Barénia Intense

What the house names

Hermès names four principal materials: butterfly lily, oakwood, patchouli and leathery notes. The collection page adds the miracle berry, already carried by the first Barénia. No top, heart and base breakdown comes with that list.

Butterfly lily and miracle berry

The butterfly lily comes from Madagascar; Hermès presents it as a flower rarely used in feminine perfumery. The miracle berry takes its name from a property of taste: once bitten, it sweetens whatever comes after, bitterness included.

Oak and patchouli absolute

Patchouli absolute and oak hold the base. The review published in Nez reads, on the first Barénia, a liqueur-like woodiness of roasted oak replacing the bitterness of moss, a material European perfumery can no longer use as such.

The leathery notes

Leather is what this chapter brings: Hermès writes it into the official list of the line, echoing the Barénia leather of the saddlery, and has it underline the intensity of the patchouli absolute.

What the label declares

Pogostemon cablin oil confirms the patchouli announced, and rose ketones lodge damascones there, whose candied red-fruit facet escapes the official list.

Two floral materials appear that the official list keeps quiet: Cananga odorata oil, that is ylang-ylang, and a flower oil of Citrus aurantium, the bitter orange. Vanillin brings sweetness; isoeugenol and eugenol pull toward clove.

Hexamethylindanopyran supplies the musk; tetramethyl acetyloctahydronaphthalenes carry the amber wood far into the trail. Butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane and ethylhexyl salicylate have no smell: these two sunscreens defend the color of the juice.