’t go through any tests. And that’s how we always come to the market with something very unique. We don’t follow any trends. It’s in the DNA of Hermès to give the full power to the creation,” he says.
The perfume has had very good reception in other markets in Asia, and Hermès is confident that it will do even better in the Philippines. “Philippines is a real fragrance market, and they will be capable of appreciating this kind of perfume. We are blessed to partner with Rustan’s because they are the strongest in luxury. We appreciate that the market is accelerating and we would definitely be participating, in the opening of new counters for instance,” he adds.
The new scent, Galop d’ Hermès, is something you will want to use everywhere, all the time. Makes one wonder when Hermès will finally address our fantasies and come up with a makeup line — we heard they might be coming out with lipsticks soon! In the meantime, we have Galop d’ Hermès to keep us dancing.
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Galop d’ Hermès 50mL perfume is available at Hermès, located at Greenbelt 3, Ayala Center, Makati.
