Hermes’s latest olfactory offering isn’t what you’d expect from a men’s fragrance. The H24 eschews masculine stereotypes and offers, instead, an unexpected experience that takes your nose through the maison’s fluid, timeless men’s universe. “I had to open up other, less predictable paths, to move away from the conventional woodiness of men’s scents,” says Hermes in-house perfumer Christine Nagel, who channeled mens artistic director Veronique Nichanian’s graceful balance of fluidity, proportion and material.
To create H24, Nagal translates that dynamic between the organic and the constructed into a fragrance that blends natural botanical elements with new, scientifically produced scent molecules. ‘I like to go towards natural, very classic raw materials,’ says Nagel. ‘And work them using technologies that give them other renderings, other textures.’
What results is a sensational plant-forward cologne that is as complex as a top-shelf gin, if not more so. It starts off luminous, crisp and green with clary sage a dominant botanical reminiscent of hay and cut grass with a slightly animal amber undertone and narcissus absolute, noted for its sharp floral scent that Nagel softened by co-distilling it with a secret ingredient. The end result is a fragrance that is a masterpiece of the form, a scent that manages to walk the tightrope between the natural and manmade, the timeless and topical.
Even the bottle feels like an artistic feat in an aerodynamic, diamond-shaped glass atomiser. Designed by Philippe Mouquet, the refillable container’s lithe, aerodynamic lines are meant to express “the spirit and vitality of a contemporary man” It comes packaged in a box made from 100 percent recycled and recyclable paper whose mineral grey color and lime green details nod to the ingredients inside. Discover Opulent Club on Apple News.