Piment des Baies Miller Harris for women

I just got a tester of this and thought I'd try it out even though I don't normally go for oriental fragrances. There is a lovely fizzy top note to this that stops it being to cloying and lifts the sweet, spicy heart. I get a wonderful warm peppery note and a touch of allspice, along with a lovely deep floral note. It's the only oriental I can have on my skin without it becoming corpse-like within minutes. It's also quite subtle, not overpowering and more of a unisex or masculine scent as described by the first reviewer. Definitely evening wear for me in the future.

Although this is listed as a perfume 'for women', I think that Piment des Baies is equally suitable as a man's fragrance given the emphasis towards 'oriental' fragrances within the male perfume market.

Like many of the wonderful creations by the perfume genius, Lyn Harris, this is an unusual fragrance and is part of her stunning Nouvelle Edition collection. It is presented as an eau de parfum and its Carribean influenced, and deeply contrasting spice and warm notes, appear to last forever.

Piment des Baies opens with a brief, quite piquant burst of herbaceous, citrus notes with a delicious twist of red thyme: an unusual and alluring ingredient-(and signature Lyn Harris)- that somehow keeps you guessing and smelling over and over again.

The spicey, peppery heart of the composition follows, though rather than continuing along a sharp, woody, or even musky trajectory, the theme consolidates as the bass notes grow stronger and stronger, giving a wonderful warm sweetness from the blend of exquisite iris, sandalwood and vanilla.

Piment des Baies is beyond doubt an enigmatic perfume that stands half-in and half-out of the paradigmatic umbrella of oriental fragrances and, for me, is a 'mood' or 'landscape' perfume that has an air of mystique, suggestion and sexiness. There's something exotic, indulgent and almost decadant about the person who dares to wear Piment des Baies.

Indeed, I seem to recollect that Lyn Harris first described this perfume in terms of Noel Coward in his smoking jacket enjoying cocktail and cigar on-set in the Carribean.

Piment des Baies is a very 'perfumey' perfume, if that makes sense and arguably not the kind of perfume I would wear to work. Nonetheless, if I felt bored by my favorite citruses; the fougeres or chypres
in my wardrobe and wanted to 'escape' then this fragrance is a gorgeous way to do it! Andyray