Eau de Basilic Pourpre
Christine Nagel built Hermès Eau de Basilic Pourpre Eau de Cologne around a kitchen herb, which in 2022 was a more confident decision than it sounds. Purple basil is the centre of it and the reason to try it. It is the darker variety of the herb, aromatic and faintly spiced, with a warmth and a trace of bitterness that the common green sort does not have, and it is used here as a scent in its own right rather than as a garnish on top of a citrus. The effect is unusual, a little savoury, and immediately recognisable.
Bergamot lifts it at the start, sharp and clean and gone fairly quickly, as bergamot always is, leaving the herb exposed within the first quarter of an hour. Geranium then holds the middle and the end. It is the green, slightly metallic leaf rather than the flower, cool and a little bitter, and it chimes with the basil so closely that the two become hard to separate after twenty minutes.
Three materials, a cologne concentration and no interest in weight. It stays close and lasts a few hours rather than a day, which is what this format is for, and it invites generous use. Warm weather suits it, daytime more than evening, and it reads as unisex. It is a good choice for anyone who has grown bored of ordinary citrus colognes but does not want anything heavy in exchange. The herb is what people either love or find strange, so it is worth trying on skin before committing, and once it suits you there is very little else that smells like it on a counter.
The company was started in 1837 by a Paris harness maker and has been passed from one generation of his family to the next ever since. Fragrance arrived in 1951, more than a century into the story.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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