Le Petit Grain by Miller Harris, 2008

According to the Miller Harris sales pitch, Le Petit Grain pays homage to the classic cologne. For about 95% of the time, it's a lavish tribute, a bold eulogy for the traditional and humble cologne. It is only in the last vestiges of my lengthy coupling with LPG that I become just a trifle irked at its naked form. By then it is shorn of accompaniment, and it does feel a little shrill and demanding. However, there is a great deal of pleasure to be derived from Le Petit Grain, and it is doing it more justice to focus on the very charming form that it adopts from the very moment it bedecks my skin. The sharp falsetto citrus feels clean, bracing and precise - and yet it still appears three dimensional.It is the subsequent conjoining of divergent orange notes that provide a bitter cable for this twisted citric flex. It is a presence that is discerned in all that is good from here on in. The sheer hutzpah and luminosity of the early development reminds me of Chanel's Pour Monsieur, and although it is no fragrant synonym, it is an indication of the company it is keeping. For all its potency and obvious use of quality ingredients, there remains a simplicity about LPG that ensures that the comparison with a venerable cologne can indeed be made. It takes a good hour before the background herbal elements can be properly detected, and even with that glorius citrus flex twisting through it, it adds a necessary roughness to the previously faultless sheen. It is rare to find a citrus fragrance having so much horsepower and stamina, and it continues to evolve, twist,and give until the very end. That it does finally run out of dancing partners in the last hour or so, is more of an observation than a criticism. More creations like this please Ms Harris.