Hermes Barenia: fragrance review

 

Hermès Barénia launched in fall 2024, exploring the contours of the fruity neo-chypre, the first of its kind at Hermès, but within in-house perfumer Christine Nagel's beloved and familiar register. After all she (co)created For Her, Si Armani, and Miss Dior Chérie, icons of the genre, as well as Archives 69.

Official carded samples of Barénia flooded my desk during my research on it, testing on different days, with different weather conditions and different mindsets. In short, I rather like it and find it successful in what it sets out to do. That is, a refined leathery chypre in the modern mould. Let's face it, those are scarce in the designer field and only really surface now in the niche sector; and not to great advantage from a commercial point of view there either. The only exceptions I can think you could find at a major department store are Bottega Veneta, and Nomade by Chloé, and of the two, one is already discontinued. So, yes, Barénia is a good pillar perfume for a collection that is set between mainstream designer and refined luxury, and you should try it out for yourselves as well before judging. The bottle is also delicious, with the emblematic collier de chien motif on the top of the glass, a design conceived in the 1940s with a playful edge. 

 In Barénia the earthy notes of patchouli are present as part of the chypre structure, with the extremely diffusive version of akigalawood, a material we tend to associate with Bisch, who overlays almost everything with it. Nagel is more bent on sclarene which adds a hot iron note in many of her creations, and a cooler quality. However, the effect here is not only peppery and metallic-sort-of, but also tart on top, especially when trying it out on the skin rather than on the blotter, where the mineral, peppery and chypre aspects are more evident. 

On the skin the top note resembles a middle ground between bergamot and grapefruit, the beloved chord of Jean Claude Ellena who worked it into a floral leather himself for Hermès in...Kelly Calèche! I suspect that just like Ellena was said to go to the leather vaults of the French brand in search of inspiration, and being met with the mimosa and rose tonalities of the tanned hides supple to the touch, Nagel was also inspired by this previous excursion. Galop is also heavily referenced, with its rosy softness and more interesting background. But the budget for creating must have been higher, considering the retail price. Still, Barénia is reminiscent of both fragrances, both Kelly Calèche and Galop. We can find nuggets of leathery Galop in Myrrhe Eglantine (a floral amber composition), and in Tutti Twilly d'Hermès (suede fruity floral).

Akigalawood, a love or hate molecule, is combined with oak wood, which adds depth to the whole, but polished into sweeter tones which rise to embrace it in the context of the fruity chypre. This woody base, combinging the moiré with the raw, exudes a suede-like leatheriness which recalls Galop without a doubt. 

It's potent at this stage, it projects excellently from the blotter and from the skin to a lesser degree (try clothes to maximize the effect) and it lasts very well. It's also feminine in an assured woman way, but could also be borrowed by men with a penchant for sophisticated scents, wearing it with flair. A few floral touches (the so-called butterfly lily accord) round out the ensemble, giving a soft touch that further butters up the leather notes. I'd wear it with joy if gifted a bottle, though I admit Galop is superior.

 Hermes Barénia notes: 

Top: Bergamot, Miracle Berry 

Middle: Butterfly Lily 

Base: Oakwood, Patchouli .

Miu Miu eau de parfum: fragrance review

Has Miuccia Prada exhausted the fragrance concepts for her own brand and has expanded into its sister brand, Miu Miu? More like the youthful yet sophisticated Miu Miu label needed that which it was lacking; a lifestyle fragrance. Miu Miu eau de parfum comes along to fill that void (and alas not   the one in perfume lovers' hearts) and, although nothing seismical, it is a decent enough composition aiming to be the introduction to perfume for the quite young ladies who look up to the unique Prada fashion sense.

Unsurprisingly the formula was developed by Daniela Roche Andrier, the fetish perfumer of the Prada fragrance stable (and also famous for her creations for Bvlgari, Bottega Veneta, Martin Margiela Untitled and Marni), and bears a quota of her graceful trademark. Although when I first smelled Miu Miu eau de parfum I wasn't bowled over by the innovation and in fact wracked my brains to put my finger on what it reminded of (read on), I have to admit that it is not unrepresentable, at least compared to all the syrupy stuff around, and would probably sell quite well.
The collaboration of Miu Miu with Coty Inc. (the Prada frags are developed with Puig) definitely meant that the perfumer was subject to several focus group tests as well as meetings with the project managers team. This usually means creativity isn't given free rein.

The composition in Miu Miu eau de parfum tethers between the freshness of green notes and quite sharp floralcy of lily of the valley, rendered through modern synthetics, since the old golden standard, hydroxycitronellal has been heavily rationed, and the warmth of something that is almost patchouli-like, yet it's not.

The sharp lily of the valley fragrance note and the green jasmine (similar to the ethereal one in Marc Jacobs' discontinued Blush) is fitting the neopuritan aesthetics of the Miu Miu brand, so one can totally see the choice from a strategic, branding point of view. The woodsier background can be explained via the need for something that resonates with the sweeping trend in feminine launches of the past 15 years: something with patchouli notes...

The familiar faint patchouli chord that is indeed pack & parcel of almost every new fragrance launch aimed at the under-45 crowd (and even some aimed above), at least ever since the introduction of Narciso for Her, the pioneer of the "nouveau chypre" fragrances [refer to this for chypre definition & perfume examples], is, astoundingly enough, not exactly patchouli oil. In Miu Miu eau de parfum the note has a hint of pepper and mainly a wood hue, sans the usual dark chocolate facet of natural patchouli essence. In fact the base note (especially on paper, as on skin it is more fleeting) reminds me of older aldehydic florals with green notes, like Lancome's Climat, but very faint. A wink by the perfumer?

We have touched the subject of fractioned essences before, when perfumers take a complex natural structure and extract only the odoriferous molecules they're interested in, tossing the things that give off notes for their particular purpose. For Miu Miu eau de parfum this involved what the producing company, Givaudan, calls "akigalawood" (try saying that 5 times quickly) which is basically a Givaudan trademark (submitted in May 2012 if that's of interest) made in alliance with Soliance.

This is how Boris, a leading biochemist within Givaudan explained it: “The mission of the Ingredients Centre of Excellence in Zurich, Switzerland is to employ enzymes to develop new fragrance ingredients, and it was within this context that the Biosciences team recently created Akigalawood®, where an enzyme known as laccase was used to transform a natural starting material into a new natural and captive perfume compound. Akigalawood® has recently been commercialised in a leading men’s fragrance for the Brazilian market. This novel material has a profile similar to that of patchouli, combined with vibrant spicy aspects of pepper and noble agarwood facets. This enzymatic process, which only requires mild processing with salt and water, is also a far more environmentally friendly way to develop new raw materials for fragrance use.”

Miu Miu eau de parfum seems to be that triumph of new things that don't really feel new. Perfect for the nostalgic brand then with its 60s cat eye makeup and retro hairstyles, but not for the hardcore perfume lover.

The splendid bottle is inspired by the coveted Miu Miu matelassé leather handbags and the odd color combination reminds me a bit of Cacharel Loulou. The model in the campaign is Stacy Martin, shot by Steven Meisel. Song is Lesley Gore's "You Don't Own Me" (recorded in 1964).

There is also a dedicated website to the Miu Miu fragrance.

Shopping info: Exclusive to Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman from September to December 2015 in the United States. Already available in department store counters and Sephora (where I tested it) in several European countries. Starting from 55€ /£48 /$75 for 30ml/1oz eau de parfum. Ancillary body products also to be available.