Bottle Design:
Alnoor Design

Épice Marine Hermès 2013

7.3 / 10 158 Ratings

A perfume by Hermès for women and men, released in 2013. The scent is aquatic-fresh. It is still in production.
Pronunciation Compare

Main accords

Aquatic

Fresh

Spicy

Citrus

Green

Fragrance Notes

Cardamom

Cumin

Marine notes Pepper

Pepper

Perfumer

Jean-Claude Ellena

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

7.3158 Ratings

Longevity

6.6111 Ratings

Sillage

5.9111 Ratings

Bottle

8.0119 Ratings

Value for money

5.623 Ratings

Submitted by WRoth, last update on 08/31/2025.

Interesting Facts

The fragrance is part of the Collection Hermessence collection.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Déclaration Eau de Toilette

Eau d'Hermès

Acqua di Scandola

Déclaration Essence

Vodka on the Rocks

Pioggia Salata

Reviews

13 in-depth fragrance descriptions

08/10/2014

MasterLi
376 Reviews

MasterLi

3

An "aquatic", but not as we know it...

It would not be fair to call Epice Marine an "aquatic" fragrance, since the word "aquatic" has usually meant calone, melon/watermelon notes mixed with a little salt and a hint of musk. This is not what is on offer here.

This fragrance was a collaboration between Jean-Claude Ellena, the perfumer, and chef Olivier Roellinger. Ellena has made a fragrance inspired by two things... a love of spices, and the coast of Brittany. He uses cumin, cardamom and cinnamon, along with whiskey and other notes, to evoke the smell of a rocky shore, complete with salt air and a hint of that seaweed aroma on the Atlantic coast.

That said, here's what I get out of it. As soon as I sprayed this, I knew it was a gourmand for me. I don't mean gourmand as in chocolate or caramel etc. This reminded me of food, specifically, the spices used to put on fish dressings and salads. I cook fish, and I use fresh lime, dry cumin, garlic and a hint of pimento to spice up the fish. As soon as I sprayed this that is what I got. An incredibly fresh lemon drizzled over fresh fish with spices. It's incredibly evocative and refreshing.

The cumin note here is not a 'sweaty' one as people would expect, here Ellena has used toasted cumin in the top and mid, which gives it a kind of sesame-like flavour. It's fresh, spicy and nutty all at the same time! I really like this one, but as with all the Hermessence line, the top note fades quickly and you have to keep reapplying. Still a good one though. Recommended try.

09/23/2020

7.5Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

Pepdal
238 Reviews

Pepdal

2

Marine Spice

From the Hermessence line, Epice Marine is what you might expect from the name and a little bit more. Generally it seems this line caters for a wide variety and this has the unmistakable Ellena touch.
I hope you find the review informative and thank you for watching.

05/07/2017

5.5Scent 6Longevity 6Sillage

FabianO
1008 Reviews

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FabianO

Helpful Review 11

Even Ellena struggles with aquatic fragrance efforts...

...maybe I finally need to give up searching for truly "natural" sea scents; perhaps this endeavor is not practical given the range of aromas, as something from the lab always has to help out. Well, in the end, I suppose I am also satisfied with smelling real sea, spray, and beach aromas in the realm of whiskies.

Ellena makes a sincere effort in "Èpice Marine" to create a tentatively authentic marine scent, and it is indeed somewhat above average in quality.

Slightly sweet algae are really the predominant theme, embedded in a bit of bergamot. I can't recognize most of the top notes in the Hermès fragrance, perhaps just a hint of dry cardamom.

Essentially, we have this fundamental element reminiscent of spray, wind, and rough seas through algae, which unfortunately - like all marine aromas - comes across as very clean and antiseptic. Real North/East Sea - and I am a child of the North - never smells so clean, tidy, or laundry-fresh, but always has a bit of mustiness, fishiness, and saltiness, and that is exactly what is missing in this ultimately rather theoretical attempt to evoke a marine impression.

Flat in its development, lab-like. Overall maybe okay, but not for me.

04/13/2016

7.5Scent 7.5Longevity 5Sillage

loewenherz
917 Reviews

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loewenherz

Top Review 15

Jürgen Prochnow in 'Das Boot'

One of the most successful German films to this day dates back to 1981 and tells the story of U 96, a submarine of the German Navy and its crew during World War II, on enemy patrol in the Atlantic in 1941. 'Das Boot' was not only the breakthrough for director Wolfgang Petersen (who later had two more 'sea pieces' in his oeuvre with 'Der Sturm' and 'Poseidon'), but also for actor Jürgen Prochnow. Prochnow plays the commander of U 96, whom they only call 'the Old Man' because he is clearly older than most of the other crew members at just over thirty. The film addresses not only the war, the tensions among the men, and the claustrophobic closeness aboard the submarine, but also, and especially, the ever-present superiority of the sea.

'The superiority of the sea' - it took a long time before Jean-Claude Ellena succeeded in creating a water fragrance worthy of this theme for the house of Hermès - one that goes beyond the many water-blue shower gel/disco candidates, which almost all seek to charm and win solely with their top notes. This focus comes at the expense of their subsequent development in most of them: heart and base notes are - if they exist at all - at best banal, and often the attempt to artificially give depth against the inherent fleetingness of freshness results in something strained, sometimes almost whiny and artificial. Because no one chooses aquatic fragrances for their scent progression or even their beautiful base. Water scents are for now and here.

Hermessence Épice Marine breaks this mold. Many before it have tried to give a sea-themed fragrance endurance and depth - Hermès' or Ellena's Dark Blue has all of that. Unlike the aforementioned lightweights, it is a serious - if not dark, then at least medium-dark - scent of strength and an unusual maturity. It shows the quality of its ingredients and their skillful arrangement right from the start, as it briefly flirts with its freshness, which is to be expected from one that carries 'Marine' in its name. But then it builds up angry, gray-blue waves before a swiftly passing night sky, and the spices that give it its name rise like ominous flotsam, their growliness exciting and foreign amidst the bubbling dark blue.

Conclusion: 'Das Boot' experienced a renaissance in 1991 thanks to Hamburg DJ Alex Christensen when its theme song flooded the discos and the charts in a techno version. And twenty years later, Hermès and Jean-Claude Ellena created a fragrance worthy and fitting for Commander Jürgen Prochnow and his crew. Finally.

01/14/2014

Terra
646 Reviews

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Terra

Top Review

Everything can be beautiful if done well

I don't like aquatic scents, I usually don't like oakmoss, and I find algae notes mostly disgusting.

But what J.C. Ellena has done here is simply different. The algae notes do not come across as synthetic, terribly dirty, or fishy. Oakmoss does not impart any soapy fougère character or anything similar, and the scent does not seem typically aquatic either. And yet, it somehow is everything. How can that be?

In the opening, Epice Marine is almost citrus-fresh, wonderfully zesty and delicious. Soon, the algae note reveals itself - here it comes across as slightly salty, without taking away the transparency of the scent or making it seem dirty. A clear, turquoise sea. Oakmoss, which I suspect often contributes a somewhat soapy character, here brings at most a cleaner, fresh soap. Synthetic aquatic notes are not perceivable - yet the scent is extremely aquatic.

Vetiver might perhaps add a slightly green component, but I notice nothing of the indicated rest. But that's not a problem. The scent fascinates me. When it comes to these sea-related fragrances, I would probably still prefer Aura Maris - Mare Nostrum, because I might find the very well integrated algae note here tiring in the long run; yet the scent is truly wonderfully composed.

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