La Fumée by Miller Harris - Fragrance Review

Notes:
Top: Lavender, Elemi, Incense
Heart: Cardamom, Coriander, Cumin, Geranium, Chamomile
Base: Cedar, Agarwood, Santal, Cade, Birch Tar, Amber

Strength: Eau De Parfum

Gender Label: Unisex

Perfumer: Lyn Harris

PLEASE NOTE: This is a review for the original La Fumée, not any of the fragrances that are part of the La Fumée collection.

La Fumée is beautiful fragrance centered around one of my favourite notes in perfumery, incense. La Fumée, translated into english, means "smoke", and that's precisely what you get with this scent.

Miller Harris first came to my attention when I was gifted a L'Air De Rien candle for Christmas one year. That scent, originally created by Miller Harris for the iconic Jane Birkin, is another beautiful scent that I recommend. L'Air De Rien got me interested in Miller Harris and made me eager to try out the other fragrances in their line. 

La Fumée opens up with a blast of incense, it's almost church-like. It actually reminds me a lot of Incense Avignon by Comme des Garçons. It's by no means a clone of Avignon, but the two fragrances share quite a few of the same notes, so there are bound to be similarities. The main difference here is that Avignon focuses more on the church-like incense and is much darker, whereas La Fumée has a light floral freshness brought in by the lavender note. The opening, which is my favourite part of the scent, lasts anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour, then the spices start to come through. 

The heart of the fragrance is incredibly spicy but, thankfully, never becomes overpowering. The cumin note is the most dominant spice that I pick up on and it's quite dry overall. I've always enjoyed the smell of spices but, I can find them a little hard to wear. This one certainly isn't hard to wear though. It's blended beautifully, meaning that the spices never overwhelm or cast a shadow across the other notes. 

The drydown is a lovely, creamy blend of amber and woods, most prominently sandalwood. It's not particularly sweet, like a lot of amber fragrances are. I'd say this one is just smooth, silky and very pleasant. I was very surprised to see Agarwood listed as a note in La Fumée, because I can't smell it. Agarwood, more commonly known as Oud, is another one of my favourite perfume notes and it's scent is very distinctive. Perhaps it's just my skin, but I really don't pick up on it. I'm quite glad that I don't though, because I'm not sure this fragrance would benefit from a prominent oud note. 

La Fumée has a wonderful character to it, and it would make a great signature scent for the "quietly-confident" type. It definitely has an intellectual quality and it's spiritual at the same time. The kind of person who would suit this scent most (in my opinion) is someone who is very wise and self-assured, but doesn't need to demand the attention of the entire room in order to make their presence noticed. My great-grandfather used to say "A wise man says nothing at dangerous times", and I feel the La Fumée wearer would live by this motto.

Wear details

• Best Time To Use: Anytime! casual or formal
• Best Season(s): Autumn, Winter
• Sprays I wear: 3 to 4
• Longevity: 6-7 Hours
• Projection: Moderate. Noticeable when in close proximity
• Purchase details: My 50ml bottle was purchased as a gift set from the Miller Harris boutique in Covent Garden, London

Thank you so much for reading this review,

Josh :-)

Disclaimer: The 50ml La Fumée bottle pictured is of my bottle from my personal fragrance collection.