I smelled Barénia1, the new Hermès fragrance, yesterday. The bad news is that it is a fruitchouli, probably the most overdone thing in mainstream perfumery. The good news is that Christine Nagel has tried to make it more interesting than the others. She partly succeeds: the accord is more compact and less trashy than usual, and the core has a weird savory tobacco and sun-dried tomatoes character I had not smelled before. But it never rises above middle meh, and the dry down, while smooth and civilized, is tedious. What hope is there if even Hermès does stuff like this?
I would be very much interested to hear what you have to say regarding the whole H24 line and the various Twilly flankers that have come out in recent years. In particular, Tutti Twilly is quite a drastic spin on the original, building a brand new lychee accord on top of the original tuberose.
My impression too. But then I suspect that the far more intriguing earlier Galop tanked, so Nagel must have been given a strict brief.
The focus group panel behind the perfume appears to have been composed by women who dream to buy a bright pink Hermes Birkin bag and the (costume?) dog collar jewelry of the house, to which I am told the bottle is inspired. It is a large demographic group, so I suspect the perfume will do well.