Voyage d'Hermès

House: Hermès

Release: 2010

Perfumer: Jean-Claude Ellena

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes: Angelica, Juniper berry

Heart Notes: Cedarwood

Base Notes: Sandalwood, White musk

Review

Voyage d'Hermès is not Terre d'Hermès. How could this be? Those who follow Jean-Claude Ellena’s career were aware of his movement to more spare compositions, but were taken by surprise by the simplicity of Voyage. They see his signature, but don’t love the painting. For many others, this is exactly what they wanted, a light, spiced floral translucent wood and musk.

In our wear of the EDT in a decant in 2020, this opened light soapy/powdery note at the opening with bitter green medicine and dry citrus. The soap note remains, but recedes a little to allow the green to come through. There is some spiciness, but nothing rising above the sharp accord, so it may just be the pinene, terpinene, and sabinene from the juniper note, or else some mix of cardamom, pepper, coriander, and others. We list the EDP in our Top 10 Cardamom Perfumes as it has a more nuanced spice performance.

We were happy to see the soapy opening not stay throughout the heart, which continued to drop into a dryer cedar from the green resinous opening notes. with a sweet white floral. There is something reminiscent of Creed’s Royal Oud in the dry powder, pepper, green citrus peel. The drydown could not be farther from Creed’s power chord if it tried. This scent holds the spice, floral, clean, dry wood and then vanishes.

The label lists farnesol, which has sweet white linden flower and angelica notes. We wonder what effect you get at different levels of farnesol and hedione. Coumarin is also listed, which explains some of the sweet powdery note. Citral, limonene, linalool, citronellol have many sources, or could be added as single chemicals give you both the citrus and floral heart.

Longevity, as others have noted, is much lower than other EDT’s in the category. Sillage is moderate to low. This is a personal scent that can be reapplied as needed, particularly with the price point.