Since Kay and I started this website nine (yes, NINE) years ago, the niche fragrance market has exploded. Each year there are literally dozens of new fragrance houses popping up and hundreds of new niche fragrances launched.
This is great news for niche fragrance lovers. And, it’s lots of fun for hobbyists like Kay and me, but with so much going on, inevitably some things are going to be back-burnered.
Some days we feel like Lucy and Ethel filling boxes of chocolates on the assembly line that moves faster than they do.
All of this to say that a few weeks ago, in the depths of winter, I picked up my dog-eared copy of ‘Perfumes: The Guide 2018’ by Turin and Sanchez and the book fell open to a review of Twilly d'Hermès. I had placed a big check mark by the Sanchez’s five-star review, stuck a Post-it Note on the page saying, ‘Love it!’ and then forgot about it. Here’s the thing: I did buy Twilly weeks later, so something registered somewhere in my brain. Looking at the review again, I found what it was:
“Not since Fracas (Piquet, 29148) set the tone for all the big splashy tuberoses – Oscar de la Renta et al – that have come through since, has any perfumer done just to the wild weirdness of this material until now. In the short time since Christine Nagel took over Jean Claude Elléna’s throne at Hermès in 2014, she has generated two grand perfumes, Galop and Twilly….’
I like grand perfumes, and both of these are full bottle worthy, but after smelling and wearing it, I went with Twilly.
Launched in 2017, Twilly d’Hermès EdP was inspired by Hermès’ iconic skinny, silk, Twilly scarf. Named for the 'twill' weave pattern used make the material drape, the Twilly was introduced in the 1930’s and was designed wrap around the handles of your Hermès bag to protect them from wear and to give your bag a little personality. How about that - accessories for your accessories. Of course, people found more creative ways to wear their Twilly’s: as belts, headbands, bracelets, you get the idea. In fact, each bottle of the fragrance comes with a colourful strip of Twilly scarf wrapped around the bowler-hat black cap, which suggests the fragrance is jaunty, carefree and playful. And so it is.
Twilly d’Hermès is built around three notes: tuberose, ginger and sandalwood, and it’s the way these notes are manipulated and blended that makes it so gotta-have-it! It opens with a nose-tingling tartness from bergamot that gives Twilly a zesty excitement. As it blooms, tuberose moves in. This is not a big, dirty, animalic, sexy tuberose. This is a coquettish tuberose, cleaner, fresher, playful and flirty, but still indolic, buttery and seductive. It’s an intriguing new expression of tuberose which I find irresistible. At about this point in its development, I’m expecting a fruity note to waft its way into the mix, instead, ginger shows up. It’s spicy and sharp and it adds warmth and vivacity to the tuberose. There’s a woodiness at the base from sandalwood, which is more creamy than milky, and it perfectly pairs with the tuberose. The beauty of Twilly, for me, is how it reveals different aspects over time – sometimes green, sometimes floral, sometimes camphorous. And sometimes, it smells old yet new, familiar yet unusual, but always enticing. Twilly is the scent of a light-hearted fling, not a deep seduction, which makes it ideal for carefree summer days and nights.
On the Hermès website, Nagel says: “It is with young women in mind, by observing their lives, that I created Twilly d’Hermès. Free, bold, connected, mischievous and irreverent, they turn expectation on its head, swim against the tide, impose their own rhythm, invent a brand new tempo.”
It’s a clear declaration that Twilly is aimed towards young women but that doesn’t mean that any woman can’t or shouldn’t wear it. What woman reading this hasn’t been mischievous and irreverent at times, or swam against the tide and invented a brand-new tempo? Amiright? Twilly d’Hermès belongs to all if us.
Twilly d’Hermès is listed in our Decant Store. Decants are $5.00 for 1 ml.
Has Twilly d’Hermès sparked an interest in twilly scarves? You can buy one here.
Image - hermes.com