Hi there ULGers, Quietly and without fanfare Hermes (yes I know it’s Hermès but SEO) released a complete fragrant stunner in 2024. Only available in their stand alone stores. It’s also spendy. Not Roja spendy but still, you’ll have to really NEED IT to fork over that kind of money for something that literally goes up in fragrant smoke. I really, really want Paddock. It plays on my mind in the most inopportune moments. Currently I’m down to my last 2ml of a Surrender To Chance decant. They now seem to be totally out of it!?! GAH! I can’t even scratch the itch now.
Paddock by Hermes 2024
Hermes gives this description of notes:
Honeyed hay, Amber carrot seed
Christine Nagel has received a slew of hate mail through her tenure at Hermes. Following Jean Claude Ellena was never going to be easy. He had redefined the way that Hermes perfume lovers chose to smell. His fragrances seem austere and minimalist, even when they aren’t. His gluggiest (that I love BTW) Ambre Narguile, while being warm, rich and a little over the top gourmand still feels calmly restrained.
This feels like Mz Nagel is arrived. Like Eau de Citron Noir, H24, Cardomusc Terre D’Hermes Eau Intense Vetiver and L’Ombre and Eau des Merveilles Bleue (the ones from her I paid retail for) were just practicing to become this stunningly astounding perfection.
On my first sniff I’d completely dismissed Paddock. Then, this time last year Val the Cookie Queen came to stay with us. When she wore it I suddenly got what was meant to live in someone’s sillage.
This pic makes me so sad, only a few wears away from zero Paddock.
Paddock is horsey, and yard-ish, and paddock, its feed room and tack room. It’s a whiff of all those things BUT it’s also none of them. Paddock is a surrealists dream of all that, while still being pure fine fragrance.
Please don’t go try it. Don’t fall in love with it. Don’t even go near it. There’s not enough to share and I freaking WANT IT ALL.
Did you try Paddock? Thoughts?
Portia xx
Undina's Looking Glass 
That’s OK, I won’t snaffle any! Not sure it would be to my taste, and anyway I’ve got too much perfume already that I should use!
I recall that people used to say that Nicolai’s Le Temps d’une Fete was very hay-like – did you ever try that one? Discontinued.
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Beautiful review of Paddock, Portia! I belong to a fragrance group for Canadians and someone offered to split a bottle. My 10 ml arrived a week ago. This is a new favourite of mine. It’s honeyed hay and the entire barnyard-it’s the smell of horses, hay, tackle, leather and wood. It’s absolutely everything you’d find in a barn of healthy horses. Totally wearable. I love the bottle, too.
I agree with you about Christine Nagel’s tenure at Hermes. I bought Gallop in its beautiful stirrup bottle. I loved it so much I bought the refill, too ( and if people wanted to split that fragrance the refill prices weren’t stratospheric. Seems the refill is a bit harder to find now).
I’d love to smell Paddock on someone else. I bet your friend Val wore it well, and I bet you did too:)
Thanks for elegant review of a new favourite of mine.
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