Mirus Fine Fragrance Trunk Show at Tigerlily Perfumery in San Francisco

I recently attended a trunk show at Tigerlily Perfumery in San Francisco, featuring the exquisite creations of Neal Peters, the nose behind Mirus Fine Fragrance, a San Francisco Bay Area-based line of hand-crafted, artisan perfumes.

When I walked into Tigerlily, Neal was greeting customers and chatting about his perfumes. I was very attracted to the simple yet elegant 15ml clear bottles with their electric blue wax seals. On another tray, Neal had a nice spread of some individual essences. He took a lot of time explaining his creative process and even allowing us to take a sniff of some of the essences he uses, including white and silver ambergris, sandalwood, white musks, ambroxan, etc.

Neal is a wealth of information, which is really exciting and refreshing. I love perfume so much that I want to know absolutely everything about it. I also love to simply discuss opinions. Perfume is art, so it is truly a pleasure to learn what inspires an artist, what each piece means to its creator and what mediums an artist uses to take his vision from his imagination into tangible reality. 

Speaking of meaning, "Mirus" means "wonderful" or "amazing" in Latin, and it is the root word of "miracle". I think the name is fitting because I find the perfumes to be wonderful and amazing. Far from being something you will find at Sephora, each perfume by Mirus is like a tiny little work of art, independent of all others within the collection.

I chose one perfume for my wrists, and I chose two more to try later (one on each upper-arm). I chose the new Driftwood as my main perfume to wear on my wrists because it features some of my very favorite notes such as real ambergris, sandalwood and cedar in one tiny little bottle. Driftwood was everything I imagined it to be. It smells like a California beach: cypress trees and slightly sweaty, salty skin. I could truly smell each individual note, yet they blend together effortlessly. Read full review.

And that leads me to something I wanted to point out about Mirus. When you read the perfume notes on their website, what you see is what you get. That doesn't mean you will 100% be sure to like what you get, but the odds are good that if you are anything like me, you can read notes and just know that the perfume will be "your kinda thing." Another thing you might notice about Mirus is that they use a lot of those beautiful, natural-smelling notes such as ambers, incense, woods and rich florals. Almost everything in they make is something I would wear.

On one of my inner-elbows I wore Questionable Motives. A sniff of the nozzle revealed something soft, sweet and powdery, and there was this edge of sophistication about it that made it seem like it could be called "Chanel No. 5 Ultra Poudre" or something like that. That is how I'd describe it. The perfume melded with my skin to become a scent that seemed like it was made just for me--a comforting creamy and musky scent (my favorite kind--score!) with the very delicate undercurrent of "unburned frankincense" that Mirus indicated in its decription of notes. I could not resist purchasing Questionable Motives. Read full review. 

On my other arm, I wore the sultry Wicked Stepmother...and let me tell you, that stuff is WICKED GOOD! So good that it's in competition with Driftwood as my next Mirus purchase. It has the intense, full-bodied quality of many perfumes of days gone by. With classic notes like heady sambac jasmine, amber and carnation, Wicked Stepmother seems like a modern perfume with vintage inspiration. But it doesn't smell "old," you know what I mean? It smells like we are in 1940 and just opened a brand-new bottle of perfume. Hmmm I'm thinking that if you like L'Air du Temps, you might enjoy Wicked Stepmother. They are not the same, but they have some notes in common and, if anything, they are good examples of nice carnation perfumes. The nose also skillfully uses fruity notes in the composition, much to my delight. Read full review. 

Mirus will eventually release two more perfumes. We had the opportunity to test out the "prototypes" at the trunk show (I smelled them on other people or on tester strips). While they are still in the works, they already smell incredible! In the meantime I have my mind set on sampling a couple more, such as:

Amber & Oud - While oud is definitely not one of my favorite notes, and I am very, very tired of Middle Eastern style oud perfumes, the nozzle of Amber & Oud actually smelled distinctly non-Middle Eastern. It didn't smell terribly dark as perfumes containing oud often smell. Very intriguing, as it would be nice to find a new interpretation of oud to enjoy.

December Kiss - This perfume was originally a bespoke fragrance. The client fell in love with the perfume...AND the perfumer. She moved to the Bay Area from Brooklyn so they can be together. With such a romantic story, I must sample it next time! I also had the pleasure of meeting this lovely client-turned-girlfriend at the trunk show =)

With Neal Peters and Antonia Kohl of Tigerlily Perfumery

Thoughts about Mirus Fine Fragrance that I would like to leave you with:

• Every single spritz, whether on me or someone around me, made my eyes widen. Every single fragrance captured my genuine interest
• The perfumes match the notes, so expectations shouldn't be totally and completely dashed when you smell the perfumes.
• Sillage and longevity on the three that I have tried are all wonderful (hmm, that word "wonderful" keeps coming up, doesn't it?!).
• While the perfumes might remind me of others on some very general level, they do not smell like duplicates or wannabes of any other perfume
• High-quality, carefully-sourced ingredients
• Perfumes that are not only niche but are hand-crafted and truly artisinal
• I believe there is something for everyone in this collection
• On Mirus' website, Neal Peters says, "I believe that a good fragrance becomes a part of you. It compliments you, molds to you and makes you smell like a better version of yourself." I feel this is an accurate description of the way in which his perfumes behave on the skin.
• I won't name names, but unlike other niche perfumes that I have tried, the base doesn't smell stale or weird. The scent remains pure and doesn't degrade as it dries down. Fourteen hours after spraying, after a night of sleep, I woke to find that Questionable Motives smelled just as pure as it did many hours earlier. 

Instagram @aveparfum. Copyright 2016, Elizabeth Ready, All Rights Reserved

Links:
Mirus Fine Fragrance
Tigerlily Perfumery ​

Most perfumes by Mirus are extraits that come in 15ml bottles. I love the fact that there is a screw-on cap, but they include a spray in the box as an alternative. ​

​I hope you will consider giving this house a shot! I bought my first bottle, but there is no way it will be my last.

Mirus Fine Fragrance is available exclusively at the magnificent Tigerlily Perfumery. If you can not physically make it there, don't worry, they ship! Samples are $4. Full bottles are $65-85. Driftwood costs a bit more because of the precious natural materials used. Totally worth it, IMHO.