A Fragrance Story for Today...

I just got home from work. I had an interesting experience that I had to share here.

Before work, I was trying to decide what my SOTD would be-- it was down to Terre D'Hermes Parfum or Aventus. I sniffed the bottles of each and went back and forth before deciding on Aventus.

Later at work, it was around 2PM and as I was walking around, I smelled something very faintly--something familiar. I picked up some grapefruit and orange and vetiver... it was barely perceptible, but inside my head I kept hearing a voice saying "That's Terre D'Hermes... somebody's wearing Terre D'Hermes... that guy is wearing Terre D'Hermes..."

So I went over to the guy who was sitting in the area where I was picking up the aroma-- he was eating a salad-- and with a bit of hesitation I asked, "I know this is going to sound like a weird question, but are you wearing cologne?"

He looked at me a little oddly and then politely said, "No. I'm not." He had an accent like he was from somewhere in Europe, but I wasn't sure where.

So then I tried to smooth it over by saying that I thought I smelled something nice, and was just trying to figure out what it was.

Then he put his fork down and squinted a little and said, "Well, I WAS wearing cologne early this morning about 7 hours ago, but I've had a shower since and it's not there anymore".

"Aha!" I thought to myself. "So, what fragrance was it that you were wearing this morning?" I asked.

"It's something from Hermes" he replied.

"Ahh, I KNEW it. It's Terre D'Hermes. You're wearing Terre D'Hermes and I'm guessing that you're wearing the concentrated parfum version. Am I right?"

"Yes! Exactly. Wow. How did you know that?!?" He was simply stunned. I then had to explain that I'm a DIY perfumer and I study things like that. I also told him that I'd almost worn the exact same fragrance this morning-- which from a wardrobe of nearly 300 would have been quite a coincidence.

Weird. Also a year ago I called out someone wearing Terre D'Hermes. This fragrance really lasts and lasts, and it has such an identifiable signature. Today was like deja vu all over again!

That's awesome. I've come to find that many scents which smell different in the bottle can smell similar on skin when worn by random people; it really takes a little bit more for a particular fragrance to stand on its own and be so unmistakeable anywhere and everywhere. I think that's why Thierry Mugler's Angel is one of the most successful fragrances ever made. Same goes for Shalimar and Chanel No.5.

Back to the subject of Terre D'Hermes-- I remember when it was first released back in 2006, it was panned pretty hard by some segments of Basenotes as smelling "generic" and "like lemon dishwashing soap". I think it's really becoming a real bonafide mens' classic. It's not as popular as some fragrances, but from my conversations with novices who wear Terre D'Hermes as their signature scent-- they're pretty enthusiastic about it in terms of it being something they will continue to buy as their bottles run dry. Great stuff and it really stands out in the fragrance world and also the real world.

Me too! Just tonight there was a girl sitting at my bar wearing Alien. I don't know that it is, but it seems like very woman I encounter is wearing either Alien or Angel. Thierry Mugler really seems to capture women and get them to wear these fragrances. I have to say that I wasn't a huge fan of Alien at first, but I like it now quite a bit. I've probably asked about 10 or more women what they were wearing in the past two years and the answer was Alien.