Miss Charming Eau de Parfum 100ml

Juliette Has a Gun Miss Charming Eau de Parfum 100ml was one of the two fragrances the house opened with in 2006, sold at first only through the Paris store Colette, and Francis Kurkdjian composed it.

Three materials, and the whole idea is the pairing of the first two. Moroccan rose is the deep, slightly jammy strain of the flower, closer to rose oil than to a cut stem, and strawberry sits on top of it, sweet with a green edge that keeps the fruit from turning into syrup. The combination is instantly recognisable and has been copied a great many times since, usually with more sweetness and less rose.

Musk is the only thing underneath, soft and clean, and it does what it is there to do, which is to hold the rose against the skin rather than add anything of its own. There is no development to follow and no third act. What you smell in the first minute is the fragrance entire, and the hours that follow are a gradual quietening rather than a journey. Said plainly, this is a short composition, and knowing so beforehand is better than discovering it afterwards.

At eau de parfum strength a short composition like this lasts better than it has any right to: six hours or so, with the loudest phase in the first thirty minutes. It reads feminine and young, it belongs to daytime and to mild weather, and it is a good deal more wearable than its reputation for sweetness would suggest. Two sprays at the throat is the right amount, and the fragrance sits closer to the skin than to the room.

Juliette Has a Gun is a French niche house set up in 2006 by Romano Ricci, a great grandson of the couturiere Nina Ricci, with its work divided between Paris and Grasse.