Eau des Merveilles (2004)
by Hermès

It's hard to resist Eau des Merveilles' top notes: a juicy, yet peculiarly briny tangerine that's spiked with pink peppercorn and warmed by a subtle animalic accent. As the salt and citrus subside they cede the olfactory stage to a more conventional blend of woody notes and dry vetiver, with some light incense (elemi) contributing a slightly astringent, medicinal dimension. It's all very bright and sheer, but the central accord makes an increasingly chemical impression as it develops.

I sense kinship with The Different Company's Sel de Vétiver and Miller Harris's Fleurs de Sel here, but I find both of those scents more coherent, sharper in profile, and more enduringly compelling than Eau des Merveilles. Like both of the others, Eau des Merveilles strikes me as entirely gender-neutral.

At no point is Eau des Merveilles a potent fragrance, and it does not endure more than two or three hours on my skin. If the opening movement were extended to cover a couple of hours I'd be more excited by this scent, but as it is I don't feel that Eau des Merveilles lives up to its initial promise.

The given notes are irrelevant to me - it really doesn't smell like any of those. The overall impression I get is of an un-feminine, slightly salty woody aura (the saltiness comes out only on heavier application). Skin. Sorta, anyway. On bad days, unwashed skin.
It's taken me forever to learn to love this one, but it's been intriguing all along at the very least. Some scents that are challenging at first turn into the greatest loves simply *because* you've spent so much time analyzing and criticizing them. It first clicked on a hot day, and I still prefer to wear this in hot, damp weather.

Hermes Eau de Merveilles

Notes: elemi, bitter orange, Italian lemon, Indonesian pepper, pink pepper, ambergris accord, oak, cedar, vetiver, balsam of Peru and tears of Siam (from NowSmellThis.com)

I have read that Eau de Merveilles is supposed to have been inspired by ambergris, and with that in mind, thought it would probably be a little "beachy", as in salt and sun on skin. In the opening, I smell orange, cedar, patchouli, tea, and a strange antiseptic note that reminds me very much of Lysol spray, in the original "good for your health, germ killing" scent. To be more precise, the antiseptic note smells like a cross between sage and iodine, but in the context of the rest of the fragrance, is softened and bolstered by other notes that allow it to give a leathery impression. It is a real stretch to imagine EdM as anything close to what ambergris really is, and in fact, it smells nothing like the real thing. However, on a warm day like today, once the weird woody, medicinal, leathery strangeness subsides, the lingering base does smell a bit like ambergris--salty, a tiny bit sweet and with a bitter edge that is a tad like bile. Too bad there is also a sort of shampoo smell in the drydown. On the whole, EdM was far more gourmand than I expected--the cedar, patchouli and sage/iodine accord is quite masculine, with an effect very similar to Angel and its ilk. I give EdM some points for the unusual opening accord, but find that ultimate gourmand weirdness is better satisfied by Tom Ford's Black Orchid. Having said that, I am enjoying EdM today, and find it to be an acceptable warm weather scent, appropriate for both men and women.

I always wonder what's to be chic but sunbathing in Amalfi or Capri. I always wanted to find that scent that's something impossible to describe and screams out loudly "sea and beach and salt".
So in my travel to find that fragrance, I came across this perfume and it was something love.
Not that kind of love you expect for the perfect stranger and his magnetic eyes, more the love for a sister or a brother or your little niece.

This smells to me like a nice young lady, really well dressed, going to the beach with a couple of friends, wearing a dress with polka dots and big white sunglasses. She might not be exactly the dream everyone is looking for, but she's got that allure, she's chic, and she knows some tricks (did I mention the couple of friends? *grin*) yes she's young and she'll learn.
The drydown is a bit dry and the pepper prevail on my skin, since the orange tends to fade soon.
Still is a good fragrance, well built, for a lady who doesn't care to have the summer on her skin or for a man (yes, it's easily unisex) who doesn't mind of smell divinely orangy sharing the summer with his girlfriend.

I really don't know why this fragrance is not market as an unissex fragrance. As mentioned before by many reviewers, this is an unusual fragrance. Its inverted pyramid is really tricky, but, on my skin, its staying power is moderate.

Great bottle and presentation, but maybe great part of its fame is just hype. It is not recommended for nights out... At least I can't imagine myself reaching for it for a night out at the club... Great choice for office use.

I was given a bottle of this by someone and can tell that if you are considering buying this, save your money or put it towards a scent with a little more substance. There is absolutely nothing that sets this scent apart from anything else that's being offered in department stores. It had some smell on paper, but I don't know where it disappeared to once it hit skin. Needless to say there was almost no sillage and what little there was, was pretty boring. If all you're looking for is a light, lemony, but non-descript scent for summer than this could fit the bill.