Christine Nagel takes on the idea of a marine fragrance without resorting to salt-spray shortcuts or sun-soaked nostalgia. With Un Jardin sous la Mer, the Hermès perfumer imagines an underwater garden built on mineral notes, restrained florals, and a deliberate resistance to the expected
At first glance, the idea of an underwater garden sounds like perfume marketing doing what it does best: floating off into fantasy. Corals blooming. Blue upon blue. A place no one has ever smelled, which is precisely why Christine Nagel was drawn to it.
With Un Jardin sous la Mer, the latest addition to Hermès’ long-running Jardin series, Nagel sets herself a slightly perverse task: to create a marine scent without leaning on the marine playbook. No briny blast. No sunscreen nostalgia. No expected olfactory postcard notes. “I really wanted to come out of the marine cliché,” she says.
Her reference point isn’t the sea as we know it, but a memory from Tahiti, floating above a coral garden just beneath the water’s surface. “You don’t smell anything underwater,” Nagel explains. “That frustration became the most creative part.”
The result is a scent that reads airy more than aquatic. Salty, yes, but closer to skin after a swim than the bluntness of ocean spray. The floral heart is built around tiare, the national flower of French Polynesia, handled with restraint. “It’s not something opulent,” Nagel notes. “It’s petals. Something very delicate.”
Photo: Lee Whittaker
There’s vanilla too, but again dialled down, chosen for texture rather than sweetness. Coconut is non-negotiable, but instead of leaning into its milky core, Nagel focuses on the husk. “Normally coconut can be heavy, milky, greasy,” she says. “I wanted the fibre.”
What holds everything together, however, is a mineral, incense-tinged note that gives the fragrance its backbone. “I wanted something mineral, slightly salty,” Nagel explains, describing the sensation of that submerged landscape rather than its literal smell.
This resistance to the expected is very much the point. Nagel has long argued against fragrances that try too hard to please, and at Hermès, she says, audacity is actively encouraged. “Without audacity, there is no creativity,” she says. “I was told I have the right to make mistakes, because it is better to try something new than to follow others.”
It’s a philosophy that positions Un Jardin sous la Mer neatly within the current olfactory landscape. After more than a decade of syrupy gourmands and hyper-sweet signatures, there’s a growing appetite for perfumes that feel distinctive without being overtly loud. This one fits the shift with ease. It’s unisex without advertising itself as such. Fresh without being sporty. Summer-appropriate without leaning on sugar or citrus.
Within the Jardin collection, Nagel is careful not to draw direct comparisons. Each fragrance, she says, captures a specific emotional moment. For the wearer, that translates into something quietly transportive through escapist scents that rewards proximity. It’s not about fleeing reality so much as softening its edges.