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riddin – :
Musk – amber – earthy
Color impression: gold to beige
Smells like God’s fresh underwear. A perfect marriage of barnyard animality with jet-set class. It’s Posh, unique, immediately recognizable.
★★★★★
saylor81 – :
Despite price tag of 50$ did not take it as it has a weird herbal mix, dont know what was an idea behand making it.
geabegoovence – :
Calling this fragrance “earthy” would do the justice. Earthy, dusty, salty, powdery. Not sweet at all, very dry – which i really like about this fragrance. Clean and dirty at the same time – more of a soil type of dirtiness. Sexy, and as someone mentioned “filthy”. Like rain, soil and skin, and dusty libraries which reminds of culture. Veeeery mature scent with one of the best patchouli and vanilla interpretations.
I think it smells better on a man.
Miller Harris is such a good fragrance house both for men and women.
cesarek163 – :
I like the drydown better than the opening, too much dry, salty amber for me upon first spritz. Several hours later it’s unwashed scalp/unwashed pillowcase goodness, which is frankly what I signed up for. I hoped that this perfume would take me there immediately, but it would seem good things come to those who wait. I wouldn’t call it skanky, filthy or dirty, just pleasantly musty and lived-in. A non-perfume in many ways, and yet diametrically opposite to airy, contemporary white musks and barely there scents.
boryan – :
This is a rich and pretty musk on me. For something called l’air de rien it has quite a substantial feel to it. It opens quite innocently with dusty neroli which does carry through the life of the perfume but takes a back seat after a while. It quickly gets dirtied up a bit by the pungent oak moss and patchouli. I’m no lover of clean musks, and LDR is certainly not a clean smelling perfume, I adore the deep musty, ever-so-slightly funky (in the best possible way) muskiness in this. The amber is very, very nice too and gives it some warmth and cosiness.
Like many Miller Harris perfumes It has a classic perfume quality whilst also managing to be contemporary, and very wearable.
I like to wear it on my torso and underarms to really warm it up so that it mixes with my skin chemistry and becomes kind of me, but more. I find it very sensual in a cosy and intimate way. Although I wear perfume primarily for my own pleasure, if others like it too then that’s peachy – I have had very positive responses to this one from the male of the species 😉
This does seem to be a bit of a polarising fragrance and I think that could be about what your skin does with the oak moss and patchouli in here, there is something about the base which your body chemistry has to like for it to work. I’ve got quite a few of Lyn Harris’s creations from the early 2000’s and I really like the bases she was using at the time, (well, I like everything she was doing really) they just work well for me and I’m so happy about it.
I get moderate sillage and great longevity from this, as the hours pass it becomes a little softer and sweeter with warm vanilla coming through the musk more.
MH is one of my favourite perfume houses.
I love L’air de Rien and it gets top marks from me.
kby – :
i got a decant of this– to me it smells exactly like white linen, which i don’t like. i honestly wonder if i was given the wrong decant. smells like a mix of baby powder, piss, and metal/pencil shavings..a few minutes later it settles on my skin like sweetness and funky sweat, like a newborn baby. nope nope nope not for me.
denis9505 – :
It took me many years to dare spraying this one on my skin, the smell from the bottle is so misleading, i was too quick to dismiss it every single time! even after reading so many reviews about this perfume, i couldn’t risk trying it on my skin, just because it smells from a bottle rather strange.
How wrong was i! i tried it finally on my skin recently, oh mine, it is very soon i start to appreciate it and love it, the lingering smell. To me it is a “fragrant sweat” if i can put it in a way to describe the actual smell. In Chinese, we actually have such a word to describe lady’s natural “aroma from bodily chemical mixtures”, a “fragrant sweat”, this is the closet to me to explain the abstract concept.
It also ensembles a Japanese plum sake, the slight salty and sweet mixed perfectly and in a delicious yet not gourmand kind of way. I have rushed to shop to buy a 100ml. I regret discovering this so late.
My other big love is Noix de Tuberose, in case anyone wonder my usual palette.
ganef – :
I bought and eventually sold this a few years ago. I found it rather heavy and a bit sickly and very much of unwashed knickers and very intriguing.
Fast forard four years and im on a musk kick and i decided to buy again. Now i mostly get dusty books which i never got the first time round. Very odd. I wear this at night mostly, and usually layered. I kind of love it and kind of dont. A very odd perfume!
alexey_beynya – :
What a pain: on my skin this smells like a piss…but if I can wait 30 minutes, I could smell the cosy thing…if and can…
Ramiraz – :
“Rien” means “nothing”, but maybe it’s everything. L’Air de Rien is not a perfume, it’s a sensation. You feel to be understood, approved, loved. It’s a perfume of yesterday, not of tomorrow. L’ Air de Rien has a nostalgic, but protective aura, has the smell of human warmth, the smell of your baby’s skin, of toys and favorite books, of lived in, of closeness and intimacy.
It is a masterpiece created in 2006 by Lyn Harris for Jane Birkin. For the young singer, actress and above all a transgressive and fascinating muse for many. She did not like perfumes but was curious to find a fragrance reminding her of everything she loved. L’Air de Rien has an unusual composition, it’s built upside down. The fresh top notes are missing, it starts from the end and seem to be enveloped into soft mistery dust. It’s enigmatic and sensual embraced by the warmth of amber and musk, sweetened by vanilla and neroli on the base of earthy, woody patchouli and oakmoss. It is like an invisible veil of second skin, different from person to person who wears it.
alexxx9309 – :
I love this perfume so much and have finally got a bottle after a lovely swap with a fellow fragrantician. I’m not great at picking out notes but I’d say soft incense and secondhand books. It’s such a comfort like nothing I’ve smelt before and I wear it on lazy sundays and feel bohemian 😉
accenda – :
Exciting departure from my accustomed cedary, citrussy, clean, fresh scents. L’Air de Rien takes High Mass to the Nursery. A complex and original fusion of mysticism and comfort. Incense permeating well-slept-in sheets. Looking forward to enveloping myself in this for some time to come.
yMouse – :
There is no listing for ‘un petit rien’. Why?
Алексей78 – :
On the box a text said that L’air de rien evokes the nostalgia of dusty libraries and old books. It’s so true. Smelling L’air de rien is like sniffing a very old book you rent at the library.
Perfect for book/library lovers. And it’s so Birkin. Fits perfecly with her ”chic-nonchalant” style.
Simdjack – :
This is lovely…I don’t get the “dirty” part of this perfume at all…to me it’s a soft, ambery musky masterpiece that sit soft on the sky and floats…very timeless…absolutely lovely…
Сержо – :
Scenting L’air de Rien is like to wander in a place remote yet familiar, in another world and in another time.
The notes are simple yet balanced, a delicate blend of musk and amber, with a hint of a rather soft contrast between neroli and patchouli. This is lukewarm rice wine, tender and purely comforting.
Imagery: she sat in the tender breeze of a late afternoon, a sketchbook lay spread on the sill before her, and the scarcely perceptible wind fluttered its leaves at intervals. She turned to an unfamiliar page, and found a potpourri from last summer.
Unintrusive, moderate sillage and rather long lasting. I do get a glimpse of the “Morning After” atmosphere, but this for me is more ashy and incensy, like watching dust dance in blurred sunlight.
7.5/10.
croupier – :
Amber and neroli can be contrasted beautifully, as in the combination of warm and bright tones in Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s APOM Pour Homme. But in L’air De Rein, there’s no real contrast – it’s just a mildly spicy, mildly dusty, and not even mildly adventurous vanilla/amber accord. The aim is nostalgia with a hint of scandal; the effect is a sanitised blur. This is nice with a lower case ‘n’, to which I would add an ‘o’.
vitya.v.v – :
L’air de Rien is heart stealer! It is like an old friend to me that ı know for years. I really love everything about it. I sprayed it on my arm two days ago and my shirt still smells it.It smells like old good things, my mother’s make up bag, dusty library, childhood memories… Pure Nostalgia!
Reibipassubre – :
The thing I love most about L’Air de Rien is the way it smells lived in. Even after only wearing the fragrance for an hour it feels like you sprayed it on two days ago and the perfume has become one with your skin along with whatever activities you’ve managed to include in that time, be it smoking, drinking or what ever else…
L’Air de Rien for me is a supremely comforting smell and I find myself reaching for it on bleak and drizzly days, it acts like the softest cashmere jumper you’ve had for 10 years and cant bring yourself to replace because it soothes you like no new garment ever could.
I think what Lynn Harris did here is so special because she managed to create a perfume that is somehow strange and unique (as perfectly summed up by Luca Turin) but also comforting and familiar, which are two aspects that are rather hard to marry.
Its interesting that fragrantica have classed L’Air de Rien as a feminine fragrance, I personally see it as one of the most unisex fragrances around, that neither leans toward the more masculine or feminine but smack bang in the middle of unisex.
L’Air de Rien has an excellent longevity. It projects quite strongly for the first hour and then slowly settles to a skin scent, it isn’t faint though, I get whiffs of it throughout the day, it just doesn’t scream to be noticed which is sometimes hard to find in a perfume that also has excellent lasting power.
Bravo Miller Harris, I really hope this never gets discontinued. Unfortunately MH is a house that has to regularly edit and update its library due to the small scale of the company. Hopefully L’Air de Rien will always remain in production so long as MH is around as I do believe it is one of their most popular, if not most popular fragrances.
morgan-y – :
First things first, what the heck does incestuous sex smell like? Does it smell any differently to normal sex? And no, any sex I’ve had of late smells nothing like this (nor was it incestuous). Nor do I get libraries or old books here. That’s more the domain of Hypnotic Poison and In The Library for dusty yummy old books. I get a whack of (perhaps an) Iso E type chemical mixed with vanilla, patchouli and musk. Probably the closest reference that makes any sense to me is the smell of a baby’s head but even then, nah, not really. On my skin this is a sort of melancholic talcum powder musk with a hit of neroli and patchouli to spice it up a bit. Lovely and a bit funky.
appo – :
This smells so peaceful. I was reading a book, wearing this (I had a sample sentry to me by a very kind fragrantica member), smiling to myself thinking it does indeed smells of libraries and old books.
And then…
Then all of a sudden an image of last year’s holiday in Croatia. Every night we would go for a walk by the sea, following a windy street leading to a small old town with beautiful old buildings and incredible yachts. And every night on that walk we passed some gardens and the most beautiful smell would hang in the warm night air. Neroli.
I no longer smell books. I smell warm summer night by the sea, amber lights and moonlight upon the old churches, live jazz music on the shore.
Time for a full bottle.
UPDATE. I now own full bottle of this glorious scent of solitude. Tonight it smells like an old but clean library room, peaceful in twilight, hiding so many stories, smelling of books.
xclan45 – :
Air de Rien is Albus Dumbledore’s Pensieve. It conjures different memories & experiences from everyone. Never have I seen so little agreement between reviewers. Some of the more eye-catching recalls from the list below, include: Burnt “pot au feu”, turtle farm, unventilated 60’s or 70’s apartment, incestuous sex, old Birkenstocks, and ‘skin scent’. First of all, I am very sorry if your skin scent is remotely like the rest of this list.
On me, it smells of static electricity and forbidden fruit. Dries down to a mirage.
Jokes aside, since this enigma portrays itself so differently on each user, who in turn, interpret it with great variability– it’s time you go and try it yourself. :o)
PS: What does it really smell like on me? An amber-y musk with some vanilla undertones. I’m not as imaginative as the rest of them.
natali2618 – :
Perfectly dirty yet wearable ambered musk. Sort of reminiscent of when you smell the recently worn sweater of someone you’re close to. Skanky and bodily, yes, but not in a vampish or provocative sense, rather in an intimate and snuggly way. It almost feels less like a perfume and more like a warm, second skin with sweet vanilla, amber and delicate floral notes. I’ve just treated myself to a bottle and I’m infatuated with it. Don’t be put off by the animalic vibe – once it dries down, it’s wonderfully comforting and sexy in a surprisingly demure way and probably the most wearable “dirty” scent I’ve ever had the pleasure of smelling, wearing and now owning. Oh, and the packaging is beautiful in the flesh. Top marks Miller Harris!
Morvikale – :
sexy,sensual without being dirty.A feminine amber that marry a powdery musk.Is an “after sex” gem,dreamy after a passionate kiss.
AC98 – :
Um…yeah.
Smells like a babies head with a bit of vapo rub underneath his nose wrapped up in a overly sweet synthetic vanilla scented blanket. No skank or dirty birdy here…thats Bal a Versailles. Im beginning to wonder how much you all are closet freaks by the reviewers on here….Modern perfumery did come up with something new tho. Got to give it props for that. Panty note? Go find first edition edt of opium (splash bottle) and the beginning of the drydown..Thats a legit panty note. Fun birdwalk tho.
Uncnoun – :
Every single review is absolutely true. It is wonderful; it it terrible. It smells like this; it smells like that. This perfume depends so much on who is wearing it and how you interpret it.
For me, when I first tried this scent, I hated it. It was awful, like old rancid oils, waxy, cloying, vile. I don’t know what drove me to try it again. Perhaps it was the mystery: how could anyone love something so awful? How could people report seeing such beauty in this terrible scent?
So I tried it again. And I have come to love it. Part of that is perhaps learning to appreciate it. But I’ve also learning to use only the slightest sprary; a little bit goes a very long way. It also may not work for me in the summer, as when I first tried it. And I suppose it doesn’t hurt that my boyfriend noticed and found it very appealing (quite the surprise to me, as he’s the type to go for the easy to like, fresh sweet popular things, which Air de Rien definitely is not!)
This really blends well with my skin to the point that it feels like something naturally coming FROM my skin, not something that I’ve sprayed on.
ЗаднийХод – :
Miller Harris created this for Jane Birkin, who, allegedly, disliked perfumes and wanted something she would actually be happy to wear, given her mood board of requirements, I think MH have done a grand job. The genius factor was pretty much the abolition of top notes. This, to me takes it out of perfume territory and into the sphere of trace memories of dust motes. The fragrance is sublimely dusty. Oakmoss, dry powdery dusty, the kind of dust which you find you missed with the hoover when you’ve emptied your incense stick holder. There is a hint of dry smoke, a faint whiff of the beautiful hippie spirit who wafted out of the door in hot pants and devoree fringes at sun up and “forgot” to leave her number. It’s slightly melancholic, bittersweet with feminine vanilla and neroli which cling and linger rather than announce themselves with a flourish, a fanfare, swinging a bottle and a loud; “dahhhliiinggg”. Quiet, melancholic, a perfume of the past rather than the now. You suspect that by the time you smell it, she is long gone, even if she is in the room. She is the one who turns heads, who everyone bitches about, and just when you think you have her attention, slips through your fingers and is gone. You want some don’t you? That’s what the perfume says. “I know you do……watch my dust and weep”.
Tim_583 – :
I can see why someone said to me that this was a good dupe for MFK Baccarat Rouge. There are strong similarities. There is much more musk in this but it does have the same rain water earthiness if that makes sense. MFK BR opens with resin/woody sweetness before it changes quite a bit. This doesnt have a woodiness or much sweetness. I can understand why some find it hard to wear. It is very close to the smell of human skin but in a good way! I really like it but it stays so close to the skin and has only moderate longevity. A fragrance has to have some impact and decent longevity for me to consider fb.
fafafafa – :
[quote] Mrs Hart – “one of a kind. smells like an old apartment from the 60s or 70s, a nostalgic place that hasn’t seen much daylight or fresh air and it’s still filled with the memory of its past and its former occupants.[/quote]
THIS ^^^^ sums up exactly what I love about this perfume. to me, it smells EXACTLY like my grandmother’s old 5th floor apartment in Ossining, NY, back in the early 70’s, when we would go to visit on Sundays. I don’t know what scents they captured in this bottle that makes it smell like that, but it’s like time travel in a bottle for me. Full bottle worthy…
fbd260Negeltzex – :
This is the most beautiful perfume that I have ever smelled! Forget the reviews that say it smells like a wet dog or body parts! It’s simply not true.
The first spritz is indeed unusual. But I found this unusual in a good way. I smell hay and then musty, dusty old curtains. It is like walking through the endless rows of bookcases in an old forgotten library Its sounds horrible, but its actually very comforting. I feel like I am in a very familiar old room and I am craving more and more of this smell. As it settles, L’air becomes sweeter and more powdery. It is utterly charming and addictive. This perfume is genius, sheer olfactory genius and I am utterly hooked.
kinomanshik65 – :
****
one of a kind. smells like an old apartment from the 60s or 70s, a nostalgic place that hasn’t seen much daylight or fresh air and it’s still filled with the memory of its past and its former occupants. thus it smells both like a place and like unclean but sexy human skin. this is achieved by a faded dirty vanilla accord with old musky facets and the softest touch of musty patchouly and oakmoss. it’s genius in its achievement and jane birkin must’ve had one hell of a smart nose to choose this above of all the other offerings of her time.
latest cleanliness trend of the 21st century is showering 3 times a day and making sure every object in the human environment is properly sterilized, but in the past the smell of a human body was still treasured and enjoyed with all its flaws and wonder. air de rien is a tribute to this, a pheromone kind of smell, it isn’t fresh and clean and detergent-like but an authentic, natural aroma of the human. Like people and their homes and their sheets used to smell – before the scented room sprays and the cleanliness obsession that stripped people of their most basic biological identity – their smell.
enot8182 – :
This is the most delightfully sublime fragrance I have ever worn. Lyn Harris is a genius. I am so blessed…I do not detect any notes or scents that
seem naughty or perverse,
smell like a port-a potty,
or an unemptied ash tray.
There is not any moldiness,
staleness,
or even creepiness.
No skunk,
unwashed teenage girls,
or a dog that rolled in you-know-what.
Coitus?
Nope.
Not even old shag carpet.
And what in the world does incestuous sex smell like?
These descriptions from other’s reviews of L’Air de Rien are beyond my comprehension.
♥ I LoVe L’Air de Rien ♥ The moment that I apply this fragrance I feel passionately delighted with its beauty. I close my eyes, breathe it in, and enjoy the moment. Surely this is what heaven must smell like!
L’Air de Rien is warm and inviting, and makes me feel calm and comfortable. While wearing it I feel more confident in my intuitiveness and learning. This seems to be a perfume for men and women who are sure of themselves and willing to invite others into their world. A world that is filled with the acute nostalgia of gaining knowledge and of just knowing. I want to live my life passionately, which includes wearing L’Air de Rien.
♥ Longevity is long lasting.
♥ Sillage is moderate to heavy.
peron – :
Intimate Skin Scent.
Personal, finicky, aromatic.
Smells like you haven’t left your house in a few days. you’ve been watching old movies in your old arm chair and crying, no showers.
As odd as this sounds (and also, albeit personal) the fragrance is not to be missed.
Personal for you, excellent for layering, this is some cool stuff.
sanja29 – :
OK here goes…
wet dog that rolled in “something” (you know what I mean). In Autumn.
There.
mynameas – :
Very intriguing. If 60’s patchouli is your thing, check it out. If not, still recommended! What I got at first was a very complex and masculine patchouli + ash + tobacco + skunk. It took me a few wears to find the leather and sweetness other reviewers have described. I don’t think it’s trying to be a “perfume” at all, which is not a bad thing.
Unique.
Along with Guerlain’s l’Heure Bleu and Serge Luntens’ Iris Silver Mist, this is one of the perfumes I have seen described as “haunting.” They are very different, but it rings true. I think of them as different places on the same abandoned mansion. One is the parlor, one is the garden, this is the library where moss has started to crawl up the shelves.
If you’re willing to destroy the complex, special uniqueness of this scent (I was at first) I bet it would make a great base for layering. Careful layering. The sillage I got was monstrous.
nihasea – :
Received my blind buy, but heavily researched, bottle of L’Air de Rien today. First spray was patchouli. Quickly became a little dirty…kind of like the Pissoirs of Paris. Then it settled and reminded me of a slightly sharp Penhaligon’s Sartorial. I only sprayed my hand quickly and left the house to run an errand with my 19 year old son. He doesn’t like scent, but he has a knack for remembering smells and conjuring up beautiful images from them. As we were standing at a stop light I passed my hand under his nose and said, “sniff!” Immediately he started with MUSK…lots of musk. Kind of “musty-musk”…dusty, old…maybe something you don’t want to talk about. A library and leather…either from the books or the armchairs in which you read them. There is tobacco in there too. This is something that smells like skin…but old skin…or unwashed. I asked for a windup and he replied, “I don’t think this is something my Mom should smell like!” ;). I loved that his virgin nose could pick up these nuances. After almost 10 hours and countless hand washing today, I still catch a whiff of this now and again. Definitely MORE IS MORE with this fragrance. I quite like this aside from the oddity of it. It isn’t perfumey by any means, but it is interesting, which I prefer. I will wear this to work (I work in a very large space) to see what comments it illicits. I will also use my son’s nose in the future to help me sort fragrances for myself!
Edit: layered this with MH Rose en Noir today. Beautiful! The bottom layer is musty and sexy. The rose makes everything prettier. Like spraying a bit of fragrance after a dance between the sheets, rather than showering, before going out.
musienkons – :
dry, powdery, vintage.
musky, joss sticks, dusty sweet, woody, salty.
that dry woody oakmoss and dustiness…like a sweet Jacomo Coeur de Parfum for the 21st century, worn with sandals and tousled long hair tangled by the wind.
a beautiful dry down when the amber, patch and vanilla really come through.
it’s quite warm today and i am not sure it’s a warm weather one…am looking forward to wearing it in the Autumn.
lovely!
EDIT: last forever on skin…at least 12 hours.
sergo_nkp – :
L’Air de Rien is, to me, THE ultimate skin scent.I don’t find it dirty, but lived in. It smells like a lover’s nook of the neck – after sex. It really does. It’s musty and musky and salty and just a little bit spicy, like skin tends to be.
It’s a very intimate perfume, not for work and to be worn on the coldest weather. It is fascinating, as perfumes go. I don’t need a full bottle of it, but it has my respect.
StoottOnelm – :
What’s got your face in a knot? Nothing, you say, but everything has lost its shine when your lover cuts you somehow. Rolling in the deep, the scent of his skin, the beat of patchouli, the astringent slap of oak moss, he should know, he should know.
When nothing is something you have L’Air de Rien, yeah, not pretty, what the fluck is pretty when you feel like this. You shout, the accusations are wrung out of you…what….an explanation. Oh, bruised lips, thighs, rumpled sheets, sleep. There’s amber, vanilla, rolling in the hay, sweet sweat and forgiveness in an oversized t shirt.
bromm – :
This takes me back to the 60’s complete with visions of me begging my parents to letting me attend Woodstock. It opens with a big blast of cedery smoky incense, just like my Indian gauzy shirts that came pre-perfumed with that “head shop” smell. It’s a mystical Donovan song about an ancient forest floor covered in mosses and lichens that rarely sees the light of day……. Slowly progresses into something sweet and soul soothing like your old pair of Birkenstock leather sandals (I bet Jane Birkin wore Birkenstocks, hippie that she was) A real trip down memory lane, I LOVE this!
bahentiy – :
For the longest time, this scent took on a mythical status for me. As a fan of “stinky” perfumes, I was enamored with the countless descriptions I’d read about it smelling like socks, skin, old carpet, scalps (still attached), dusty furniture etc., and yet I couldn’t find it anywhere. Miller Harris, even to this day, has virtually no distribution in the US and so getting my nose on L’Air de Rien became a sort of obsession. Finally, I was able to buy a bottle from a friend in the UK and there it sat for a year waiting to be muled across the pond. Needless to say that by the time I finally got to try it, my expectations were stratospheric.
The first thing that struck me, though, was just how out of sync the scent was to the descriptions that I’d read. To me, L’Air is a fairly simple combination of costus (a sort of rooty, hair-type smell), a bunch of culinary herbs, some faint white florals, and a slightly metallic and equally faint amber base. Perhaps my expectations got the better of me, but I found that I really had to stretch my imagination to get any of the stinky references that I’d read about at all. It is an absolutely unique smell—an abstraction of “musty,” perhaps—but there’s nothing scary about it to me. In fact, I find it to be quite demure. Style-wise, it has a more classic, almost Jicky-quality to it that comes from the use of the herbal notes and what appears to be a merger of oakmoss and labdanum. The bergamot up top adds to the classical feel as well, but despite all this classicism, it’s still kind of a weird scent—it actually smells a bit chlorinated to me.
Anyhow, it’s a distinctive fragrance—I can’t think of anything else that smells like this (as who in their right mind would use this much costus?). If you’ve found yourself intrigued by the various descriptions and have struggled to pull the olfactory image together in your mind, just think old-fashioned culinary herbs merged with something borderline metallic and rooty. Overall, it reflects too much of a staid aesthetic—a little too predictably “cologne-ish.” While I didn’t find it to be even remotely raunchy (which I’d seriously hoped for), it’s something everyone should smell at least once. Not my style at all, but then again, nothing from Miller Harris is.
qc2qc2qc4 – :
L’Air de Rien leads a fairly linear life on my skin, for such a controversial perfume. I detect lots of tobacco, leather, patchouli, oakmoss, and amber. The whole perfume is basically very thick base notes. There are hints of hay on the topnotes, and occasionally some vanilla peaks through, and it does get a little musky as it wears, but mostly on me it’s those notes.
I don’t find this that polarizing, or risque, or frankly gross, like some, BUT if I wear this at night, in the morning, I really do smell a bit dirty, musky, naughty. There are no flowers, fruits, or anything to soften things up.
L’Air de Rien has excellent longevity, and but doesn’t have massive projection–I think others will only be able to smell it if they got close.
I like this very much, by the way. I like dark perfumes.
Joker007 – :
I love it but I think that it is another overrated like Musc Ravageur. Why? Many people describe it like dirty, animalic, unwashed body or hair but it’s not. I found it dusty, sweet, comfortable on skin and little bit nostalgia. I love it and all the time I have it but nobody said to me “you are smell like dirty things” when I wear it. By the way, I totally agree with some people that when they describe it as sexy perfume on skin.
sklyarov80 – :
This is an unwashed scent; it reminds me of a pretty 20-something woman who has lazed around her apartment all weekend and just not bothered to shower as she watches television. It isn’t a bad smell; just a bit musky and skin-like. I smell mostly amber and vanilla and it is a very generous scent, feeling something like a warm embrace from a good friend. It’s subtly animalistic in a sexy “come closer and nuzzle” way. All of that said, this is not my scent. I like feeling clean. I can’t be this bohemian person but I could certainly be her friend.
gehost550 – :
The listed notes & description sound good to me. I sometimes like “oddball” perfumes too, so (like a fool) I bought this without sampling first. Well, I got way more than I bargained for with this one !
Initially it smells faintly of headshop/floral incense/joss sticks – but these are old sticks that have been left out unwrapped for months & are losing their scent. There is also an elusive “farmyard” note. On my skin it manifests itself as an occasional whiff of something akin to fresh manure, but whenever I lean in to smell it properly, it is gone again just as quickly as it came (thank goodness)..very strange !
It progresses (quickly) on me to a “pale” powdery scent with a little smokiness. This stage reminds me of the drydown of my Habanita EDP. It’s a bit salty with vanilla & amber lying kind of flat in the background, it’s like the stale far drydown of an oriental. After a few hours it becomes more earthy (also slightly sour) & the powderiness diminishes.
Whenever I think about this perfume, the first word that comes to my mind is “stale”. Everything in it smells to me like a faded & aged version of itself. It feels just like I’m smelling traces of things from a distance, that are all past their best.
I can really see how this was created for someone who doesn’t like perfume – & it is interesting. It doesn’t smell of dusty libraries & old books to me though, & I tested 3 times. Whilst I don’t (quite) hate it, it’s really not something I want to wear.
Phifeevarie – :
This perfume ruins my day because I just cannot get my nose out of my sleeve! Its