Elixir des Merveilles, more effective than a magic wand The house of Hermès was founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermès. Then a master harness maker and saddler, he devoted his time to the world of horses.
The house of Hermès has specialized since its beginnings in the 19th century in saddlery items and later in numerous leather goods creations. In 1951, Hermès introduced its very first fragrance, Eau d’Hermès, which would remain a scented legend, carrying with elegance and distinction all of the house’s finest values. Every Hermès fragrance thus met with success, and Eau des Merveilles, with its woody-aromatic delights, was no exception, quite the contrary! But when Jean-Claude Ellena leaned over the cradle of this miraculous Eau, he brought forth Elixir des Merveilles to enchant us further...
Elixir des Merveilles, an amber-gourmand meeting between Hermès and Jean-Claude Ellena
Since 1951, Hermès has offered us the beauty of its leather-steeped journeys through powerful and original fragrances that elegantly exhale the beauty of the famous saddler’s leather goods collections. No Hermès fragrance resembles another, still less a trendy, fleeting scent; the house of Hermès favors timeless fragrances and unique accords.
With Eau de Merveilles in 2004, the house once again asserted itself within this trend of standing apart from trends, offering a feminine fragrance without a single flower, a challenge in an era of gourmand fragrances! And the beautiful Eau des Merveilles, composed by Nathalie Feisthauer and Ralf Schwieger, went on to conquer the world with its woody, spicy and citrus accords.
This fragrance stimulates the imagination and carries one into unexplored dimensions full of surprises… Le Nez Bavard on Eau des Merveilles.
Having joined Hermès the same year as the house’s appointed perfumer, Jean-Claude Ellena naturally took an interest in this woody oddity that was Eau des Merveilles. Two years later, after reworking the base formula of Eau des Merveilles like the score of a jazz musician, Jean-Claude Ellena offered his own version of Hermès’ scented tale in the precious and delectable Elixir des Merveilles.
When Eau des Merveilles becomes an amber caress, Elixir des Merveilles is born
Jean-Claude Ellena has never been afraid to rework fragrance formulas to make them his own! Quite the opposite, he enjoys reusing original fragrances, keeping only a few key elements which he then uses as sources of inspiration for creating a new fragrance. For Elixir des Merveilles, Jean-Claude Ellena thus retained the tangy top notes and the powerful, woody depths of Eau des Merveilles, while pairing them with far more gourmand heart notes, yet without any sugar.
All the magic of Jean-Claude Ellena’s work can be felt from this Elixir des Merveilles! Starting from a woody-aromatic fragrance, Eau des Merveilles, he composes an amber, gourmand woody variation without ever falling into the easy trap of overly sweet notes, a dominant feature of a great many current fragrances.
He makes this Elixir des Merveilles a feminine fragrance which, once again, contains no flowers and, more strikingly, no sweet notes. The gourmand touches of warm milk, tonka bean, chocolate and vanilla are only suggested in this Elixir des Merveilles through the perfumer’s meticulous work, allowing them to exist without ever becoming overwhelming.
The extreme version, Elixir des Merveilles, is enough to drive one wild, spicier, yet also rounder and warmer, it heightens all your magical powers… Le Nez Bavard on Hermès’s L’Elixir des Merveilles.