Top Notes
Heart Notes
Base Notes
Rate
Collection
Classify
Notes03/01/2015
ColinM
516 Reviews
ColinM
4
(Almost) beautiful!
Miracle Homme opens with a pepper-green-woody and slightly aquatic accord which smells really astringent, dry, bitter, with a peculiar sort of austere and almost boozy woody note (like mahogany) sweetened by a slight juicy tea-red pepper note on a fresh, elegant, formal and quite conventional cedar-vetiver base – that “hi everyone, I’ve just been hired here” type of office-safe elegance. Nice contrasts though, and a peculiar, interesting sort of sour, dry sharpness all over, perfectly contrasted by a fresh feel (not a matter of specific notes, just more literally a “feel”). Then, once Miracle starts to “warm” on skin, it brings cedar and vetiver to a prominent position, making them more “round” and warmer than the opening phase, pairing them with something smelling like a sort of powdery, gourmandish, dusty suede note on the very base, which I guess may be the coffee note. No oak moss at any point to my nose. What interests me here is that there’s some creativity in here, nice contrasts and shades, masterfully concealed behind a conventional look; you do feel this “fresh woods” are definitely, entirely “2000s designer”, but still there’s something more, some elusive hints you keep coming back to smell. Maybe it’s that coffee note, which – if I detect it correctly – is just more of a sort of mellow, kind of roasted but also sweet and silky-powdery gourmandish suede note, as I said above. Or that sort of syrupy and fresh “tea-red pepper” note that comes and goes. All I can say is that this scent is... odd, in a positive way: it smells kind of dull at first, but if you pay attention and make some (well, actually “quite many”) efforts, it reveals a really interesting and complex texture. It smells like a conventional aromatic-fresh “boisé” at first, with a nice warm feel, and it’s undoubtedly a pleasant, effortlessly elegant crowpleaser: but there’s something which makes me think there has been quite some creativity and attentive craft behind this. It’s like if all these “conventional” notes are slightly displaced from their usual perspectives, making them all smell just a bit different. The fact that this hides behind an almost dull look, I don’t know if it’s intentional or a “faux pas” though. I still consider this compelling enough, pleasant and cozy, not boring at all, even if we just take it as a dull mainstream woody scent – the quality is good the same. The main flaw of this scent is that it is really too light and “thin” to make you able to appreciate all its qualities at the fullest – and it surely would deserve that. I appreciate the understatement here and overall I consider this a tad more intriguing and compelling than most of other “office woodies” to which this may be compared to; but still, it would have definitely needed a boost.
6,5-7/10
6,5-7/10
