I am aware it is November and what I am reviewing today is by no means a classic fall fragrance, but nonetheless, Eau de Pamplemousse Rose is what I want to talk about today.

Eau de Pamplemousse Rose is from Hermès’s Eau de Cologne series, created by in-house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena in 2009. There are three Eaux in this series, Eau de Gentiane Blanche and the classic, thirty-year-old Eau d’Orange Verte being the other two.

Eau de Pamplemousse Rose is a summer fragrance, a bright, airy, happy, sprightly, exuberant little gem of a scent. It is uncomplicated without being simple, fresh and uplifting, but also of a certain depth and profundity (a far as this is possible in an Eau de Cologne).

So why am I getting this out of storage on a rainy, grey November day? Well, exactly because it is a rainy, grey November day. Usually such a day would call for something ambery warm, dark, rich and enveloping like a cashmere blanket, but sometimes all such a day needs is artificial sunshine in the form of a fragrance able to warm me up through its sheer lightness of being.

Eau de Pamplemousse Rose is exactly that.

Starting with a burst of pink grapefruit (synaesthetically this is a light color exactly between pink and yellow for me) along with a whiff of rose and some lemon-orange mix, it is effervescent and joyful.  Sadly this initial burst is gone soon, inevitably, but what is left is still recognizably grapefruity. The aromachemical rhubofix is more noticable now, bringing a fresh rhubarb note into play, that along with the rose reminds me a little of Rose Ikebana, but with the focus on the citrus not the rose.

The drydown is soft and lingering if faint, as is to be expected for a scent of this genre.

It is available in 100ml and 200ml Eau de Cologne.

Eau de Pamplemousse Rose can be trusted to revive the spirits, even if the rain keeps falling.

Picture sources: blotycoon.com, hermes.france.com some rights reserved, thank you!