Quote:
Originally Posted by
mikeperez23 
I love
Elixir des Merveilles. I went through a whole bottle years ago and decided not to replace it but I still think of it fondly.
It was the first fragrance from Hermes that I bought a full bottle of, when I started my fragrance life here on BN. I remember reading out it on Now Smell This and finding out that it was created by Jean Claude Ellena and I knew I already liked many of his creations already (especially the Hermessences). It was the Christmas holiday shopping season and Ray and I were at Sephora, in the mall. I put it on, and it immediately made me smile: it really did smell like chocolate covered orange peel (I love eating those!) and yet when the gourmand qualities of this fade off, it has that wonderful salty ambergris thing going on, from the original
Eau des Merveilles. It really helped me understand and appreciate the original EdM even more. Later on the next year I bought a bottle of
Eau des Merveilles and also a mini of
Parfum des Merveilles.
The
Elixir is a challenge for me to wear in warm weather, because of how sweet it is. Which is partly why I gravitate towards the parfum more. Nonetheless, I think all three are unisex.
Why did Hermes market it to females? Probably because
Eau des Merveilles was a feminine and they thought capitalizing on a well known and successful fragrance would make them more $ (I'm sure it did). Nonetheless, many Hermes sales associates present
all of the Hermes scents (feminines, masculines and unisex) to me when I go to the Hermes boutique here. It's quite refreshing - this is how it should be, for every fragrance.
Mike, Eau des Merveilles is one of my favorite summer scents. I love it's salty, fizzy citrus and ambergris thing, and it's a scent that stays with you all day in summer but doesn't get louder or suffocating. It's a scent that I'm always sensing in the air, since it's the favorite of my sister.
The Elixir on me goes very fast from the gourmand opening to the spice amber drydown, and while it reminds me of Eau des Merveilles, I detect that Elixir doesn't have that fizzy, airy aura that Eau des Merveilles have. I was little bit frustrated with Parfum des Merveilles because for some reason I cannot understand this one doesn't stay so longer on my skin. It start in a promising way with a resin and liquer aura, but after some time it almost disappear on me. I'd have to own a big bottle of this one to fully appreciate it, but i dind't found anymore the bigger version of the parfum that hermés used to do.
I consider Hermés fragrances very wearable for Men, even the feminines. I love the iris leather of Kelly Caleche and I'm enjoying now the butter spiciness of the original Caléche. Hermés is one of my favorite fragrance houses.
