Terre d'Hermès by Hermès Eau de toilette

The first time I smelled this scent was about 5/6 years ago, on a guy that was on his was to have lunch at the same place as me. I was walking about 15 feet behind him and his scent trail was just amazing. My immediate thought was "this guy smells like money".

Fast forward a few years to me watching fragrance reviews on YouTube. As I'm trying to narrow down which fragrances I'd like to try out, the reviewer says the exact same thing about this fragrance (smells like money). Mind you, I had no idea that this was the fragrance that had mesmerised me a few years back. So I added it to my list of scents to try out.

When I found myself at the mall, I went into the fragrance shop and asked them to spray it on a test strip for me. I immediately recognised it. MONEY!! I asked them to spray it on my skin so I could see how it performs on my skin as I walked around. It was perfect. I bought the 50ml bottle just so I could give it a few wears to make absolutely sure that it works for me. I gave this one full wear and I was sold. A lot of reviews said that this is a polarising scent which would be hit or miss with people. After that initial wear I didn't care what anyone around me thought of it. I loved it and I was gonna wear it as my signature scent.

However, it turns out that every time I wear this scent I receive at least one compliment. On one occasion, a guy who went into a restroom a little while after me asked waitresses at a restaurant who the person was that went in before him. After being directed to me, he said he smelled it lingering in the air and HAD TO find out what it was 😂.

This scent is absolute perfection to me. I live in a city with moderate climate that ranges from 15-30 degrees Celsius across all seasons. I wear this all year round, day and night. Its lasts about 8-10hrs on my skin, projects about 4-5 feet (just over a meter) and leaves a gorgeous scent trail. My only problem is finding a different scent that smells just as good and performs just as well, for the sake of variety.

Any suggestions?

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading my algorithmic review 😎

Enough has been written about this stuff that anything I add will surely be superfluous, so I'll keep this brief: Somehow, 18 years after its release, Terre d'Hermès still smells like nothing else. You either love it or you don't, and if you do, you've probably been wearing it for years and have no intention of stopping (join the club, we have donuts in the next room). But even if you hate it, you can't deny its uniqueness, its clarity, and its bold coloring. Terre d'Hermès has been in my olfactory stable for so long - at work, at play, in the background during major moments of my life - that smelling it "on the street" is like greeting an old friend, one who made an impression on me years ago and who's lost none of his charm. Breaking Terre d'Hermès down into its component accords (bergamot, geranium, vetiver, cedar, flint, you know the drill) does exactly zero justice to the experience of wearing it. It's an aura as much as a scent. Easygoing yet utterly distinctive; outdoorsy but refined; sparkle and sunshine with a dashing grin. A one of a kind, once-in-a-generation touchstone. Even if you never wear it, you need to smell it.

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P.S. If the eau de toilette is too sharp and spiky for you with all that bracing bergamot and deafening gunpowder, check out Terre d'Hermès Parfum, released in 2009 and surely at least partially responsible for the glut of “parfum” concentrations marketed to men in the years since. There is still that woody-orange freshness and contrasting flint, but the parfum lowers the volume and bolsters the drydown with stronger resins, oakmoss, cedar, and leather. It leans harder into classic masculine chypre territory, ironically a breath of fresh air in these times of nuclear woody ambers and burnt-sugar salvos. The lasting power is excellent but it stays close to the skin, so you needn’t be afraid of gassing anyone out. I think I prefer the brighter and slightly more energetic EdT, but not by much.

P.P.S. Ignore the “only for OLDER MATURE MEN” comments from clueless fragbros radiating the latest Aventus knockoff. Terre d'Hermès was released in 2006, not the goddamn Gilded Age. I was happily wearing it at 25, along with millions of other young men, and it's still one of my diehard favorites. If it works for you, it works really well, and your age has nothing to do with it. Own that shit.

P.P.P.S. Been wearing it regularly since 2011 and it's always smelled the same to me. But when it comes to the topic of reformulations, I put little stock in unreliable, misty-eyed memories of perfumes past. Your mileage may vary.

P.P.P.P.S. Never trust anyone who says, "I'll keep this brief."

When I was a girl, probably age 7 or so, I loved to sit on the floor with all of my grandmother's perfumes and samples, Guerlains, Chanels, Estee Lauders, and so on. I would close my eyes and smell each bottle, sometimes testing on my skin, sometimes, when faced with one like Shalimar, leaving it in the bottle where I felt it belonged. My unequivocal favorite was Christian Dior Eau Sauvage, the only masculine scent among them. I expect that now I would find it too bracing and herbaceous, and I have never owned it. But I have found another so-called masculine fragrance that owns me the way that first sniff of Eau Sauvage did.

I first bought Terre d'Hermes as a blind buy, based on the description by Jean Claude Ellena, who made my favorite scent at the time, Vetiver Tonka. About the sensation of wearing Terre d'Hermes, he wrote, “Feeling the earth, lying on the ground, gazing at the sky.” I was enchanted. I love abstract fragrances, and wearing this scent is indeed an encounter with the idea of the elements. It is a solo encounter. You are lying on a sun-warmed rock, smoothed by time, with salty waves crashing just below you. You are level with the earth and the sky is framed by soft grasses that blow to and fro in the breeze.

I don't have the scent in front of me now, but can tell you from memory, as I've owned three bottles. The opening is sharp, as many reviewers have noted. You smell the orange, the grapefruit and a kick of pepper, and hope it develops. It does, and beautifully. The pepper births the woods, which are cedar-dominant. There is something 'flinty', as Jean Claude Ellena has described, which explains the sensation of being on a rock. The minerality keeps the fragrance cool; the rock, of course, is under the sun, which keeps the fragrance warm. It is not the least bit aquatic, but evokes the coastline. On me it lasts all day, and sinks into my skin without ever smelling masculine. It smells fresh with none of the usual 'fresh' suspects. The vetiver is light-handed and lingers longer than the other notes. "You always smell so good," a male friend of mine said. "Like the ocean."

I don't understand the age thing everyone is talking about. I first smelled this scent when I was about 11 (2013) and immediately fell in love with it. It was to me, the best thing I had ever smelled. Now, at 20 years old I bought it. And, no - you won't smell stupid if you aren't rich and in your 40s. Every scent works if you are confident and wear it with pride.

Just last month, I put it on to test it on my girlfriend, without telling her. About 5 minutes into our date and she "wanted to rip my clothes off". Other women also love it on me. Haven't got a bad review yet. Just for the compliment-oriented people. But remember, wear what you like and what makes you feel unique and confident.

Generally, you could wear this in all situations, accept for the heights of summer. I wouldn't exactly recommend you put this before a morning coffee date in the summer. It's too heavy for that IMO. But, in general, if you get to know it and ration your sprays, it could easily be an all-year fragrance.

This fragrance is simply amazing. It never gets old or boring. It's timeless. It's vintage. It's modern. It's clean. It's dirty. It's captures true expression like a piece of art would an emotion. I would imagine if you have never smelled this before and someone passed by wearing this, your eyes would follow, your expression might drop, and after quickly recovering, that stranger wearing terre d'hermes would be a focal point until they were out of site.

My imagination creates a vivid sensation through this scent of what John Lennon's vintage Gibson acoustic guitar might smell like after being cleaned with a woody orange citrus polish and stored away in an imaginary cedar lined case. That is how powerful this fragrance is to me. Very classy, very powerful, and very stimulating.

Clean yet dirty, woody fresh yet delightfully aged, orange peel, dirty citrus acidic woods, under ripe ruby red grapefruit, day old orange pulp muddled nicely in a fresh cut cedar mug. A hint of pinecomb, but then again not, perhaps a hint of fresh pine sap that has somehow found a way onto your clothing. You fold it, it's dry and hard and releases it's piney aroma mixed with your sticky fingers from peeling an orange. Imagine, the aroma of cracked pine sap and sticky orange fingers....and the smile that follows.

Very good projection, in fact unbelievable on my skin. A scent trail so wonderful it turns heads and makes impressions. The rest is up to you..lol. I have received many compliments, and many "what on earth is that you're wearing?". Especially at work. (Fine dining restaurant). You know, many people have "opinions" about who, when, where, and why whatever is appropriate or not about fragrance and how and when it should be worn.

If a fragrance makes you feel good inside it's the right fragrance, so wear it....there is no other way to enjoy what you're wearing unless you're enjoying what you're wearing.

Dress shoes no socks and cut off shorts...

The opinions will come as they always do,
confidence is key...Fragrances don't come with instruction manuals, just many opinions....

Terre D'Hermes is one of the best fragrances I have ever had the pleasure of sniffing.