I find myself in green temperament; in a mood, aggressive almost, for fresh, sharp, verdant scents that match the shooting growth outside; that push away the coddling winter, the comforting sloth of my recent smothering orientals and let me feel like a snake shedding its skins on brand new blades of long, budding grass.
And D’Humeur Jalouse is the snake: possibly the greenest scent ever made, almost painfully so at first – the serpent in the grass, the vivid eyes of jealousy; strident tones of stinging nettles and grasses, softened, only barely, with a sinuous touch of almond milk to temper an olfactory sketch that is bitter, unusual, and solitary: green to the point of catharsis.
L’Ombre Dans L’Eau
A movement from the river bank under the shades of weeping willows; a swan glides slowly by…..
Evoking a green riverside garden, the shadows of plants rippling the waters, L’Ombre Dans L’Eau is at first intensely green – a sharp, rush of galbanum entwined with the lush tartness of blackcurrant leaves. From this compacted flourish then emerges, unhurriedly, the quiet dignity of the Bulgarian rose: calm, romantic, yet austere, rather supercilious and snobbish even, and the main theme of L’Ombre Dans L’Eau (‘the shadow in the water’) is thus set. As light fades and the murmurs of evening approach, a soft base note of pot pourri-like rose, with the slightest hint of something like peachstone, finishes off a singular, enduring composition that breathes a certain air of timelessness.
Eau De Campagne
The perfect green? This scent is summer; the exhilaration of meadows; of stalks crushed underfoot, swords of sunlight infiltrating blades of grass. Chlorophyll at dusk; ladybirds….
Wild grass oils, vetiver, bergamot, hyacinth, and a beautifully verdant, piercingly green basil/tomato leaf introductory accord begin a fragrance (Jean Claude Ellena’s first, from the time when he still went for the orchestral) that is exhilarating and refreshing, uncompromisingly strident, yet balanced and wearable at the same time, with a gentle, elegant, almost savon-like finish.
