L'Ombre des Merveilles 2020

L'Ombre des Merveilles by Hermès
Bottle Design:
Serge Mansau
7.9 / 10 339 Ratings
A popular perfume by Hermès for women and men, released in 2020. The scent is spicy-woody. It is still in production.
Pronunciation

Main accords

Spicy
Woody
Fresh
Sweet
Smoky

Fragrance Notes

Black teaBlack tea Tonka beanTonka bean FrankincenseFrankincense

Perfumer

Ratings
Scent
7.9339 Ratings
Longevity
7.2281 Ratings
Sillage
6.7281 Ratings
Bottle
8.5274 Ratings
Value for money
7.2172 Ratings
Submitted by OPomone, last update on 07/24/2025.

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Reviews

14 in-depth fragrance descriptions
6
Pricing
8
Bottle
7
Sillage
8
Longevity
10
Scent
KathrynA66

46 Reviews
KathrynA66
KathrynA66
Very helpful Review 8  
Beautiful, Modern, Evocative
I love this soooo much! For me, it is so evocative of the early 1970s, not the perfumes of the 70s but the early 70s themselves. It makes me feel happy and carefree.

The tea note is gorgeous and realistic, like a cup of freshly brewed tea. I tend to love tea notes for their calming effect, and this fragrance is no exception. Ombre des Merveilles opens with this sense of peace and relaxation, which is wonderful. The tea also brings a hint of smokiness, which enhances the incense vibe of this fragrance.

I think it's the incense vibe from the frankincense which makes this fragrance so reminiscent of the early 70s. This is not a church-y incense, as the tonka takes it out of that territory. It reminds me of the many variations of incense used in shops and salons whose proprietors wanted to be perceived as "hip," and the kind my teenage cousins, who I thought were SO cool and grown-up, burned in their rooms, which smelled very good- spicy, smoky and slightly sweet.

To be clear, Ombre des Merveilles doesn't smell like incense so much as it creates an incense-like accord, but the tea keeps it fresh and light.

Ombre is definitely not a retro kind of scent. It's minimalist but not simple, modern, unisex and versatile. IMO, Ombre has the same sophisticated quality as the rest of the line and retains the same warmth, although there is a definite freshness to this fragrance.

Regardless of whether folks remember the early 1970s or associate with them the same things as I, many would probably find this fragrance very beautiful, relaxed and easy to wear.

For me, wearing this takes my own, personal past into the present, bringing with it many beloved ghosts and the sense of the kind of freedom we only experience in childhood, while still being a "grown-up" fragrance. Ombre des Merveilles is just the best!
6 Comments
5
Pricing
8
Bottle
7
Sillage
8
Longevity
7
Scent
Musicandarts

206 Reviews
Musicandarts
Musicandarts
3  
No wonders behind this shadow!
This review is based on a full bottle of L’Ombre des Merveilles that I bought from Aura Fragrance recently. Though I had tested this previously in a Hermes boutique, I would still call it a blind buy as I had not formed a definite opinion about it before.

L’Ombre des Merveilles opens with a strong incense blast, coming from frankincense and tonka according to perfumer. But this is not the deep frankincense that we are familiar from good incense perfumes like Garcon Manque from Givenchy. Here it smells very light, airy and artificial. Same story with the tonka. I miss the sweet syrupy tonka note that I know from some of my gourmands. Most surprisingly, the black tea note is not discernible to me anywhere in this perfume. I confess that black tea is not a strong note for me as I don’t get a strong aroma when I smell black tea as dry leaf or in hot water. I wonder people here are parroting out what every other reviewer said. Some may be perceiving aromas that don’t exist in this perfume, such as Earl Grey (primarily bergamot essence) and Jasmine tea. I know that L’Ombre des Merveilles does not project black tea anywhere close to Gris Charnel. It appears that many reviewers have simply copied the marketing language directly from Hermes website.

I don’t see a whole lot of development in L’Ombre des Merveilles. The generic incense continue through the heart notes into the base notes. The base notes on my skin are softer, still mostly incense but now with a slight nuance of woody notes.

The performance of L’Ombre des Merveilles is excellent. I can smell it clearly on my skin even after ten hours. As typical of most scents, my clothes retain the heart notes much longer. The soft base note last for a few more hours. The sillage is good up to a few feet during first 3-4 hours.

All this leaves me a bit conflicted about L’Ombre des Merveilles. Is it a top tier perfume, or is this a cheap scent hiding behind the Hermes label? After my initial use, I cannot recommend this perfume. It is too linear and too simple to be an attractive investment. If my opinion changes with successive uses, I will update my review accordingly. Hermes has been a difficult house for me as I don’t have any favorites from them. For my nose, both Jean Claude Ellena and Christine Nagel are very ordinary perfumers. Ellena is a great writer, whose books I recommend. I have Terre D’Hermes, Twilly and now L’Ombre des Merveilles from Hermes. But I am not likely to reach out for these perfumes, when I have BDK, Givenchy, Guerlain, Frederic Malle, Xerjoff and many other great houses available to me.
0 Comments
8
Bottle
6.5
Scent
ScentStudio

156 Reviews
ScentStudio
ScentStudio
2  
Coca-Cola in a bottle!
I will pre-preface that I wrote the entire review and it got deleted, so this one isn't as good as the original and I was just not having it before I even started.

I will also preface by saying that this might not be the best season to review L'Ombre Des Merveilles. When I first heard of it, Monika Cioch talked about it around autumn or winter. As far as I recall, she also prefers this scent during the colder months. However, you know my spiel of being behind on reviews and I actually did receive this during winter, but alas, a summertime review it is!

Luckily, after weeks of sun and high temperatures, today is colder and rainy. So L'Ombre Des Merveilles might get a fairer chance.

I remember when I first swatched this on paper that it smelled like Coca-Cola. Sweet, fizzy and caramelly.
On skin, however, there is the reminiscent note of Cola, but it is mostly the tea note that I get. L'Ombre Des Merveilles is very surprising. It is simple, but it doesn't remind me of anything that I have smelled before. And is perfectly unisex. Nothing is too feminine, nor is it rough around the edges to become masculine. It is somehow delicate even though I doused myself in it. Because my review got deleted, I mostly remember it being stronger with tea and with a note of incense. Now, completely dried off, I get mostly incense with a tea note in the background. The incense is very mild. Its smoothness reminds me of Santal Austral from Matiere Premiere (if I recall correctly), but the tea note just gives it that sourness, that ompf, that compliments the scent perfectly and makes it stand out.

I keep reaching back to my memory of my prior review, but I cannot recall what I wrote and I am losing momentum reviewing L'Ombre Des Merveilles. This bothers me a lot, because I had only good things to say and I had written how the scent evolves during dry down.
What I can add is that even though I thought this would be an autumn and winter fragrance, I can see myself wearing it all year round!
0 Comments
10
Pricing
10
Bottle
10
Sillage
10
Longevity
10
Scent
Rasiaunggol

1 Review
Rasiaunggol
Rasiaunggol
2  
Lovely FRAGRANCE OF NIGHT-FALL
Even though it is a unisex fragrance, however, the fragrance is charming and SEXY for Men NIGHT Occasion and FALL Season.

Night Occasion: you will feel calm, relaxed, and elegant. May give bright confidence.
Fall Season: you will feel breezy, calm, and relaxed, and enjoy the fall season. Not too much if I say that the fragrance is suitable also during the WINTER season.

Quite an Underrated fragrance of all time.

Just see my rateS for this charming FRAGRANCE OF NIGHT-FALL...

with love,
rasia unggol
0 Comments
7
Sillage
9
Longevity
9
Scent
Salva

70 Reviews
Translated Show original Show translation
Salva
Salva
Top Review 62  
At home with dad at the breakfast table....
My favorite meal is and always has been breakfast. I love to take my time in the morning, prepare something neat and cover the table with lots of goodies.

When my dad used to come home from the night shift, he prepared a sumptuous breakfast for me and my three siblings every day for years.

He was home regularly at half past six and by 7 sharp everything was set.
There were fresh rolls with croissants, roll cakes, doughnuts, or other slightly sweeter foods from the bakery. Cream cheese, sheep cheese, Gouda cheese in slices, various sausage slices, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers were also always there. Eggs too, of course; sometimes boiled, sometimes scrambled in the pan. And in addition to freshly squeezed OJ, he always made us black tea.
[...]

There are several kinds of tea and altogether one distinguishes between six diverse kinds, which are won from the tea plant: Black Tea, White Tea, Green Tea, Yellow Tea, Pu Erh Tea and Oolong Tea.

In addition to these six traditional types of tea, there are of course many other tea-like varieties, but they do not contain any real components of the tea plant, and therefore in principle are not listed in the same breath with the above six. As examples one can call herbal or also fruit tea.

I myself, in any case, drink the very favorite black tea (coffee, for example, I do not drink at all), and still every day and preferably in the morning for breakfast. And this fragrance, the L'ombre des Merveilles, I have when testing immediately associated with my childhood, because it reminded me so much of the morning ritual of breakfast together.
[...]

So far, I have been able to test a few fragrances that contain a tea note, but I have never before smelled such an expressive and authentic tea scent as L'Ombre des Merveilles.

The beginning is very fresh and somewhat spicy or herbal, where you can perceive but clearly the typical Merveilles DNA. Here you smell namely an orange-like "earthy" note out, which is characteristic of the Terre d'Hermès, for example. Say if one knows TdH and the first time with the Merveilles DNA is confronted, one will mMn slight similarities - in the prelude at least - can determine.

This initial freshness keeps the fragrance actually until the base, where it becomes spicier in between and in the further course then the black tea note comes to the fore and takes over the main role, so to speak. For me personally, it smells incredibly fine and genuine, as if you would pour on very fresh black tea and let the smoke soak into the nose.

The sweet tonka bean, which resonates slightly in the background, gives the base an additional minimal sensual nuance, but it is clearly restrained, which I personally find very good, because it would rather harm the character of the fragrance at more intense expression mMn.
[...]

I tested the fragrance in the late afternoon or early evening on my wrist and could still easily perceive it in the morning after. Accordingly, I can speak of an exceptionally good durability.
Due to its composition, I think the fragrance is except always high summer all year round and for all occasions easily portable. Where I personally feel the spring and autumn as the most suitable seasons.

He is indeed declared as unisex, but personally I would classify him a little more of the masculine side, since he - I think - for one or the other lady can appear a little too spicy and a little woody. But of course everyone must find out for themselves when testing.
Conclusion:
L'ombre des Merveilles comes from the French and means translated "shadows of miracles" (would also be a nice title for a gripping novel).
When testing, the scent evoked memories of my dad and breakfasts together and made me emotional. That, among other reasons, is why I appreciate this hobby so much...

I sincerely thank dear button nose for the sample and the opportunity to have been introduced to this great scent.

For all black tea lovers, I can recommend it unconditionally. It exudes a fine elegance with both cool and warm aspects.
[...]

Thank you for reading!
34 Comments
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Statements

5 short views on the fragrance
BertolucciKBertolucciK 3 years ago
9
Bottle
6
Sillage
6
Longevity
8
Scent
Gentle scent, fresh and cold with a relaxing black tea and a hint of incense. Slightly tart and sweet. In the drydown, a soft woody tonka.
0 Comments
MaliboMalibo 4 years ago
10
Bottle
9
Sillage
8
Longevity
10
Scent
Amazing and delightful composition - Earl Gray on a noble base - Thé des Merveilles
0 Comments
FreshKatsuFreshKatsu 2 years ago
7
Bottle
6
Sillage
6
Longevity
7.5
Scent
Spicy black tea enveloped in woody tonka. But it's hard to pinpoint specific note as it's such a harmonious blend. Cosy & meditative
0 Comments
JanetbearyJanetbeary 5 months ago
8
Bottle
6
Sillage
7
Longevity
8.5
Scent
Slightly spicy, warm tea based scent with a tea note that remained strong all throughout the fragrance. Tonka shows up much later.
0 Comments
AdrianPapakiAdrianPapaki 12 months ago
6
Bottle
6
Sillage
6
Longevity
8.5
Scent
A true black tea scent with woods(?) and a tiny bit of incense, finally found something that smells JUST like tea. I'm in love.
0 Comments

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