La Fumée Classic / La Fumée
Miller Harris (2011)

La Fumée is the scent of delicious dirty secrets in a shaded, velvet-draped room. It has a sense of dreamy Orient cliché about it, all opium-puffing languor and tailored pyjamas, with a heart of sweet spice that promises all kinds of nice naughtiness. Perfumed smoke curls through the air, the lacquered casket is opened to reveal golden ambery treats infused with fresh and chewy cardamom, and the more carnal cumin, a touch of nutmeg, dark bass woods. Steep in its dreamy haze and let all manner of filth lazily cross your mind.

On me: First on, very strong silage in a perfume-y way, with strong green notes that remind of pine. Wood and spices with clear cumin, but not quite sweat yet, but hinting at it. Dries down very similar to Cuir d’Orient, with a soft wood/amber feel, overall very nice and hits a comfort spot. It wears very sheer a lot of the time, hard to detect, and vanishes almost entirely after a few hours. Eh. Not as hated as the Fumee Arabie, which is full on sweaty armpit on my skin.

WoW...so I've been feeling "restless" again and decided to (try) expanding my "go-to" fragrance wardrobe. I love every note ingredient listed in this perfume. I usually prefer incense fragrances with somewhat of a floral, or rose overtone. La Fumee listed as a nearly "straight-up" incense fragrance. So, after reading many reviews and viewing YouTube videos, I thought I'd purchase a large sample, give this much noted fragrance a try.

I AM IN LOVE with this fragrance, I am. And while so different from my usual blends, La Fumee is eerily similar to the rose, oud, wood, resin, patchouli, sandalwood stuff that I love. This fragrance is absolutely beautiful. As a more "linear" fragrance than what I usually wear, I love the simplicity and purity of this fragrance a whole lot!

The opening is intoxicating with glorious incense notes followed by a rather intense smokiness, which I love! Throughout the opening, I couldn't refrain from smelling my inner wrists and forearms. I find La Fumee totally feminine when shortly after the opening notes, creamy, silky, velvety, smooth ethereal vanilla notes rise and interplay with the ongoing lovely incense & smokiness!

Dreamy and almost light (which I'm starting to prefer, given my fragrances tend to play heavy with resinous, rather oily notes), La Fumee cloaked me in a cloud of smoky, creamy, resinous, vanilla, woody incense. The fragrance places me in a near meditative, dream-like state...it really does!

Middle floral notes quickly emerge and once again mingle nicely with all the notes and scents in play. And while I would not consider this fragrance to be complex in nature, somehow all the notes blend together nicely and land in pleasant harmony.
I imagine there's elemi, sandalwood and other woodsy, resinous notes emerging, which contribute to the pleasant dry down and base.

I did not think silage was great but when I picked my husband up from work, he immediately commented on how I (and his truck) "smelled like incense." Interesting. Now, I timed all of this loveliness and I'd say the fragrance greatly diminished on my skin at approximately 3.5 to 4 hours. So, for me longevity is moderate, not great.

As another reviewer stated, "This truly is magical stuff."

Now, I hope I didn't make an egregious error, however after reading reviews forever and contemplating a full-bottle purchase, I did purchase a full bottle of La Fumee "Intense" earlier today. Apparently, a similar yet different animal, I hope I love "Intense" as much as I love "Classic". If not, I'll likely resell my purchase on eBay and purchase La Fumee Classic, which I truly adore.

I love this fragrance. I can see wearing it for quite some time to come.

Im keeping this brief i either love fragrances or loathe them ...i really wanted to like this fragrance but O My Gees its smells terrible on my skin so bad that its making me feel ill (sadly)

I love smoky balsamic scents, and I'm really into this one. It's a spicy/woody incense that stays fairly linear on my skin but that's okay with me. I enjoy cumin in perfume and here the warm-skin scent it imbues is for me enhanced by the cardamom and coriander. And these spice notes feel dry like the seeds in my kitchen jars which helps give this scent a dusty aged character that I like. I have a jar of dried chamomile too, and here its creaminess, along with the labdanum, goes beautifully with the resins and smoke. The lavender plays a bigger part in the meld than I first realised - I can pick out this note among the others throughout, but like I mentioned, I get a fairly steady linearity from the start. Elemi up top and amber at the base ensure resinous tones through this too. The arid parchment-like quality eases after an hour or so and gives way to a woodier vibe with sharpish cedar sap; leathery birch; creamy sandalwood, and a beautifully restrained drop of oud. As it moves further into dry-down a slight sweetish floral tone comes out in the woodiness. Overall, this starts as an ancient book might smell, then later reminds me of inside a dusty old chest of drawers that once had lavender drawer-liners. Not a great deal of development but I really enjoy wearing it all the same.

La Fumee is a standard citrus-woody fragrance with some touches of incense and resin. The citrus I smell here mostly hints at orange. It is a bit reminiscent of Terre d'Hermes, and more so of Declaration (perhaps due to the cumin). Surprisingly, the citrus note sort of hangs in there and comes back now and then. Hints of leather and smoke in the dry down, but the overall vibe is very reserved and conservative. Sillage is close, and duration is at around six hours based on a moderate application.

La Fumee is well crafted, easy-to-wear, and versatile; I would use it as an office scent, or something a little more casual. My gripe with La Fumee is common to all Miller Harris scents I've tried. They are rather unexciting and lack a spark or two - at least, for me. Among light or middleweight smoky-woody scents, I find Comme des Garcons Black far more interesting and lively.

3/5