perfume review miller harris tangerine

Perfume Review: Miller Harris Tangerine Vert, Fique Amere and Fleur du Matin

By Tom

This labor day weekend featured truly ghastly heat: it hit 100 in

beautiful downtown Beverly Hills, with humidity to match. Saturday was

a trip to the Malibu Country Mart for the largest green-tea

ice-blended I could muster up. Sunday I ducked into a showing of the

Simpson's Movie (which I liked, but they could have shown me Plan 9

From Outer Space and I would have liked it due to the arctic AC and

the icy triple-gulp diet Coke I had) and stopping at every department

store on Wilshire Blvd to examine each and every ware I could think of

with the care and attention to detail I usually reserve for, well,

nothing. Then back home to turn on the totally inadequate air

conditioner and pray for death. Monday I had decided that I would keep

the AC on all day (I am trying not to be an energy pig, and to keep my

electric bill slightly lower than my zip code) and just sit in front

of it.

In any case, for my birthday I decided to get a bottle of Miller

Harris Fleurs de Sel from Saks in New York, since it is exclusive to

that store for a while yet. The very helpful and sweet Rodney included

the above mentioned samples and this weekend seemed as good a time as

any to write them up. Luckily Rodney (could someone drop by Saks for

me and tell him that I love him?) sent three that are perfect summer

scents:

Tangerine Vert was the scent for Saturday: a delightful citrus green

that reminds me very much of the Hermes scent. The development is

quite similar, though the Miller Harris seems to have more depth, and

is far more long-lasting. It also travelled well being refreshing in

the ghastly heat without dying out in the indoor chill of the coffee

shop (because it was even hot in Malibu). The bare hint of Orange

Flower and base of woods and musk and a touch of what seems almost

like cinnamon make this one a winner.

Figue Amere was for Sunday: It starts off very green and bitter,

reminding me (if not smelling remotely like) the first time I tried

Campari. It was in a Negroni and the first sip was dreadful: bitter

and yet sweet at the same time in a way that was compelling enough to

make me sip more. The initial bitterness is cut by the green sweetness

of the fig, but this never gets to that toothache-sweetness that some

other figgy scents go for. On the sun-blasted terrace of the Century

City mall it was a delightful little puff, in the later subzero chill

of the movies it was an equally compelling bone-dry woody amber.

Monday was going to be Fleur du Matin and a marathon of "Pasadena",

however a friend called to ask me to help her retrieve her vintage

1960 T-Bird from her dad's house in the "Inland Empire" at a college

town east of LA, about halfway to Palm Springs. Fleur du Matin lists

jasmine, honeysuckle and neroli as it's notes, but they aren't heavy

or indolic in the least. There's a fair amount of citrus cutting the

flowers making it a fresh, rather delicate scent. Delicate enough that

it did not survive the drive back to Pasadena in the un-air

conditioned car (It wasn't that bad really when we were moving, sort

of like a big blow-dryer). When I got home and re-applied I would

appreciate it more: it's a lovely scent, just not necessarily me. It

made me imagine a walk in a cool summer garden, voile dress whispering

in the breeze. Since you all have seen my picture you can see that I

would not fit that image very well, or at least very attractively. I

would recommend it heartily to others though.

All of these are available at Saks Fifth Avenue, Luckyscent and

Bigelow Chemists

posted by Colombina (Marina) | 12:03 AM

13 Comments:

Anonymous Leopoldo said...

I dunno, I quite like the idea of you in voile dress. Though I

now see you morphing into Laura Dern in Lynch's undecipherable

Inland Empire...

3:34 AM EDT

Blogger chayaruchama said...

Hi, Tom-Tom !

Nice review-

I like them all-to sniff- but I only have the fig; the others

are too sharp on my skin, and I prefer the Cuir D'Oranger to

the TV.

I secretly believe you'd love it , too.

Very leathery.

7:16 AM EDT

Blogger marchlion said...

I agree with both Lee and Chaya -- you could work the voile

dress, and MH stuff in general is too sharp on my skin. You

must kill some of that off. And did you find out what that

Memoire Liquide (?) skank bomb was that you tried?

7:53 AM EDT

Blogger donanicola said...

One of the good things about the UK's lousy summer this year

was that I didn't have to fret about wearing a light summer

fragrance when my preference is for weightier numbers. Lovely

reviews of these, thanks. To my amateur nose I think the MH

scents are well made and a few I like alot (Terre d'Iris, Noix

de Tubereuse, Cuir d;Oranger and the Tabac one)but I don't love

any yet.

9:37 AM EDT

Blogger tmp00 said...

I still have that one in my Netflix queue, so I will decide

whether I am offended later... :-)~

11:32 AM EDT

Blogger tmp00 said...

Chaya-

I'll just have to try then!

11:32 AM EDT

Blogger tmp00 said...

March- not yet, nut I will stop at ScentBar posthaste.

I think it was a Bois 1920

11:34 AM EDT

Blogger tmp00 said...

nicola-

It took me a while to love some of them- I think I was in a

different space. But I am crazy about l'Air de Rien and Fleurs

de Sel and these three are definite contenders. Happily,

Bigelows has some of these in the smaller bottles so i won't go

completely broke over them.

11:37 AM EDT

Blogger NowSmellThis said...

The Miller Harris line just doesn't suit me, but do like Fleur

de Matin. Too short lived to buy, but I like it. I think of it

as an anomaly in the line -- the rest all smell very "Miller

Harris-ish", FdM doesn't.

12:22 PM EDT

Blogger tmp00 said...

I know- the tend to have a bit of "Harrisade" to steal a

phrase, but I kind of like that...

1:25 PM EDT

Blogger lilybp said...

Like Robin, I don't seem able to do many MHs. I do like Vetiver

Bourbon and Geranium Bourbon, though (must be that bourbon:).

1:45 PM EDT

Blogger tmp00 said...

I haven't tried the bourbons yet. I'll have to.

2:19 PM EDT

Blogger The non-blonde said...

Figue Amere is already on my list. If there's one note I can

wear in any arrangement it's fig. Give me the coconut, the

wood, twigs and everything else they couple with it. I wear

them all and then go hunting for another one.

2:00 AM EDT

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