Jour d'Hermès Refillable Eau de Parfum

Refillable bottles were once the normal way to buy perfume, and Jour d'Hermès Refillable Eau de Parfum revives the habit for a fragrance the house introduced in 2013.

It is a short composition, two materials and nothing else, and it is better for the restraint. Sweet pea does the leading, which is rarely heard of in fine fragrance: a thin, bright, slightly watery floral with a green stalk underneath and a sweetness that stays well short of sugar. It smells like a flower picked that morning rather than like a perfume made from one. Gardenia is the other half and supplies everything the sweet pea lacks, which is weight. It is creamy and white with a buttery thickness, and beneath that a green bitterness that stops the whole thing turning soft and sentimental.

Two materials means there is no second act, no surprise at the three hour mark and nothing to learn. The proportions shift a little as the brighter floral burns off and the creamier one settles in, and that is the extent of the drama. As an eau de parfum it lasts a full working day, projecting for the first hour and then staying close enough that it belongs to the wearer rather than to the room. That suits offices, lunches and daylight generally, and it is aimed at women. The refillable bottle is the practical argument. You buy the glass once and the fragrance thereafter, which costs less over time and leaves less in the bin, and it suits a scent light enough to be worn every day rather than saved for best.

Thierry Hermes was a Paris saddler who opened his own workshop in 1837. His descendants, six generations later, still own what he built, and the perfume side of it has been going since 1951.