Kelly Calèche Eau de Parfum is the third version of the floral leather Jean-Claude Ellena composed for Hermès, released in early 2009 after the 2007 eau de toilette and the 2008 extrait. The house describes it as a floral, leathery fragrance in which fleshy rose and powdery mimosa rest on benzoin, with vanilla and vetiver among its main materials.
Victoria Frolova prefers the eau de parfum, more floral and clearer, to the other versions of a perfume that disappointed her; Ida Meister, won over late by the eau de toilette, notes how well loved the eau de parfum is; Robin finds the eau de toilette beautiful but too tame.
Olfastory’s review
Bois de Jasmin, July 2009
Victoria Frolova admits her disappointment with Kelly Calèche: for her, the perfume does not deliver on the promise of the soft leather of Hermès bags, and Ellena’s signature is hard to read in it. She finds it elegant and refined but confused, with the leather kept in the background.
Of the three versions, the eau de parfum is nonetheless her favorite. She finds the flowers of the eau de toilette brought forward, an effect more floral than leathery, and a composition more coherent and clearer than the original. She gives Kelly Calèche three stars out of five.
ÇaFleurBon, June 2025
Ida Meister describes a complete turnaround: the eau de toilette, which she found sour and chaotic on its release, won her over in 2025. She smells aldehydes, bittersweet grapefruit, a jam-like rose and a base of fine leatherwork, in a playful perfume.
She observes that the eau de parfum seems the best-loved version of Kelly Calèche, more floral, powdery and vanillic, with violet, and that the extrait, now discontinued, carried the leather theme further with a balsamic richness, lifted by jasmine and benzoin.
Now Smell This, July 2007
Robin judges the eau de toilette beautiful, not merely pretty, worth a full bottle and preferable to the year’s mainstream launches. She would nonetheless have liked a slightly bolder, less tame perfume, and suspects that more striking variations were set aside.