HERMES
Barenia
2024
PERFUMER
Christine Nagel
miracle berry
Butterfly lily
akigalawood
patchouli
oakwood
It’s not every day that we get a flagship release. Following 2021’s H24, I assume Barenia is the next line that’s here to stay (?). I had high hopes for it and perhaps my expectations set me up for disappointment.
I have similar sentiments regarding Barenia as I did with the H24 EDT, although I personally prefer the latter by a margin. The actual scents seem to fit in the Hermes line, but with hyper-contemporary styling and textures that makes them lose a lot of their prestige.
Barenia has a fruitiness that’s hard to define. Green, tart and abstract. It’s soapy on my skin, in the way a hair gel or shampoo is. I don’t dislike it, but I don’t love it. I would say it’s sharp and harsh up close and completely unnatural smelling.
As it dries, Barena more spicy, but without the textures one may expect from a chypre. There’s a suede-like, woody backbone. Patchouli and akigalawood are listed, but expect more woody than earthy.
All covered in the fruity-green ‘chypre’ scent bubble with a tree sap-esque bitterness. There is some weird sweetness that clashes with the rest of the composition in my opinion, but after a while, it loses some of its sharpness and sourness and the fragrance becomes more ‘one’ and nicer.
I don’t find Barenia to lean traditionally feminine. Perhaps aside from the soapy opening, it’s completely unisex.
Pro’s are that it’s rather unique and the subtle leathery facet is well-done. However, I can’t say that I love what this brings to the table as an end product. Scent-wise it’s okay to me, but it just doesn’t wear nicely; you can feel the deterioration in the ingredients’ quality and the way a lot of perfumes are constructed anno 2024 and that seems to ring true for Hermes latest as well.
Less a continuation from the ‘old Hermes’, instead, Barenia fits in perfectly next to the modern, abstract and synthetic smelling H24 (EDT especially). Which isn’t bad, but also not what I was looking for.
