It’s not a horse, it’s a unicorn. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
That’s how I feel about this illustration on the 2025 edition of Hermes Paddock. Almost nothing is known about this release, sent into the world in a very limited fashion. Last year’s 2024 version was only available at the Hermes boutiques in Paris, and this year’s version came to Canada (and other locations, I’m sure) very quietly. As usual, the sale associates had never heard of it and knew nothing – this is not usual. Limited editions come and go without much fanfare in their world and sometimes, it’s impossible to keep track of what’s coming and going. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Paddock is for the perfume connoisseur. It’s difficult to understand which makes it easy to love. The notes that have been thrown around include leather, caramel and hay, the scent of an actual paddock, and with that in mind, comparisons to Dzing! by L’Artisan Parfumeur make sense conceptually, but not in actual smell. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This is a leather perfume with tons of smoke and a delicate sweetness in the background that comes and goes. It’s not a gourmand, but it’s like you’re at the end of a kid’s birthday party. You can smell the smoke of blown-out candles, the animal smell of the petting zoo, there might have been caramel popcorn served but it’s gone now. There’s leather though, so it’s now time for the adults… and maybe some incense towards the end of the day. The incense is dry and powdery, sticking around for most of the time I’m wearing this perfume. There’s a vegetal note in here too – something herbaceous that I can’t quite place because it comes and goes. It makes me think of smoking sage, dry and cleansing. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Paddock leans masculine because of the leather that’s present in every part of the perfume. It’s the black boot that goes with everything, walking in confident steps through the hay, the mud, and everything else. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Paddock smells niche, but it’s still smooth and refined with elements of the classic Hermes DNA. Yes, it does refer to Eau d’Hermes and Bel Ami, but it’s also standing on its own. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
A year after launching the Carby Musk perfume oil, Better World Fragrance House, better known as the Drake perfume brand, has launched another perfume. This one is a spray, and has a unique presentation. It would be nearly impossible for a perfumer to produce two hits in a row, and Summer Mink is a disappointment. ⠀
It opens with a citrus accord that reminds me of orange juice, syrupy sweet and tart, on a base of generic amber woods. This is mass appealing in the way that it smells like the perfume section of a department store or a gaggle of teenage boys at the mall. While the opening and sweetness is feminine, the dry down is masculine and sticks around for hours and hours. It feels like AI tried to make a unisex perfume and smooshed together elements from best-sellers in both categories so here we are. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This is a safe blind-buy if you like the mainstream perfumes of today. I’m still a fan of Carby Musk and the candles from this brand – there still nothing out there that smells quite that good. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀