Hermes: Un Jardin Sur Le Toit

Clockwise from top left Un Jardin En Mediteranee, Un Jardin Sur Le Nil, Un Jardin Apres La Mousson and Un Jardin Sur Le Toit

I’m a sucker for marketing and there’s nothing I love more than a cosmetic product with a theme. Hermes garden fragrance range has really captured my heart! I would say nose as well, though I haven’t actually sampled any of the range yet, but – hello? – fragrances that reference the Tunisian shoreline and the River Nile, I’m sold!

But let’s focus on the 4th and latest edition to its garden-inspired fragrance range, ‘Un Jardin Sur Le Toit’. Translating as ‘Garden on the Roof’, it refers to the roof garden at Hermes’ Parisian headquarters.

After having travelled to all these other exotic locations, Jean-Claude Ellena, chief perfumer in-house at Hermes, wanted to take inspiration from his home, Paris. To the Hermes roof garden he went, and so captivated by the aroma of herbs and fruits and the scent of the fresh green grass and compost was he, that Un Jardin Sur Le Toit was born.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any more quaint, I’ve noticed that the perfume’s box features an illustration of Parisian rooftops, conceived by none other than Philip Dumas, Emile Hermes’s grandson. I can’t wait to sample this and let’s face it, probably buy it..

One Bardot To Go Please!

For some reason I have often managed to leave the hairdresser looking like Barbara Windsor or Little Britain’s Marjory Dawes – bouffant, but not in a good way. The cut is not the problem (I’ve been able to swish my split-end free hair from side to side Pantene style many a time), it’s the blow-dry. So many hairdressers I’ve encountered have had a passion for the cylindrical brush. I remember one particular incident when I went to get my roots done, I had a short blonde crop that I wore in a quiff in an attempt to look like Agyness Deyn. Instead I left looking literally like Derek Acora. I had a 10 minute walk home and no hat, I was…most haunted… for a long time after wards…(ho..ho)

 As soon as I see that mega cylindrical brush and mighty hair dryer emerging behind me in the mirror I pray that this time I won’t be transformed into a bouffant nightmare. Perhaps now my prayers have been answered – in the form of Blow-Dry Bars. Of course bad blow dries will continue in salons across the world with or without the invention of Blow-Dry Bars, but if you want as much attention paid to your blow-dry as your cut – you can head to one of these places and be transformed into a forties beauty or a Lauren Conrad. Yes please! Blowdrying in hair salons is almost just an afterthought, it’s optional, and seemingly just to stop you leaving with sopping locks and catching a cold. Blow-Dry bars are specifically for styling, where the stylist’s focus is solely on providing you with the perfect hairstyle, leaving the technicalities of a good cut or colour to the hairdressers.

Of course the difference between a trip down the hairdressers and one of these bars, is necessity and luxury. But clever Mr Hersheon and son, who have an exclusive salon on Conduit Street, hair spa in Harvey Nichols and now a blow-dry bar in Topshop Oxford Circus, have managed to persuade me that I need this. The idea behind the Topshop bar, is that you can pick out the perfect outfit for that evening, say, and get a storming hairdo without even leaving the store! (I might also suggest popping down the road to Carnaby Street and getting a cheeky MAC makeover into the bargain). Yumsies! With a menu of hairdos to choose from, named The Bardot, The Rick Rack Jack and the B-52, how can these bars not become part of your monthly…or weekly…or… daily… (no, too far) beauty routine…?