Le Jardin de Monsieur Li is the fifth Hermès Jardin, composed in 2015 by Jean-Claude Ellena: an imaginary Chinese garden, a place of meditation. The house describes it as floral and green, made of delicate sambac jasmine, tangy kumquat and sparkling bergamot; critics read it as one of the sheerest and most contemplative fragrances in the series.
Robin of Now Smell This found it simply lovely in 2015, the closest thing to a haiku in the series; Thomas Dunckley saw it as a peaceful refuge of watery jasmine, and Persolaise as a quiet, reflective Ellena watercolor.
Olfastory’s review
Now Smell This, a haiku
On March 3, 2015, Robin warned that the fragrance does not smell like its notes suggest: the opening orange is round and soft, and the rest passes like a whisper, a meditation, a garden seen through the haze of a memory. To her, it is the quietest of the Jardins.
She found it simply lovely. Its wistfulness and economy of notes seemed to her a fitting end to a series that began with the livelier Un Jardin en Méditerranée; in her eyes it is the closest thing to a haiku. She warned that many will find it too sheer, and put it on her buy list.
The Candy Perfume Boy, a refuge
On March 20, 2015, Thomas Dunckley praised Hermès’s consistency. It took him several wears to pin down the opening citrus, a zesty orange pricked with bitter grapefruit, surprisingly calm. The jasmine, transparent and waxy, made him think of white flowers wrapped in cling film, painted in watercolor.
He found it peaceful, tranquil and fascinating. The fragrance ends on musk and soft, transparent woods, with the mineral accord dear to Ellena, like clear water splashed onto cold stone.
Persolaise, a watercolor
On March 20, 2015, Dariush Alavi reported that at the Paris launch Ellena considered this garden more abstract than the 2003 one. He read it as a quiet, reflective Ellena watercolor that nonetheless lasts a long time, opening on a peppery citrus, and doubted that its floral heart is really jasmine.