Kelly Calèche

Hermès does not publish a tiered pyramid for the eau de parfum. Its description names rose, mimosa and benzoin; its product details list rose, vetiver and vanilla as the main materials, and define the whole as a floral, leathery fragrance.

The flowers

Rose plays the lead. The house calls it fleshy, and Victoria Frolova finds that the eau de parfum brings the flowers of the eau de toilette to the fore. Mimosa adds the powdery touch; violet, cited in 2009, no longer appears in the current description.

The leather and the base

Leather is an accord, not a material. The 2009 launch spelled it out as Barénia calf leather and lambskin, two ways of describing a supple leather. The house gives benzoin an enveloping character; vanilla and vetiver are among its main materials.

Ida Meister describes the eau de parfum as more floral, powdery and vanillic than the eau de toilette. Victoria Frolova finds it more floral than leathery, but clearer and more coherent than the original.

The eau de toilette and the extrait

The 2007 eau de toilette brought together iris, lily of the valley, mimosa, tuberose and a climbing rose around the leather. Robin, of Now Smell This, finds a sparkling citrus opening in it; Osmoz classes it among the floral chypres, a nod to Guy Robert’s Calèche.

The 2008 extrait added jasmine and benzoin to that bouquet, reworked by Ellena to gain in sensuality. Victoria Frolova finds it heavier on flowers than the eau de parfum, with a discreet balsamic facet.

Grapefruit, narcissus and lily of the valley belong to the eau de toilette, iris to the eau de toilette and the extrait: none of these materials is announced for the eau de parfum, which the house builds on rose, mimosa and benzoin.

What the label declares

The list published by Hermès names no natural material. After alcohol, fragrance and water, it carries four UV filters, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane, benzophenone-3 and ethylhexyl salicylate, which protect a colored juice, and an antioxidant, BHT.

Two colorants, CI 14700 and CI 60730, a red and a violet, give the juice its pink tint. The rest is the allergen declaration: limonene, citronellol, hexyl cinnamal, alpha-isomethyl ionone, benzyl salicylate, hydroxycitronellal, linalool, geraniol, coumarin, citral, anise alcohol, farnesol, benzyl alcohol, eugenol. No lilial or lyral.