Friday, February 20, 2009

Miller Harris Fleur Oriental

Today, for the first time in well over a week, I put on makeup and fixed my hair. Not to say I’ve been a complete slob, in my unemployed state: I shower daily, I wash and brush all the necessary parts and pieces. And it just so happens I love makeup. Even though I don’t pile it on, I love even the slightest transformative power it has: a shimmer here, a gloss there, a bit of color to liven things up. If I don’t wear it, it’s either because I’m too lazy to take it off, or because I want to be invisible. Lately, I don’t wear makeup due to the latter, for I don’t feel unemployed so much as untethered. Every morning I wake up and think not, “What am I going to do?” but “What am I going to be?”

I realize that’s a bit deep for a perfume post, and all that is just to say, today I felt like being seen. I’m not any closer to having an answer, but I can feel the little gears whirring away in the back of my brain, running through the possibilities, calculating and tallying all the options, and it gives me hope. So today, makeup. Makeup and perfume.

The notes in Miller Harris Fleur Oriental are carnation, Turkish rose, Indian jasmine, amber, vanilla, sweet musk, heliotrope, orange flower. This is a soft, powdery oriental, perfect for a cold February day. The carnation lends it a bit of spice, but I find that the heliotrope and vanilla tend to dominate. Upon applying this, I was reminded immediately of Guerlain’s Shalimar, although I think Fleur Oriental is a bit more timid, less sensuous without the Guerlainade underneath. It has a faint whiff of a lady’s handkerchief, the smell of something distant, like spring. Maybe timid is a bad word, because to me Fleur Oriental has the quality of one of my favorite Miller Harris perfumes, L’Air de Rien. I think maybe melancholy is a better word. Melancholy and lovely. Like these days.

You can find Miller Harris perfumes at Luckyscent.

*image from luckyscent.com