Hermès Goes Back to Its Roots With a New Horse-Inspired Perfume

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Fragrances are typically created to evoke particular feelings or memories—a pungent vanilla scent may provoke childhood reminiscences, while something lavender-forward could elicit a sense of calm. Much more unusual is formulating a fragrance to address a problem. But Hermessence Oud Alezan, the latest eau de parfum from Hermès, actually functioned as the antidote to a fear of horses. Yes, really!

The French fashion house’s new fragrance was created by in-house perfumer Christine Nagel, who wanted to overcome her fear of horses—especially because the animals are foundational to the DNA of Hermès, which began as a maker of harnesses, bridles, and saddles in 19th-century Paris, before moving into other leather goods. “We say that horses were the first customers of Hermès,” Nagel tells Bazaar. “I decided to overcome the fear because I realized that horses are very important to my daily work here.”

Two years after a visit to the stables, where she built a connection with one horse, Nagel found a scent strip that featured a potent, woody oud—and was suddenly transported back to her time with the animal. “As a perfumer, I’ve smelled many ouds, but never one that touched me so deeply—let alone one that made me feel the exact same power of emotions that I felt with the horse,” she says. It was the most expensive oud she’d ever smelled, and also the most alluring.

For a typical Hermès fragrance, Nagel starts with an idea from the fashion house. Oud Alezan, however, she created for herself. She didn’t even think to bottle it until she wore the scent to a meeting with the Hermès perfume and beauty team where everyone—including the CEO—lined up to get a whiff. “I felt like the horse, with everyone smelling my neck,” Nagel says, noting that the team described the scent as “beautiful” and “exceptional”—the same words she used to describe the animal. After some fine-tuning, Hermessence Oud Alezan was born.

The newest addition to the the Hermessence collection—the brand’s line of intense fragrances that harp on the its equestrian elements—is a woody, floral scent that plays on a popular scent combination, rose and oud. But in true Hermès fashion, there’s a sophisticated twist.

“Normally, we would pair oud with a concentrated rose absolute, so that the rose is just as powerful as the oud,” Nagel says. “Instead, I wanted there to be just one signature note for a more contemporary feel.” She opted for a light rosewater and rose oxide. The later rose is like a crisp laser beam of rose that adds a certain allure to the fragrance, she adds.

The rich fragrance comes in an equally weighty package: The glass bottle has plum-meets–chocolate brown accents and a leather cap to reflect the chestnut coat of the horse and the neutral leather saddle, respectively.

While the fragrance did help Nagel connect to horses, she doesn’t think Oud Alezan is a true general remedy against a fear of the animals. “If I manage to generate an emotion, then I am successful,” she says. “When someone wears it, I want them to feel enveloped in the fragrance and touched by the notes, because that’s how I felt with this one particular horse.”

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