Sisley - Eau de Campagne

A day in the garden

I've recently fallen in love with green notes in perfume, and Eau de Campagne is a verdant wonder. Created by the famous Jean-Claude Ellena, Eau de Campagne has his sheer, luminous style. It seems lit from within by a green light.

After a bright citrus opening, Eau de Campagne smells of tomato stems, grass, and fresh cut herbs, like basil. The florals serve to lift the green notes and make them sing. The patchouli and vetiver add a hint of earth to the drydown. Even though there is oakmoss in the base notes, this isn't a dry green chypre. It's too leafy and alive for that.

Eau de Campagne is an afternoon spent in your garden on a sunny day. It would make an excellent gift for any gardener, or outdoorsy man or woman. The shower gel and body lotion are great as well.

House: Sisley
Nose: Jean-Claude Ellena
Notes: bergamot, lemon, galbanum, tomato leaves, jasmine, lily of the valley, pelargonium, musk, patchouli, vetiver, oakmoss, plum and basil

Photo: quinn.anya

L'Artisan Parfumeur - Thé Pour Un Été

Jasmine tea with lemon

Thé Pour Un Été has a short list of notes and a simple concept that's been done before (see Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert), but the result is a very beautiful and satisfying perfume. 

TPUE was created by Olivia Giacobetti, the nose behind some of my favourite perfumes (like Philosykos.) I find that I'm starting to gravitate to her work and that of a couple others.  In her perfumes, the notes shine as naturally as they do in real life but also melt into perfect harmonies with each other.

TPUE starts with a realistic sweet tea note with lemon. I immediately thought of iced-tea. I don't really smell the mint, but there is a certain leafy greeness to the opening.

After the tart lemon fades the jasmine comes out and the tea morphs into the smell of jasmine tea, exactly as I remember it from university when I drank gallons of it. The jasmine and tea notes weave in and out - sometime I smell one and then the other. TPUE stays with these two notes - there aren't any real bottom notes - until they gradually fade away.

Or do they? At first, I thought this wasn't a long-lasting perfume - I believed it was gone by lunch. But TPUE is one of those tricky perfumes, the kind you can't smell if stick your nose right up to your skin but you keep catching whiffs of it floating in the air, hours after you thought it was gone. Stray notes of jasmine in the air like far off music and the tannic smell of tea.

House: L'Artisan Parfumeur
Nose: Olivia Giacobetti
Notes: tea, jasmine, bergamot, amalfi lemon and mint (Fragrantica)

Photo: Fenchurch

Bvlgari - Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert

A refreshing glass of clear green tea with lemon and jasmine petals

Launched in 1992, Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert was Bvlgari's first eau de cologne. It was created by  Jean-Claude Ellena, who is now the in-house nose for Hermes. (See also my review of Un Jardin sur le Nil.)

Chandler Burr has a great story New York Times Magazine about the creation of EPTV. Bvlgari wanted a fragrance to sell in their stores to promote their brand but never envisioned the huge success that EPTV would have. With EPTV, Ellena created one of the first real "tea" notes in perfume. Bvlgari now has an entire line of perfumes that include tea notes.

Ellena is the master of sheer in perfumes. Throughout EPTV, you have the feeling of clear, green-tinged liquid, something sparkling and refreshing. It seems to glow from within with a cool, pale green light, like a piece of jade.

EPTV starts with lemon and gentle spices and then the smell of green tea. It's quite dry, refreshing and light and the tea carries that slight edge of bitterness that tea leaves have. As the heart notes open up, gentle florals appear like having flower petals dropped onto the top of your tea. I catch the smell of orange blossoms briefly and then a sheer white floral scent, like jasmine but not heavy or indolic at all, floats above the green tea. The drydown is a pleasant clean musk and sheer woods.

EPTV is a real unisex scent and the perfect refreshment for a summer day.


House: Bvlgari
Nose: Jean-Claude Ellena
Notes: Top notes are coriander, orange blossom, mandarin orange, bergamot, cardamom and lemon; middle notes are jasmine, lily-of-the-valley and bulgarian rose; base notes are sandalwood, amber, musk, green tea, precious woods and cedar.(Fragrantica) pepper (bulgari.com)


Photo: Doctor Swan