Un Jardin Apres La Mousson

House: Hermès

Release: 2008

Perfumer: Jean-Claude Ellena

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes: Floral notes

Heart Notes: Cardamom, Coriander, Pepper, Ginger, Ginger flower

Base Notes: Vetiver accord, Vegetal notes

Review

If Bergamote was a return to citrus-driven cologne style, Apres La Mousson is Jean-Claude Ellena’s embrace of the fresh style that was ascendant in the late 2000’s. The perfume is meant to evoke the smell of a garden in India after a monsoon, with all of the aquatic/fresh notes one would expect from the period. If you don’t like the melon/cucumber note central to these perfumes, this will not suit your tastes. However, if you are a fan of the style, this is one of the best examples of layering the melon/cucumber note with a clean floral, spicy scent with a sense of place. Cardamom is one of our favorite spice notes, and it blends beautifully with the ginger and ginger flower.

In our wear of a 2020 decant, the water note jumped off the skin first with little other nuance. The spice blend started to peak through, with distinct notes of cardamom and ginger as well as a nice restrained spice blend. The fresh ginger goes on and on in this one.

The wet green sense, noted as vegetal, is the predominant experience of this scent. Many online reviewers have been surprised to find out that there is no calone in this composition. Calone (or watermelon ketone) is the signature fresh, ozone, watery, melon compound that was dominant in the 1990’s, overdosed to exhaustion, and now probably underused in fine perfumery.