Just as self-respecting, Birkin-toting individuals figured they’ve collected everything there is to collect from Hermes, the French marque pulled out yet another first from its chapeau. Barenia, Hermes’ very first chypre fragrance – an enigmatic category of perfumes – made its Southeast Asian debut in Shanghai in September. The new scent joins 84 unique fragrances that make up the behemoth’s scent library.
CNA Luxury met its creator – Hermes’ master perfumer – Christine Nagel for a whiff of this highly nuanced fragrance. Nagel explained: “It is a classical [perfume] structure, the most elegant structure. It is a little bit complicated because it is a mix of several ingredients – a citrus note, a more opulent floral note and a woody note – like a recipe of a nice sauce.
” Since joining Hermes in 2014, the perfumer had a secret ambition she never shared with anyone: To create a chypre fragrance for the French maison. For 10 long years, this secret was buried deep in Nagel’s heart. “I love chypre because chypre is difficult.
I can create a perfume in three months or three years, it depends. This one, perhaps is unique, this was my secret. I didn’t have a brief.
It was a personal choice and I worked on it secretly.” Shrouded in so much secrecy that at one point, the 65-year-old even contemplated keeping the project under wraps forever. “I love this.
And perhaps I would never present it because it’s my secret.” Yet work on it never stopped. “.
