Our take
What does Un Jardin en Méditerranée smell like?
It starts with a garden in Tunisia that belonged to Leïla Menchari, who designed the Hermès windows. Jean-Claude Ellena turned it into a perfume in 2003, the first in the house's garden series. The opening is bright. Orange blossom and bergamot give a citrus and petal freshness. Fig arrives quickly. It is green and milky, closer to the leaf than to ripe fruit. Bay adds a kitchen-herb note and lentisk, a typical Mediterranean shrub, brings fresh resin. The base stays light, with pale cedar and lingering fig. Everything is transparent, almost watercolour. That is Ellena's trademark. Compared with Diptyque's Philosykos, the other famous fig, it is more floral and less woody. Nothing in it shouts, and that restraint is the whole charm. It doesn't last long, which is the price of that lightness.
When to wear it
A daytime summer scent you can wear even in strong heat. Spray generously, four times if needed, and top up in the afternoon.
It belongs to the Floral, Fruity family. Un Jardin en Méditerranée is one of 47 creations by Hermès in our encyclopedia.
