Barénia

Hermès launched Barénia in September 2024, the house’s third fragrance that year after Oud Alezan and Herbes Vives. Journal du Luxe sees it as the first feminine chypre from a house that had never tried this family since its perfumery debut in the early 1950s.

A saddlery leather

The name comes from a natural Hermès leather, a smooth, soft hide originally intended for saddles. In-house, it is said to “return the caress” and to take shape through contact with the skin alone. Christine Nagel speaks of a metaphorical leather: the fragrance keeps its feel, not its smell.

A chypre kept secret

In-house perfumer since 2014 and director of olfactory creation and heritage at Hermès Parfums, Christine Nagel says she began this chypre in complete freedom, without any request from the house, and kept it to herself for a long time. Auparfum speaks of ten years of development, alongside commissioned work.

She knows the genre well: she contributed to Narciso Rodriguez’s For Her and to Giorgio Armani’s Sì, two landmark neo-chypres. For Barénia, she wanted a chypre that was different and recognizable, and she presented it to the press at the Villa Cavrois in Lille, according to the Fragrance Foundation France.

A line

Barénia opened a line. In 2025 Hermès gave it an Eau de Parfum Intense, in which leather notes join the butterfly lily, oak and patchouli, and in 2026 Barénia Pleine Fleur, which adds a white lily and orange blossom accents to the chypre.