Un jardin sur le nil review năm 2024

The latest from Jean-Claude Ellena at Hermès, Un Jardin Sur Le Nil, is finally available at Neiman Marcus. I was not able to score a sample (drat!) but did give it a quick try. The verdict: an absolute must have, but as I am too cheap to pay full price, I'll be waiting impatiently for it to appear at the online discounters. The notes are: green mango, lotus flower, aromatic rushes, incense, sycamore wood.

It starts with a buzz of citrus (grapefruit? maybe some lime?) and intense green notes; the green mango lends some fruitiness but is thankfully not overly sweet. The top notes have a fizziness that reminds me of Diptyque Oyedo, although they smell nothing alike. The citrus fades, leaving a high-pitched green over a woody base. I cannot make out the lotus flower at all.

I was unfortunately not able to try them together, but I would say Sur Le Nil is considerably less sweet and fruity than Un Jardin en Méditerannée. They are very much in the same style though: sheer but deep, a watery, aquatic feel, a woody base note and a touch of spice.

Despite the watery aspect, this is a very dry fragrance, with a slightly spicy-peppery undertone. The incense is subdued but adds to the arid, almost dusty feeling. It smells very fresh, but without that heavy ozonic accord that always makes me feel like I am wearing air freshener, and by the same token, I don't catch that synthetic marine accord that most aquatic fragrances have in abundance.

Jardin Sur Le Nil is billed as a unisex and I think it could in fact be easily worn by a man or a woman, but if Jardin en Méditeranée was already too masculine for you, this is almost certainly not going to work. And one final caveat: first impressions can, of course, be deceiving. I can think of any number of fragrances that I loved when I tried in a store, but after taking home a sample (or worse yet, a bottle) I decided they were not so impressive after all.

Most of you hard and heavy Perfumistas are probably familiar with the story of the inception of Un Jardin sur le Nil.

Chandler Burr wrote about it in his book “The Perfect Scent” that came out in 2007. No doubt it had some influence on how this perfume sold, and – that is for sure – it had a big influence on me.

My obsession with perfume was kick-started when I read this book and of course, Un Jardin sur le Nil was one of my very first perfume purchases in the new era of Perfumista-dom, as opposed to the previous dark times of unenlightenment.

Jean-Claude Ellena, the perfumer who created Un Jardin sur le Nil for Hermes, turned into my favorite nose quickly and my mission was before me, clearly visible for the first time – sample everything Ellena ever did.

I am still on that mission, although as you know there are many things that sidetracked me and my tastes have broadened considerably. This Ellena fan wears an Amouage perfume today, of all things!

But as I thought about my beginnings as a scent-fiend, I realized Un Jardin sur le Nil played an important part, so it is high time I reviewed it.

The Jardins series comprises three perfume so far, Un Jardin en Mediterranée, Un Jardin sur le Nil was the second in the line and Un Jardin aprés la Mousson the third. A fourth one is to be released in spring of 2011, Un Jardin sur le Toit (A garden on the roof), I am looking forward to this release.

Notes include green mango, lotus flower, aromatic rushes, incense, sycamore wood. It was created in 2005.

Upon application Un Jardin sur le Nil wakes me up with a most effervescent green grapefruit note, fresh, bracing and non-sweet citrus, perfect. Then it calms down towards the subtler scent of green mangoes, as yet unripe, still hanging in the tree. There is a soft, ever so slight sweetness, underscored by the lotus flower, but it never gets too fruity, which would be a turn-off for me. The mango is surrounded by green and dry woody notes that stealthily take over during the perfume’s development.

It is one of those amazingly constructed Ellena perfumes that is as transparent and translucent and light-flooded as can be, yet still proves to be a lot more tenacious that one would think given its incredible lightness of being.

The drydown is dusty green, wood tinged with incense, a very unusual and memorable base, again astounding for something so weightless.

I could marvel for days about the high art if Jean-Claude Ellena’s style of paring down a perfume to the minimum without ever going to far, there is everything it needs, nothing is missing and yet nothing is too much either. But you heard me rave about this several times already, so I will just leave it at that:

The lightness of being this perfume exudes is almost unbearable in its delicacy and refined beauty. It is easy to underestimate and file it under cologne-style summer scent. But that would not do this perfume justice, although it is highly wearable, highly comfortable, perfectly gender-neutral and simply pretty, it is also a perfume that seems like lit from within.