It's Raining in My Perfume: Miller Harris La Pluie

Miller Harris is a London niche perfumer who has quite a following worldwide. Their scents range from soft and elegant to challenging and interesting, meaning there really is something for everyone. I have liked a few, Jasmin Vert and Figue Amere being two that stand out in my memory. I am now enjoying one of their newer releases - Miller Harris La Pluie. Translated to "the rain" this lastest offering from Miller Harris perfumes is  what I would call a perfect warm weather perfume. La Pluie also won Best Niche Fragrance 2012 at the Cosmopolitan Fragrance Awards, which only made me want to try it more!

From the Miller Harris website:

"La Pluie eau de parfum conjures the inky blue-black of clouds heavy with rain and the heightened sense of expectancy before a thunderstorm, this fragrance is richly suggestive of tropical showers and the balmy climate of a far away island"

Well doesn't that sound lovely! It really does have a weight to it, but it is like the heaviness of water, not of perfume notes. It smells like walking through a warm rain surrounded by lots of greenery and flowers. The green and floral notes combine beautifully, into a impression of the air, rather than one specific flower. With perfumes like this, the list of notes is almost irrelevant. You certainly can get notes of white flowers, but just when you think "jasmine!" it becomes "orange blossom". And there is a humid aspect to these flowers, which I think comes from the cassie (acacia) which is a sweet yet 'foggy" scent, but also the green, watery & almost aquatic feel of mimosa. It dries down gently to a crisp vetiver note sweetened with a touch of vanilla, but maintains the watery feeling throughout the wearing. It is a soft scent, and would be a perfect choice for someone who likes their perfumes gentle and soft, but still interesting. It is lovely to smell the slow transition Miller Harris La Pluie makes on the skin, and then enjoy the soft kiss of rain-like scent that lingers on the skin. Verdict? Lovely.

On my radar right now: Miller Harris candles. I think La Pluie would be incredible as a scent wafting through the house, so calming and soothing.

I got my Miller Harris La Pluie from MIN New York, an amazing shop that ships anywhere & has excellent customer service- they will include samples of other things you might want to try with your order as well. You can also order from the Miller Harris UK website.

After The Rain - Guerlain Après L'Ondée

It's been raining a lot lately. You know, those heavy, ozonic rain storms.  They only come after intense heat and humidity, when you can barely see a few feet ahead, there is such a deluge. So of course, this brings to mind a perfume, and of course, that perfume is Guerlain Après L’Ondée. Après L’Ondée translates more or less to "after the rain shower" and was created in 1906 by Jacques Guerlain. It has often been called "heartbreakingly beautiful" by those who wear it. Some so much that they simply can't wear it- it makes them too sad. I adore it, maybe because it feels therapeutic to  wear a perfume that can evoke such emotion. Jacques Guerlain himself has said "I felt something so intense, I could only express it in a perfume". Are we feeling what he felt in 1906? Maybe...

Après L’Ondée does to perfume notes what watercolours do to art. Guerlain calls it "a perfume of absolute romance". When I wear it, I can almost see Monet's Les Nymphéas (Water Lilies), with their almost ethereal blues and purples and that feeling of cool fresh water.

Iris butter (from iris rhizome/root) is one the most expensive perfume ingredients in the world...

I love the cool earthy and buttery iris combined with the most delicately sweet and green violet, both of which are wrapped in the gentle powdery vanillic heliotropin that only Guerlain can do. I also notice a delicious anise note, which is kept from being too sweet or "licorice-y" by a whisper of gently soapy carnation and jasmine. Oh, to be sure there are other notes, but they are so masterfully blended I can't really discern them.

Many complain that Après L’Ondée is also heartbreaking in that it's magical beauty doesn't linger long enough on their skin. Luckily, my skin wears this perfume perfectly, and from the first second I sniffed it, I loved it.  It does make me feel sad, but in a good way, the way a good cry during a sad movie does. It smells like a lush closed garden, at dusk, after a heavy downpour, when the flowers are heavy with water and weighed down, and air is still slightly electric, like the rain could come down again at any moment. Perfect.

Guerlain Apres l'Ondee eau de toilette in the 100ml bee bottle is available from Guerlain Boutiques. Some department stores in the US with comprehensive Guerlain counters also carry it.