Kelly Calèche

Sadly, my skin doesn’t agree with this. It’s just bitter and sour on me. The same way Light Blue is just windex on me. Some fragrances don’t develop on my skin beyond the top notes. Just sharing for those who may have the same wear experience with Light Blue as I do, Kelly Caleche is definitely not blind but safe. It’s a pity because I love Jean Claude Elena creations… I’m sure this is lovely, just not on me.

Crowd-pleasing but also feels innovative and niche, i blind bought this and im so glad i did- i want to wear it everyday now!

Imagine a young, or young-at-heart woman who looks elegant in a t-shirt, trench coat and trainers. She's low-key, wears minimal makeup, loves the outdoors, but most of all she loves horses. She super-organised, maybe she works as a personal assistant to some high-end celebrity. She's good at it, but it's not really what she wants to do, Not deep down. In fact, she's better than that. She's nobody's 'assistant'. Rather she's someone who wants to run a stud farm of beautiful horses. She wants to save money, buy up that land, or farm, or ranch if she's in the US, with a friend or partner. When she does, she'll still always look elegant, effortlessly and minimaly elegant. Exuding the aroma of fresh grapefruit juice imbibed that morning, the leather of horse tack and saddle-soap, the roses and florals of her morning shower. That's Kelly Caleche edt. Wearing it makes me feel 'put together', ready for the day and practical, yet elegant. I'm not actually this practical, kick-ass and elegant mind you, I love the way it makes me feel it though! Big like.

A beautiful fragrance. Very unique. A standalone. Loved it

this layered with Lust by Lush, heaven

soft, elegant floral-leather scent. Light rose with a clean citrus touch, softened by iris. It feels delicate, feminine, and perfect for daytime, classy without trying too hard.

"Kelly Calèche: written by Jean-Claude Ellena as an interpretation of the memory of a visit to the Hermès skin warehouse" I've heard the Hermes skin warehouse rivals that of Ed Gein!

Soft grapefruit and light suede, with a powdery floral aspect. Beautiful, makes me think of someone in a tweed jacket.

10/10 Je pense que le mien à macéré ça fait des années que je l'ai et le jus n'est absolument pas rose mais plutôt jaune translucide bref la couleur à sûrement changé, c'est une version vaporisateur de sac. L'élégance absolue, ce mariage entre la rose et le cuir est absolument parfait.

Not the easiest perfume due to the leather, as an independent perfumist i can understand its complexity and the masterpiece it is, JCE made a masterpiede, This is Terre d hermés wife or daughter altough it doesnt lean feminine to me, its dry orris is impecable, the leather, the nuances, this is perfume suitable for a Queen or King, its powerful, it has character, its perfectly balanced, its no wonder why this one is recognized for both designer and niche perfumers as true art, decadent, dry and luxurious, the iris is perfect, so perfect it feels like its beauty beyond the human real, simply archetypical 11/10

At first spray, I could only detect soap. I *hate* soap in perfume; it registers as sharp and gives me terrible headaches. Wondering how a JCE fragrance could be so disappointing, I put it away in a drawer. A year and a half later (today), I retested Kelly Caleche. Some magical alchemy has occurred and I smell minty and juicy grapefruit paired with soft leather. Wow. Airy loveliness. There is something delicious and sensuous in the combo of effervescent grapefruit and that gentle leather. Incredibly glad I gave her a second chance and didn't sell my bottle at some point. Kelly Caleche is the bolder sister to my beloved Osmanthus Yunnan, which is what I hoped when I originally bought it. ♥️

Very interesting, it combines fresh zesty bitter grapefruit with soft powdered Iris leather in the base. One of the best leather perfumes for women, leather that isn't drowned in vanilla, oud or spices. It develops quickly but beautifully, is very much Hermes style, like their fresh made leather bag. And I love the smell of leather goods!

I don't get it. I'm not getting any fruits. Just old musky soapy fragrance. I blind bought this (EDP) because I love love love Tory Burch Sublime and the reviews stated that sublime smelled like Kelly Caleche. Maybe I shoulda bought the EDT. This EDP is a hard Noooo. Sublime is fruity tangy yummy and I don't smell leather in Sublime. Kelly Caleche is leather forward and some kind of bad soap smell. Yuck. I can't stand this one.

i think mine turned, smelled like grapefruit salad and the drydown was not worth the price nor th disgust, Iris and rose? boring

just adorable. embodies every aspect of what a great fragrance must smell like imho. Another Ellena masterpiece <3 develops so uniquely.

While I am on the hunt for Caleche, I adore both Kelly Caleche EDT and EDP. They are pretty much the same, but to me EDT is more on the floral side and EDP is more leathery and quite watery, I'd say. Still, both are remarkably beautiful and you should try them all :) They seem to be ideal for the hot summer days

This reminds me a lot of Frankie Morello "Woman"

I agree with all of the other reviewers but I also get mint and vetiver vibes from the opening and mid. This is 100% genderless, and has the classic watery Ellena feel with the surprising subsequent performance.

While I've not tested this and I've only seen the notes, I wonder if it smells similar to the very affordable 5sens Catch Feelings? I own that and the main accords are almost identical

I 1000% agree with Mystères du Château de Dé's review below. This is freshly cut yellow flowers, stems drinking water in a sparkling crystal vase and a luxury bag of unscratched, fine shiny box leather. It's bright but peaceful. Perfect for spring/summer days and all genders. While not dated, it has a classic personality that isn't trendy. On my "like" scale of 1<5, this is a 4.

got a pre-loved bottle as a blind buy because the price is too good and that's what I can also say for the scent -- too good! I don't think anything can beat Galop when it comes to leather and rose but this is quite pleasant -- less loud and more transparent as per usual by master JCE -- but the leather here is so clean and persistent, a bit masculine even. i don't feel rose as much but more white flowers and grapefruit that's just bright and sparkle. If you're not into leather then you can skip coz this is a leather perfume first and everything else after.

The whole affair has Lamiaceae/Lauraceae tones (which I treasure) with the leather having a character like that in Fahrenheit. Yet it is floral with makeup iris and it is Ellena limpid. 50% yellowy floral 50% leathery base. The floral is a beautiful cool blend. The leathery base notes are clean, fresh from the tannery shiny Box Calf leather as used on the first Kelly bags. Possibly Berenia, Hermès' saddle leather. New! Not soft and buttery or well used or smelling of animals. Kelly Calèche is not wan as I find the current formulation of Calèche EDT. (My bottles of Calèche and Kelly Calèche both about 4 years old.) Strange the concept is a Calèche for young women as this Kelly fragrance is genderless, ageless and sexless. It's elegant and peaceful. The only young woman I could imagine being drawn to Kelly Calèche would be chic, serious, and disciplined, perhaps a hard-training ballerina or equestrian, or a future corporate lawyer, or a PhD student in STEM. A fragrance for professionals to wear with an Hermès scarf.

The opening is woody and green. Yes woody. The opener is supposed to be grapefruit but it's so deep and dark that it smells a like the damp sandalwood of a Santal 33 with some green leaves around it. The opening is reminiscent of other frags like Hermès' own Un Jardin Sur Le Nil and Memo's Kedu. It's almost a dead ringer for the former and similar with differences to the latter. While Kedu's grapefruit is accented with Bergamot and pink pepper, here it's deepened by narcissus. It's deep, dark, concentrated, leafy and serious but also beautifully blended. So beautifully blended that it smells like proper high end perfumery. There's also something minty going on in the background that reminds me a little bit of Balenciaga's Florabotanica. This sort of masterful blending is why Jean-Claude Ellena remains my favorite perfumer. I have to mention that like a few frags in Hermès' Jardin line, this will warm up your skin a little. It's nothing to be alarmed by. After about 10 mins the sandalwood scent disappears and the deep minty grapefruit takes over. At no point do I detect cheap ingredients. Everything smells high quality all the way. After 45 mins the minty grapefruit open is starting to fade. > 2 hrs in, the open is still holding on. It's almost gone and turning into a soapy (a very high end soap) scent but it's still refusing to give up the ghost. > 10 mins later it has completely gone soapy. Drydown is remarkably similar to Florabotanica's 7 hr mark. > 3 hrs in I started detecting pencil shaving notes which is usually the stand in for "leather" in leather frags geared towards women such as in Bottega Veneta's EDP, Armani's Cuir Amethyste and Goutal's Tenue de Soirée. In fact I think those are pretty much it's competition. > 4 hrs in, apparently this transitioned to florals somewhere along the line. I just didn't notice. It's so well-blended that the transitions are barely perceptible except for maybe a change in density. The floral heart accord also does a great job mimicking the grapefruit and narcissus top notes which help make the transitions seamless. The downside is it makes the Kelly Caleche seem linear. Based on how this is progressing, my guestimate for longevity is 5-6hrs but that remains TBD. I think this could be a unisex scent but leans fem. > 7 hrs in and it's still kicking. It's long been a skin scent and you need your nose up close but the fact it hasn't disappeared into the ether is a marvelous surprise. It's not very often you come across an EDT that outlasts many modern EDPs. Certainly skin chem plays a factor but I'm now thinking this is an 8hr-10hr frag. Recommend for anyone 25 and up or anyone in their early 20s that want to be taken seriously. UPDATE: Yup. Just about gone at 10 hr mark.

Did you knew that this is the only fragrance that perfumer Quentin Bish himself is wearing?? :)

It's funny I automatically thought I would fall for the parfum version of this over the toilette and while I like the parfum version I really love the toilette version the best. Kelly Caleche toilette smells exactly like my childhood farm on a very cool early spring morning. It is early the sun has just risen, the air is cold and damp. I can still see my breath as I breath in and out and start to absorb the beauty of a new day on our farm. Kelly smells of tree mosses, green shoots of plant life springing forth from a newly awakened ground. Mother Nature is working her magic and while I still felt the chill of winter deep in my bones it was really spring, and she has just arrived. I turn my head and to my happy surprise the jonquils and narcissus have just bloomed! Their scent is still very green almost like mint. They are young and quite virginal having just woken from a long winters rest. The smell of green new earth, the plants, the cool dampness of air mingling w/ saddle leather was a favorite smell of mine growing up. Kelly Caleche toilette captures the scent of the dawn of a new spring day on a farm in a bottle. The earth, the plants, the flowers, the leather scent of work gloves and saddles for horses. I am transported back to early spring rides on our horse Pal. I love this perfume beyond words. It has given me back the best part of my childhood memories. Full bottle worthy if you love the smell of cool spring country air and hints of supple leathers.

Kelly Calèche: I had to revisit this one as my memories had faded on this one, I recalled it being sweet and girlish but (unless they reformulated it), it is not. Kelly is a modern take on the much more important Calèche, (a super classic, posh Chypre); while it retains an austere background, it is more lively, airy, modern and and smells of pink flowers, powedery iris and a leather bag. Leather here is soft and clean and in no way animalic. I get hints of Bottega Veneta (the first, original one), although between the two I like best BV on Kelly Calèche. It’s Hermès, and it's Ellena: and you can feel its elegance and also the transparency all Ellena frags have. Posh and easy to wear, does not shine for longevity or sexiness (on the contrary, I find it very WASP). Doesn’t make a statement or leave a big impression, which is also good on many occasions when your presence doesn’t have to prevail. Nice to have but also easy to forget.

<3 I deleted my previous review unfortunately, and also kicked this gem out of my collection a few months ago, which I toothachingly regret. The most significant memory had settled about the lingering grapefruit note, which had a hard time to blend with the floral components (rose, iris, tuberose), but also elevated the leather note into something appealing and bright. Meanwhile I understand the association about being at a derby (in a good way) and the handbag reference. I need this oddity back into my life!

Let it be known that I hate the scent of leather — the previous, and only, leather fragrance I owned was by Bvlgari, which I eventually gave my mother after it triggered spellbinding headaches for me. But Kelly Caleche is a different story — the leather here is soft and supple, as I imagined Hermes' bags to feel (I've never owned one). It plays in perfect harmony with the rose, bringing a clear, almost watercolour scent to the picture. Not something I usually associate with leather, but it works perfectly well for me.

Hermes Kelly Caleche (2007) - floral leather - #jeanclaudeellena embroiders floral accords of Rose, Iris, Heady-green Narcissus, Lily of the Valley together with Leather. This creates a light leather accord that is both wearable and interesting. Powdery, Old make-up bag meets suede leather.

Kelly Calèche (EDT) is a barely-there, fresh, floral-leather scent, slightly different and quite chic. So far, so typical of Jean-Claude Ellena, the master of olfactory watercolours. KC is the kind of thing that is ideal for daily wear, being discreet and pleasant. KC opens with a nice citrus accord, fresh and light, joined shortly by florals. While this may sound run-of-the-mill, the unusual floral notes on top of the leather base makes for an intriguing scent. The narcissus is particularly hay-like, and muguet adds a hint of typical green floral goodness. The leather is barely detectable at the opening stage, but emerges steadily as it develops, smooth and clean, reminiscent of a new handbag. Not much of a surprise, given its legendary namesake. Some powdery rose and iris emerge as it develops, complementing the leather nicely. The floral-leather accord remains, becoming a single-note, more animalic leather skin scent as it fades. Sillage and longevity are moderate - KC is on the subtle side, but the drydown really lasts. A feminine-leaning, transeasonal, daytime scent, KC is nonchalant and nicely formed. However, from Hermès, I would choose Galop for a rich floral-leather, or Twilly for an unusual floral over this. 3.5/5.