After capturing the scent of sea spray in Eau des Merveilles Bleue by Hermès, Christine Nagel set off in search of the shadow of wonders. She offers a contrast of light and shade: a swirl of incense, disturbing in its lightness, emphasises the hesperidia of Eau des Merveilles, the night-toned tonka bean amplifies it, and a pinch of black tea outlines the wood and reveals other lights. L’Ombre des Merveilles is a moment of grace, a veil of soft cashmere, fine and enveloping, across which the incense inscribes its mysterious arabesques. A truly magical texture that bursts forth at the threshold of the day. A captivating scent whose shadow highlights the deep radiance of the world. Crafted for enchantresses who delight in every possibility of day and night.
Created by Serge Mansau, the rocking bottle, flat on one side and rounded on the other, is a star-spangled magnifying glass revealing the poetry of the world. The spray nozzle is engraved with the Hermès saddle nail seal. To translate in fragrance the emotion of discovering the ocean, and to succeed in conveying the taste of a pebble, the movement of the waves, the freshness of the water, and the endlessness and depth of the open sea, the alchemist Christine Nagel has distilled a childhood memory, because nothing is more powerful.
“The summer sun beats down like rain. I walk along the riverbank, a lingering fragrance
in my wake. Caressed by the breeze, the silvery swell of the river barely stirs, and the paving stones at my feet glisten like scales. How many years has it been since I last walked here, for no reason other than to follow the sunlit path beneath my feet? I walk, unfettered. No clock, no phone. Alone, and enchanted by the slightest reflection. Horizontal breeze, zenithal rays. A tree, leaning. I plunge into its foliage as if into cool, deep water, feeling the transition from light to shade like a subtle demarcation where everything alters and thickens. I sit amid the muted rumble of the city. In the shade of the willow, my feet dangle over the edge of the world as if on the fringes of daylight. I distil the essence of time”.
The fragrance, still characterised by wood and amber, becomes mineralised. It is an effervescent and dynamic immersion into the ocean depths of the Merveilles, from which one returns more alert, with a strong heartbeat and the taste of salt on one’s lips.
