Shem-el-Nessim 1906 Eau de Parfum

Shem-el-Nessim (Eau de Parfum) by Grossmith
Bottle Design Holmes & Marchant
We may earn a commission when you buy from links on our site, including the eBay Partner Network and Amazon.
8.2 / 10 207 Ratings
A popular perfume by Grossmith for women, released in 1906. The scent is floral-powdery. The longevity is above-average. It is still in production.
We may earn a commission when you buy from links on our site, including the eBay Partner Network and Amazon.

Main accords

Floral
Powdery
Spicy
Woody
Oriental

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes Top Notes
NeroliNeroli BergamotBergamot
Heart Notes Heart Notes
Orris rootOrris root GeraniumGeranium Ylang-ylangYlang-ylang JasmineJasmine RoseRose
Base Notes Base Notes
MuskMusk SandalwoodSandalwood VanillaVanilla HeliotropeHeliotrope PatchouliPatchouli CedarwoodCedarwood
Ratings
Scent
8.2207 Ratings
Longevity
8.6162 Ratings
Sillage
7.6169 Ratings
Bottle
8.2154 Ratings
Value for money
7.120 Ratings
Submitted by Feylamia, last update on 25.04.2024.

Reviews

6 in-depth fragrance descriptions
6
Sillage
7
Longevity
8
Scent
Gelis

161 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
Gelis
Gelis
Top Review 11  
From dark to light
Preliminary, my sample is older, and there are "only" a couple drops left.

I think the age of my sample is responsible for the fact that I can't detect any of the top notes. Shem-el-Nessim starts. Ei me with florals that have to fight their way through a darkly spicy, slightly musty blanket. Leather? comes to mind. The florals are really struggling. Then a scent of dark chocolate slowly develops creamy light spicy floral. It seems someone has pushed aside the "leather" cover. At the end then joins a powdery note to it.

Here is then times a fragrance that turns from rather dark to rather light. From heavy and light fragrance I do not like to speak, that somehow does not fit. Durability and sillage move on my skin then also in the middle range.
8 Comments
7
Pricing
10
Bottle
10
Sillage
8.5
Scent
VerityChar

21 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
VerityChar
VerityChar
Very helpful Review 13  
A fragrance for old souls
There are probably some people like me who have lived for what feels like a hundred years and have a thousand lives behind them. Who then long for these "old-fashioned" or "outdated" scents (or whatever else they are so imaginatively called), who want to smell such scents, want to experience them, want to breathe them in, to become a little melancholy, perhaps nostalgic or even comforted.
Yes,you can and sometimes want to be a little sad.That's not always bad or even negative.

Shem-el-Nessim was such a fragrance for me when I smelled it for the first time. Compared to many Grossmiths here, I find it much nicer than its relatives and acquaintances like Phul-Nana, Hasi or Betrothal.
He has something that is not easy to grasp, something unapproachable, floating in the air. As if he deliberately does not want to reveal all his secrets and unfolds like a night flower, much, much later.

I can smell all of its notes throughout, but sometimes the jasmine and ylang-ylang are the star, sometimes it's the patchouli, and then at some point it's vanilla and some sandalwood.And although you can smell everything, that says nothing at all about this fragrance.Here the jasmine is not the jasmine, which often disturbs and pushes everything else into the background.It's a delicate breath of jasmine. Here, the rose is not the rose that makes you hold your breath so as not to choke on it.
The sandalwood, on the other hand, is quite natural, very recognizable and slightly bitter-smoky, just like the pure oil.

One spray is enough, especially on clothes, to smell it all day long.
A difference to LHB is given but I feel something different with this fragrance and would not say if you like one, you like the other. LHB, especially the extrait, is much more feminine and delicate in its base, becoming powdery vanilla and romantic. But it starts with a lot of aniseed and smells clearly unisex in the top note.
Shem is unisex in its entire course and I can imagine it on both sexes, just like L'Homme Idéal Intense But if you don't like one of them, for example L'Heure Bleue Eau de Parfum, you won't like Shem-el-Nessim Eau de Parfum either.

It's a fragrance that not everyone can wear and Shem el Nessim would probably prefer it that way if he could speak. Shem el Nessim would choose his wearers, but not on the basis of their wealth, clothing or age.

So, yes, definitely an old-fashioned fragrance
But I would like to have a grandma who smells like that instead of the standardized mash you smell in the wild.
7 Comments
7
Bottle
9
Sillage
10
Longevity
2
Scent
Sommernacht

30 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
Sommernacht
Sommernacht
Less helpful Review 10  
Feels most comfortable in the toilet
I thank Melisande for this high-quality sample and the opportunity to travel back more than 100 years in perfume history. A dream, if you can test such an old fragrance next to Shalimar or Opium. For me, unfortunately, a real nightmare to which I said "goodbye" in the toilet bowl. No, not the sample, but a toilet paper sheet, I had such a premonition when I saw the fragrance twins here.

Very well. After Parfumomanier we want to deliver here also what professional and evaluate, so politely say, the brings me to ko
. I have first inquired on the website of Grossmith about the fragrance and of course here. It seems to be composed of high quality ingredients and you can smell it - as far as I dare to judge as a layman. 1909 is also an announcement and probably the original smelled then but again different (what I'm not curious). The fragrance pyramid doesn't read too badly, but it's a century away from "modern" fabrics or a modern composition. The Parfuma will have read here more often this pyramid and possibly thought of Guerlain.

Let's prepare the fragrance cocktail times..
First, the opening: Starts extremely citrusy, but weeeeit away from fresh! and at the same time already musty old-fashioned and yes, unfortunately, also slightly badreinigäßig, which wants to make on "natural". The target group is probably 50 years older than me. But with mid-80 I clean my bathroom no longer, I'm glad if I can stand straight without stick.

The full-bodied middle: an opulent variety of flowers mates here wet cheerful, takes no account of different genes and yes, still musty old-fashioned. The powdery iris is quite dominant here, the others do not let themselves down and mix in the background.

The base I have not experienced more, I was too weak in my younger years and had to admit defeat. The fragrance has more stamina than me or 10 men.

Cocktail is half-baked, vigorously shaken, not stirred.

Shem-El-Nessim is headache candidate of the finest variety, he can secure for himself place 1. But I really can't blame Grossmith for that. The fragrance is not made for me at all, not even for my mother and probably no longer for my grandma (to the opinion of my grandma to "strong" fragrances, there will be another blog).

Now the tear down to the extreme: The toilet paper sheet did not end up in the trash can as originally planned, because that's where it could have done its mischief, it ended up in the toilet and was flushed right away. The sewer cleaners will certainly be happy about the citrus top note!

Sorry to all lovers - is purely subjective.

10 Comments
5
Sillage
7.5
Longevity
9
Scent
Insense

25 Reviews
Insense
Insense
Helpful Review 8  
I was the secret lover of Marie Antoinette
I am having that experience!
I was the secret lover of Marie Antoinette and entered her room last night.
Now, the next day, it is the day she died.
And I am after that sad hour and all I can remember in my horror is her smell.
Or, saying better, our smell, hers and mine, mixed in my body odor, the geranium and the orris root mixing molecules will be my memory of the night I said goodbye to Marie Antoinette.

(this is the only perfume I have tested that I believe allows me to know how perfumery was once; it induced my museum delirium described above)
0 Comments
7.5
Bottle
7.5
Sillage
10
Longevity
10
Scent
Callas

54 Reviews
Callas
Callas
3  
The here and now
So have to smell Arabian nights, in any case I can imagine very, very well.

So opulent, almost turgid, luxurious, powdery, pleasantly sweet, heat radiating, forgetting everything, and only I be in the here and now.
The scent turned me to once again the head. So infatuatingly beautiful he wraps me.
It is an immersion in another world.

I'll have to share a good "Little", what I have of this masterly work, me.
For the "Big" experience may I say many thanks to the donor.
0 Comments
More reviews

Statements

1 short view on the fragrance
DorothyGraceDorothyGrace 8 years ago
7
Bottle
8
Sillage
9
Longevity
8
Scent
Absolute powder bomb on my skin with a faint bright floral undercurrent. Dry, earthy, starchy, dusty powder. Very nice but just like talc.
0 Comments

Charts

This is how the community classifies the fragrance.
Pie Chart Radar Chart

Discussions

Topics about this fragrance in the forum
PipettePipette 10 years ago
Perfumes & Brands
Shem-el-Nessim by Grossmith
So, I had Shem-el-Nessim in a large decant and got used to it. Following the hype about Hasu-no-Hana and to a lesser degree about Phul-Nana, I ordered the latter two from AusLiebezumDuft. They have generous sample...

Images

24 fragrance photos of the community
More images

Popular by Grossmith

Hasu-no-Hana (Eau de Parfum) by Grossmith Phũl-Nãnã (Eau de Parfum) by Grossmith Betrothal (2011) (Eau de Parfum) by Grossmith Golden Chypre by Grossmith Floral Veil by Grossmith Diamond Jubilee Bouquet by Grossmith Saffron Rose by Grossmith Amelia by Grossmith Sylvan Song by Grossmith Phũl-Nãnã (Parfum) by Grossmith Hasu-no-Hana (Perfume) by Grossmith Shem-el-Nessim (Perfume) by Grossmith King's Salute by Grossmith Betrothal (2011) (Perfume) by Grossmith Paris Rose by Grossmith Old Cottage Lavender by Grossmith White Lilac by Grossmith Lily of the Valley by Grossmith Lavender Water by Grossmith English Freesia by Grossmith