Terre d'Hermès
Hermès (2006)

Starts off promising. Earthy and natural, and turns into something that smells like it’s for killing bugs.

Terre d’Hermès is a mineral beat of citrus zest and cedarwood that remains poignant and cross-sectional amongst the prim of the universe. Simply a transparent, earthy, ethereal accord, highlighted by a synthetic flint note that adds a wet soiled edge to the chartreuse emanating, one dressed up by a floral note of pelargonium and its rosy green facet and primarily vetiver, shaking its rump in the exit stage with other woody humps in the base... Truly, an Ellena benchmark that continues to resonate and stands far above the rest in this young century. A fine standard indeed!

I avoided this one for years because my boss always wore it. Got some samples on a recent shopping trip and now I see why it's been hanging in there and praised for so long. This is a really solid, good scent that's going to endure.

However, I can see where it's loved by a lot of men and kind of meh for women.

I like it. I'll wear it a lot.

But not on a date.

"Terre" literally means earth, yes earth as in dirt. Terre is a blast of damp soil and bitter orange peel. I give kudos to the perfumer for making these two work together, but nowadays.... Maybe COVID ruined my nose for something in this forever.

I used to spray this fragrance on proudly every day for 4 years as my signature scent, but I don't love it anymore. I don't hate it, but when I have pleasant scents to reach for and now that I'm at the age where it's time to put in a modest amount of effort on myself for any hopes at attracting a woman. How do I say this... I don't have time to "tolerate" fragrances anymore - it has to be good all the way though, and this is giving me rich old european man vibes. A perfumery student on youtube said she used to smell this everywhere in Paris when it was new and hot, but then it suddenly disappeared and never came back.

Since I bought this bottle in November 2017 after love at first sniff in Sephora, my bottle has macerated quite a bit and my tastes may have changed, but not by much. Terre has been a massive hypebeast in times gone by in fragcomm. I think it's time to retire this fragrance for a decade or two. Eau Givree is a modern reincarnation and actually restored my love for this DNA, but alas the Terre line sits at the bottom of the shelves in Sephora in the far corner in EVERY store - clearly bottles people have bough or received as gifts only to be returned.

Nostalgia compels me to at least give this a neutral.

In 2017, my colleague Henry suggested me this perfume. I had a bit of doubt about this perfume because that was the first time I had heard of this brand name. However, I took the risk and purchased this. Now I can say that I made my best decision by purchasing this perfume, Never regretted buying this. It has a nice, masculine and long-lasting aroma. The scent is neither too strong nor too subtle.

Sun. Slowly creeping over the horizon as he trekked the last quarter mile.

Dust and dirt stinging his nostrils as millions of years passed through his memory.

Higher now. Illumination is near. What is smog anyway?

Terre d’Hermes.


1/5 stars