Hermèssence Osmanthe Yunnan (2005)
by Hermès

So I am sitting here in a deep funk and I decide to test Osmanthe Yunnan. One whiff, and my funk melts away. I get a bright, cheerful floral, coupled with fruit and tea notes. I think this would smell wonderful on a lady.

27th January, 2012.

I have to register a negative vote, not because the scent is unpleasant but because it is so subtle as to barely register. I have a sensitive nose but this is beyond subtle, into the "attenuated" category, or almost invisible.
The opening has promise: a somewhat substantial fruity apricot with some respectable orange blossom notes. Other florals of a delicate nature appear. As is typical with orange blossom, sometimes there are creamy notes and sometimes there are woody-stalky notes. The tea note is so subtle as to be non-existent. The scent is not sweet and certainly not heavy. The apricot, as is so often the case, has a slight metallic tinge.
Poof! The scent recedes into the background and one is left sadly searching for even a ghostly impression of what had been.
When it was present, it was mildly pleasant but not compelling. When it is absent, it is ... absent.

18th January, 2012.

This is my favorite JCE perfume. I usually like basenote-heavy fragrances, and his compsitions are too airy for me, but, in this one, simple is appropriate. Osmanthe Yunnan has a rich, complex apricot note that smells like apricot skin, only sweet to the nose, not to the (imagined) taste. It is firmly affixed to a big, dry, woody note--the famed "tea" aroma. Overall, this perfume smells like a big jar of apricot-flavored tea leaves, a gorgeous scent. It is amazing to find this captured in a perfume--albeit one that is a skin scent. It has heft and presence, but negligible sillage. Now, to justify the $235 price for such a delicate perfume enjoyed at close range, that is my conundrum.

20th May, 2011.

I tried four fragrances from the Hermessence range and the feeling I had after smelling them itìs that they would probably be more appropriated for the Hermes department store line (i.e. the Jardins serie, the Eaux serie and the Hermessence serie). Depending on your taste, they all smell good but in my opinion they don't fit the idea I have about an "exclusive and axpensive line to be sold only in selected boutiques". They're light, understated, sometimes even inconsistent, basically there's an huge difference between Hermessence and Chanel's Les Exclusives.

Said that Osmanthe Yunnan comfortably moves in this territory, made of hints, barely perceptible notes and short lasting power. An evanescent and efemeral milky tea composition with a fruity-apricot hint. It disappears form your body in two hours. Nice and refined but way too understated and absolutely overpriced.

14th April, 2011.

After a hasty, scintillating orange introduction, Osmanthe Yunnan turns opaque as its corkscrew glug of cream disperses. This is a fragrance of tea before anything else – the colour of dark brass, mildly astringent, milky rich. If you ache for osmanthus you'd do better with The Different Company's Osmanthus (Elléna's more straight-up interpretation of the little shrub) or even 1000 Kisses by Gorilla Perfume. It is also, somehow, a quietly brilliant, supple old leather shaped according to the contours of its wearer.

Despite a widespread dissatisfaction with its longevity, I don't feel swindled by Osmanthe Yunnan. For preference, the orange top note would have been prolonged using a trick similar to what Elléna deploys in Bigarade Concentrée for Frederic Malle. But although it's reserved, Osmanthe Yunnan has a suede-like, furry substantiality quite unlike most of Elléna's other work. And as a brew of the fruity-floral, the leathery and the creamy – without ever careening into the gourmand or animalic – I think Osmanthe Yunnan is not only beautiful and unassuming, but displays a seemingly-effortless poise.

9th March, 2011. (Last Edited: 10th March, 2011.)

I must have strange chemistry because Hiris goes on me like water then after about 15 minutes starts to sing and I'm still smelling it hours later (and it is stunning). The same is true for me with Osmanthe Yunan. I put it on several hours ago and I keep catching this beautiful, natural peachy fruity smell that is just delightful. Not a sillage monster I'll grant you, but for me this is the best "peach" note I've tried and not at all short lived. Luca Turin says body chemistry does not affect the performance of a fragrance but I have to disagree. Definitely worth trying if you love the smell of peach and are looking for something delicate and restrained with no hint of the 'chemical'. Love, love, loving Hermes and think Kelly Caleche, in EdT form, one of the best leathers out there.

28th January, 2011.