Discovering luxury niche perfume brand Miller Harris in the La Collection Découverte

Fans of luxury niche perfumes in Malaysia now have another brand to have a sniff at. Miller Harris, a perfume brand that is based in London (but with distinctly French leanings in the naming of their collections) has wafted onto our shores, and they bring with them a pretty unique collection of scents that are at once, fresh yet innovative.

Miller Harris, founded by Lyn Harris in year 2000, prides themselves on using natural components of scents, extracted from botanicals, and not conjured up in a lab. So they smell more natural and, if I might say so, a little more complex.

But dabbling with luxury niche perfumes is a bit of a gamble, because scents are such personal things that work differently with different people, and luxury means that it can sometimes be a pricey mistake if you’re not careful. I’m never a fan of picking a scent off a fragrance blotter. You never get it right, let me assure you 😛

For me, to know if a scent works for me, I must have it sampled on my skin. Not my clothes, not my hair, not on a blotter, but directly on skin the way I wear my scents.

So, I think the La Collection Découverte or Discovery Collection by Miller Harris is a great idea! You get a set of 8 spray vials of some classic Miller Harris perfume choices in one handy box for you to discover at your leisure. Niche perfumes take some getting used to, if you’re currently used to the less complex scents carried in most department store by most major brands, and this is a nice way to figure out the scents you like, or don’t like, without breaking the bank 🙂

I’ll take you on a quick run through, because I don’t like “reviewing” perfumes. I don’t believe in it, to be honest. Perfumes are very very personal things that I feel should be personally experienced to be truly appreciated.

The La Collection Découverte has 8 scents in it – Le Petit Grain, Rose en Noir, Noix de Tubéreuse, La Pluie, L’Air de Rien, Terre d’Iris, Feuilles de Tabac and La Fumée. Each come in a 2ml spray vial which has enough to last you quite a few uses, and you’d know quite quickly if you like the scent or you don’t.

The last 2, Feuilles de Tabac and La Fumée are actually quite interesting, because they have a pretty strong, musky, tobacco-incense scent that is quite heavy when worn in our warm weather.

I might even say that they may suit men better, but there’s nothing to stop women from wearing it in the evening maybe? Miller Harris, and most niche perfume brands, do not segregate their scents into gender specific choices, so if you’re male but love how Rose en Noir smells on you, by all means go for it! We wear perfumes for ourselves after all 😀

I was actually quite glad I had a chance to sample some of these scents, because when I first experienced Rose en Noir (a velvety warm scent that is strong on roses) on a fragrance blotter, I actually made a face. Rose scents and I don’t get along very well because I find it can be too heavy on my head. But I was very surprised to find that when it gets on my skin, the scent of roses warms up and works with my skin so it isn’t too strong at all, yet has a nice warmed floral feel to it. I actually liked wearing it!

By contrast, when I was introduced to L’Air de Rien on the fragrance blotter, I liked how it smelled. It smelled very different, like that of an old bookshop. I was quite ready to consider purchasing it in fact. But after I wore it for 2 days, based on this discovery collection, I heaved a sigh of relief that I didn’t. The scent jars on my skin, with a metallic feel, and smells sharp on me. It just didn’t smell very good after a while. Now, that was a close shave!

By way of trivia, L’Air de Rien was actually a bespoke perfume created by Lyn Harris for Jane Birkin, the famous model and yes, the one for whom the Hermes Birkin was named. Lyn Harris does bespoke perfumes so you can have your very own scent that no one else has. It also costs about RM20,000 and they aren’t taking any new orders for now until they clear the backlog. Eeps! So you know what? If you want a Birkin bag, but feel it’s too far out of your grasp for now, you can actually wear L’Air de Rien. For me, this as close to owning a Birkin as I ever will get! LOL! 😀

Another example of a perfume that didn’t quite work for me was Fleur du Matin. It’s a beautiful scent of fresh morning flowers bathed in the morning dew, as the name implies – Flowers of the Morning. It opens up on skin after about 10 minutes, and envelopes you with a fresh scent of flowers.

I loved it, but after about half an hour, it seemed to have all but disappeared on my skin! I tried hard to love it because I did love how it smelled when I first wore it, but it just refused to stay on me. Sigh… By contrast, L’Air de Rien stayed put. All day. LOL!

So if you’ve never heard or tried Miller Harris perfumes, or want to try something a little different, without smelling like every other person out there, I think the La Collection Découverte is a nice one to start with. After all, with the prices of these luxury scents, you’d better be very very sure it is one that you absolutely will love! 😀

Oh and here’s an interesting one, if you love tea or are a tea drinker. Tea Tonique, available here in October 2015 is tea personified in a bottle!

It is a cup of warm, comforting tea to calm you down and restore balance to your world. I’m no tea drinker (I need my coffee caffeine buzzzzzz) but I could understand how it imperceptibly restores calm to chaos. One sniff and I felt the zen descend on my soul.

Scent is such an evocative feeling that reaches deep into our psyche to bring back memories or make us feel a certain way, that it never pays to rush the purchase of a scent. Try it, wear it, breathe it in and perhaps along the way, you’ll discover a Miller Harris scent to enjoy 🙂

Have you heard of Miller Harris perfumes before this? If you’ve tried any, which scent did you like (or dislike)?

My policy with all perfumes is “Try it”. You never know if a perfume will work for you until you try it, and unlike things like makeup or skincare, perfumes work differently for everyone, even scents you thought you didn’t like. So if you have a fave Miller Harris scent, do let me know which so I can go and sniff it out! 😉

Paris B

Miller Harris La Collection Découverte retails for RM170 | £24. Prices of full sizes range from RM480 | £65 (50ml), RM680 | £95 (100ml) for main ranges, RM930 | £155 (100ml Perfumers Library and La Fumee ranges). Miller Harris perfumes are presently available at Isetan KLCC (Malaysia) and you can find your closest store here.