Paddock Hermès 2024

The Hermès employee at the Paris flagship store at 24, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré described it to me briefly as "Cuir Aromatique" a few weeks ago.

I was only able to test the fragrance on my skin once right there in the store, strolled through Paris with it all day long...and also kept at least the lavishly sprayed fragrance strip in my jacket for several days...so far, the durability is quite excellent.

But for me, unlike the blogger "Persolaise" on YouTube (the only one I really like to watch) who is enthusiastic about Paddock, it's not quite the fragrance.

I perceive animalic leather, unfortunately with slightly oudy (for me synthetic) facets. It seems to me like a combined melange of traditional and modern leather notes. The animalism naturally plays with the idea of sweaty riding horses.
The fragrance character does not change much.
Notes of hay and carrot seeds are added to the leather note, it is somewhat bulky, dry, almost rough and dusty, warm, spicy & woody. A tart green and almost scratchy facet joins in, something like violet leaf...which I don't particularly like...but is often combined with leather. Amber seems to give the fragrance a warm, rounded atmosphere. The fragrance always remains dry and tart, never becomes sweet, which is good.

however, Paddock was too intense, rigid, dense and compact for me personally, I missed a breath of air.
I feel the same way about Bel Ami...somehow Paddock also resonates a bit with Bel Ami Eau de Toilette...it's a Hermès.
Of course, with a Hermès fragrance that was launched on the occasion of the annual Hermès equestrian event "Saut Hermès" at the Grand Palais, a leather fragrance is the obvious choice. But I was not entirely convinced. After "Hermessence Violette Volynka | Hermès" (beautiful, but not new) and Hermessence Oud Alezan (leather, oud, rose...nope), another leather fragrance from Hermès that seemed somehow familiar to me, yet represented something new and unique, which I should have liked with its green, tart and somewhat bulky nature, but I wasn't really enthusiastic about it. At least I could have bought it, because it is/was strictly limited. I was in Paris for four days, so the pressure was on: "Now or never."

According to the information I was given, Paddock is/was only available exclusively in three Hermès boutiques in Paris for a total of six weeks.
It appears in the regular Hermessence "Outfit" with 100 ml for 285.00 EUR. The label is undoubtedly witty & imaginative, but I got the impression that the label design was forgotten and only decided on at the last minute.

Hermès surprises people from time to time with limited and not really publicized editions, such as Eau de Ginza, which was released for the opening of the grandiose Hermès boutique in Tokyo, designed entirely from glass bricks by Renzo Piano.
Or the Voyage (not to be confused with the regular Voyage...) launched exclusively for the Hermès stores on the Côte d'Azur in 2010, a variation of Calèche Eau de Toilette in which the formula was varied with a harvest of mimosas...that was a good one!

I didn't buy Paddock, the "but" outweighed the "but" and my cupboard is also too full.