Fleurs de Bois by Miller Harris - review

Dedicated to JB, a Brit who once went public about forgetting his pants in the park, and to SJ who dreams about London.

(Breve em Português/soon in Portuguese)

FLEURS DE BOIS BY MILLER HARRIS

photo credit: Miller Harris/+ Q Perfume Blog

Back in April, last year, I published a short snapshot post about Miller Harris new fragrance Fleurs de Bois (to take a pick, click here). The fragrance was launched later in May that year and it has been a delicious surprise to my senses ever since.

Somehow, each time I try this perfume, I find it special in a different way.

Fleur de Bois EDP by Miller Harris

Launch: 2009

Perfumer: Lyn Harris

Inspiration: a walk through an English park (Regent's Park - London)

Gender: Perfumer thinks it is feminine, + Q Perfume Blog thinks it can be delightful for both genders, specially men.

Olfactive family: Floral green

Perfume notes: Galbanum, grass, lemon, green mandarine, rosemary, rose, jasmine, iris, oak moss, patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver, myrrh and birch.

Description by the brand: Fresh, and mysterious, complex and compelling. The alchemy of a sacred garden.

Description by + Q Perfume Blog: clean, fresh, chic, easy to wear.

Fixation: could last longer

Sillage: Perfectly balanced

Rating: ✪✪✪✪

✪✪✪✪✪: I can't leave this park, I want to live here!

✪✪✪✪: I love to hang around, but not live in it.

✪✪✪: I have seen better parks.

✪✪: I would prefer not to go there again.

✪: what park???

Regent's Park - London

One could think of London as one of the most exciting cities of Europe. The fancy restaurants and its crowded pubs, the fashion shows and never ending options of cultural entertainment. And it would bring elements for inspiring perfume reviews, but Miller Harris' Fleurs de Bois is a springtime day at the park. It is a refreshing, relaxing day to smell fresh flowers, recently cut grass, mossy wet tree trunks and branches, breath pure air, to hear the sound of leaves moving with the morning breeze, smell the muddy waters of the pound, holding hands and stealing kisses like young lovers, and wondering if this day could last forever.

The opening of this perfume has a strong green citrusy impact. It feels like curls of green foliage. Green stems crawling up our legs, embracing our body and enlacing our arms. And once you lay your nose close to the skin, you smell the lemon being peeled and softly crushed. You can vividly picture the juices being squeeze, dripping through the fingers.

When you close your eyes, you also smell mandarines. Not the sweetness and the fruity touch expected of regular mandarine notes, since green mandarines have a very citrusy and dry notes with a green undertone.

Here it makes the connection between citrus and the other green notes. I like to think that perfumes sometimes are like puzzles. You connect one piece to the other, and only when you connect them all the picture is competed. You need to connect the notes to form one accord, connect accords to make one fragrance.

And than you have rosemary...

As the fragrance was inspired by a walk in the park, for me it would be a lover´s walk in the park.

Rosemary wraps this accord and brings a silver coating to it. It is rather masculine and camphoraceous. A whiff of this perfume reports us to a garden with green leaves, wet in early dew. It also gives the idea of a well shaved face, recently bathed man with a clean sharp look. British men wearing German classical colognes, or German men wearing British traditional colognes...

As lovers continue to walk, they get to Queen Mary's Garden (in Regent's Park) - a world famous rose garden named after the wife of the King George V. The bed of roses are simply beautiful and here they were captured by the perfumer to compose a classic English bouquet of roses, jasmine and iris.

What I liked about the middle notes is that although rose, iris and jasmine could deliver quite a strong floral accord to this perfume, here it is delicate as flower patterns in British china. You will pictures pinks and blues pastels of Laura Ashley flower prints.

You will feel a comforting sensation with these notes. A youthful and cheerful bouquet, just like a stolen kiss from a newly conquered love.

And once you have taken a quick taste of this kiss, vetiver roots will bring earthy, muddy and grounding hugs.

Young lovers in a spring day, walking hand in hand to the darkest and cooler trails of the park. What will happen next, after naive romantic kisses?

A mix of mystery and seduction takes place. The sensuality of myrrh melts in patchouli and sandalwood. The younger lover take his lady by the hand and they enter into the woods.

The trails are humid. As they walk, the friction of the feet releases the scent of untouched soils, mixed with decomposing leaves and defragmented moss. The lovers' secret scape to the woods can be magical and naive, or naughty and forbidden. That it is entirely up to your imagination.

The smell of woody accents are also so delicate that you can wear this fragrance all year round.

This fragrance made me think of a trip to London, and to its country side. To scape into the gardens, parks and woods of Britain. Also made me think how refreshing and lovely a romance & love, recently discovered can be...

You can find this fragrance in the brand's website or at Essenza Nobile.