Miller Harris Myrica Muse, Scherzo & Peau Santal ~ perfume critiques :: Now Scent This
Do you bear in mind a time round 2005 when solely a handful of “area of interest” fragrance manufacturers have been out there at most shops? In my recollections of that period, Miller Harris was one such entity that had been granted beneficiant counter house on the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship. I used to be intrigued by Miller Harris’s British identification, its interpretations of varied botanical themes, the little strips of grey grosgrain ribbon that have been used as a substitute of paper blotters, and the vintage-looking illustrations on the fragrances’ bottles and containers. As a lot as I admired perfumer Lyn Harris’s model nevertheless, I by no means discovered a scent from that line that fairly suited me.
Any variety of issues can occur over a decade or extra: preferences shift, manufacturers change possession (and inventive path) and perfumers maintain evolving of their work. On a latest journey to London, I ended into the Miller Harris boutique at Covent Backyard and bought a pattern set. I additionally visited Lyn Harris’s Perfumer H boutique, to scent the work she’s been doing since departed from Miller Harris in 2015. Extra on that latter level subsequent time, however for now, listed below are a couple of ideas on some newish Miller Harris scents I have been making an attempt over the previous couple of weeks.
Final 12 months, Miller Harris launched Myrica Muse (not proven), a fruity floral perfume created by perfumer Emilie Bouge. Myrica is impressed by “the aperitif second”: “A stolen pause, loved alone, quiet, elegant and in reflection for the enjoyment to come back. Strolling within the early night solar and stopping to take a seat exterior a café.” The checklist of notes for Myrica Muse sounds fruity and gourmand-leaning: strawberry, bayberry, tangerine, pink pepper, rose, patchouli, rum, vanilla, benzoin, jasmine, lily of the valley, musk, amber and sandalwood. Nevertheless, in step with the “aperitif” theme, the strawberry is extra of a dried fruit than a freshly picked one, and the myrica (it is a purple number of bayberry right here) is dusky and really barely boozy. Myrica Muse’s dry down is a muted amber. The entire thing jogs my memory barely of Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir, with a lighter and extra nuanced contact. Myrica Muse does not should be reserved for cocktail hour — it’s extremely versatile, and extra all-gender than you may guess from its description.
The present best-seller for Miller Harris is Scherzo (proven at high), developed by perfumer Mathieu Nardin and launched in 2018. This floral-amber perfume contains notes of peony, maltol (a fabric typically used as a caramel-like flavoring) and oud, in addition to narcissus, pittosporum, tangerine, davana, olibanum and patchouli. Scherzo was considered one of two fragrances impressed by a passage in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel Tender is the Evening: “…she walked on, between kaleidoscopic peonies massed in pink clouds, black and brown tulips and fragile mauve-stemmed roses, clear like sugar flowers in a confectioner’s window—till, as if the scherzo of colour might attain no additional depth, it broke off instantly in mid-air…”
Scherzo does not really feel in any approach like a Twenties fragrance, if that was what you have been initially hoping — it’s extremely present-day in its model — but it does “illustrate” these written traces very properly. Once I put on Scherzo, I am initially struck by its use of a recent oud word, one which’s initially bitter and barely astringent and softens right into a mineral-woody accord extra just like ambergris. Then, just like the pink of peonies and roses distracting our eye from the darker tulips of Fitzgerald’s imagined backyard, a candy floral bouquet regularly surges to the forefront and provides us a heat synthetic-sugar hug. Scherzo’s confectionery blossoms are extra restrained than, say, those you will discover in Prada Sweet or Viktor & Rolf Bonbon, however in case you beloved both of these fragrances up to now and you have been searching for a toned-down iteration of the caramelized-flower theme, you need to monitor down some Scherzo.
Lastly, I have been making an attempt Peau Santal (proven beneath), one other Mathieu Nardin composition launched in 2018. The Miller Harris web site spotlights Peau Santal’s notes of pink pepper, olibanum and sandalwood, and earlier descriptions additionally point out saffron, papyrus, cashmere woods, amber, moss, vanilla, bergamot and violet leaf. True to its identify, this can be a sandalwood perfume that dries right down to a pores and skin scent. It has some hints of inexperienced and citrus in its introduction, nevertheless it’s major a creamy, barely nutty cedar-sandalwood mix with a gentle, sueded-musk base. To my reduction, Peau Santal just isn’t one other Le Labo Santal 33 knock-off; as a substitute, it feels just like the misplaced grandchild of L’Artisan Parfumeur Bois Farine and Safran Troublant.
Please enable me to go on a semi-tangent right here: on the subject of purchasing for area of interest fragrance, 2023 is a really completely different second from 2005. On one hand, there are many playful D.S. & Durga-descendant perfumes (Snif, Boy Smells, et al.) being marketed to Technology Z; on the opposite, there are scores of $400 oud-bombs wrapped in black and gold that appear created for the only real function of lining the TikTok influencers’ cabinets. All in all, there’s simply an excessive amount of.
What concerning the particular person in search of some perfumes that are not too commonplace but are broadly pleasing, wearable in numerous contexts, provided in packaging that is fashionable but nonetheless fairly, and never being bought at ridiculously excessive value factors? Whereas I proceed working my approach by way of my Miller Harris pattern set (a tea perfume named Tea Tonique, a really fairly rose soliflore known as Rose Silence, and so forth), I am mentally noting this model as a superb one to suggest for these causes. Have you ever tried something from Miller Harris over the previous few years? What did you assume?
Miller Harris Myrica Muse, Scherzo and Peau Santal are every out there in 50 and 100 ml Eau de Parfum. Some matching physique merchandise are additionally out there. For buying info, see the itemizing for Miller Harris underneath Fragrance Homes.