In the wake of a rival Place Vendôme jeweler’s exclusive collection, Cartier is launching Les Heures de Cartier, “Cartier’s Hours”, numbered from I to XIII – because, naturally, of Cartier’s famous watches –
The first five are coming out on November 10th in 35 Cartier boutiques all around the world.
I’ve only smelled them briefly, but the general idea is pretty much the now-classic “exclusives” style: compositions focused on a star material. I’ll be getting back to them with reviews and an interview of Mathilde, but in the meanwhile, here are the notes.
I – L’Heure Promise: a green iris with petitgrain, fresh herbs, sandalwood and musk.
VI – L’Heure Brillante: a bright aldehydic citrus cocktail with lemon, lime and a gin accord.
X – L’Heure Folle: an aldehydic fruity green with redcurrant, pink pepper, grenadine (pomegranate syrup), blueberry, blackcurrant, blackberry, violet, leafy notes, ivy, boxwood, shiso, polygonum (no, I don’t know how it smells either, but it’s a plant).
XII – L’Heure Mystérieuse: a woody floral with jasmine, patchouli, elemi, coriander, incense, olibanum, juniper.
XIII : a sweet leather with maté, birch tar, narcissus, bergamot, patchouli and vanilla.
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XII has a bunch of interesting notes!
RépondreSupprimerI like the idea of a perfume per hour - a reminder of the brand experitise...
but twelve fragrances to sniff are quite a lot.
And I was quite underwhelmed by the VC&A exclusives, except for BdI. All pretty. But all forgattable, at least for my tastes.
I hope cartier will do something more daring.
I hope the olfactory equivalent of a diamond studded panther will materialize on my wrist upon spritzing one of those hours. Well, I wouldn't mind if the real diamond thing materializes. Just for enjoying a tacky, show off moment... ;)
Good heavens! Are there going to be twelve of them? Jeebus! Seriously -- that's too many. Once upon a time, I'd hear about a new release and read the notes and think, "Ooh, looking forward to sniffing that!" Now I'm hearing about 6, 8, 12 at a time and it just makes me want to go back to bed. The idea of plowing through 12 of them when I hit the Cartier boutique in Paris this spring seriously wears me out just thinking about it. (I guess I should just be glad I have you to weed out the losers for me.) Call me cynical, but it's just hard for me to imagine that given the likely time frame any one perfumer could come up with 12 strokes of brilliance at once.
RépondreSupprimerI dunno -- is anyone besides me starting to feel a little jaded about all these special releases & exclusives & whatnot? And this progression Cartier seems to be doing -- going from lighter to heavier as "time" passes -- does it feel a bit trite to anyone besides me? Or am I just grumpy? (And long-winded.)
Zazie, so far none of the Cartier have anything to do with tackiness (albeit diamond-studded tacky) on my skin.
RépondreSupprimerAnd they're in a very different style from the VC&A, but I'm still trying to get a general idea of the Cartier line as a whole before going further. So far the XII (jasmine-patchouli) is coming up a winner.
Amy, there will be 13 in the line, but only 5 this year, then 2 a year.
RépondreSupprimerFive we can handle, right?
And Mathilde has been with Cartier for a while now, so she may have been working on these for a long time for all we know.
I don't know many watches with thirteen hours... is this a joke that I am not getting?
RépondreSupprimerHooray for narcissus in a notes list! I, XII and XIII sound great. I'm thinking: have I ever smelled a "green" iris before?
RépondreSupprimerAlexander: not a joke, just me not explaining the idea from the press booklet... The 13th hour was added on and clearly, that's the hour where we can wear leather if so inclined.
RépondreSupprimerBilly D: you sure have, if you've ever smelled Chanel N°19!
RépondreSupprimerP.S., to Alexander: and XIII references the address of the Cartier flagship store, 13 rue de la Paix.
RépondreSupprimerHmm, I guess you're right. I've never gotten too much iris from No. 19 though....I know, I'm crazy.
RépondreSupprimerThey all sound rather intriguing. Now I wonder how will they smell in real life...
RépondreSupprimerI hope the scents are as beautiful as the bottles.
RépondreSupprimer-- Gretchen
Ines, I've been re-smelling everything and it's like peeking into a parallel olfactory universe. They are quite unusual and original.
RépondreSupprimerGretchen, the bottles are great, aren't they? And as I wrote above, the scents are very unexpected. The polar opposite of the VC&As.
RépondreSupprimerOOOOO- SO NAUGHTY!
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