Neil Morris Fragrances Shimmering by Sandi
Neil Morris Fragrances Shimmering is the first in his new fragrance trilogy, Radiance. Shimmering was born from a moment when time stopped for him — a memory distilled. A perfume that carries the shock and beauty of being given a second chance in life, and the hush that follows. Shimmering is one of those rare fragrances that feels like a memory translated into scent — a small, honest story worn on skin. Neil told me the image that inspired it plainly: “I saw the wall in my hospital room shimmering and could see people standing behind it — waiting for me. But what I saw behind the shimmering wall was beautiful beyond words.” That tenderness of his experience weaves through every stage of the fragrance. I tried a spray into more moments, paid closer attention to shifts, and let the scent sit with me through different moods. Wearing Shimmering felt less like applying perfume and more like accepting a quiet otherworldly blessing.
Photo Neil Morris via the brand
“We are taught to pay attention to what we see, hear, taste, and touch, but our sense of smell can tell us so much more, if we’d only listen.”-Neil Morris
The first spray of Neil Morris Fragrances Shimmering is a flash of clarity, a literal sparkle of lemon, but not the sticky, candied kind. It’s the brisk, almost bitter zest you grate over food. That citrus edge becomes tempered by clary sage, which gives the top notes an herbal, translucent quality. Within moments, Hedione and Lily arrive, and the scent shifts from cheerful citrus to a harmonious, ethereal, luminous floral veil. The opening is airy, radiant, and optimistic — think of channeled rays of light, which is precisely how the perfume describes itself and how it plays out on my skin.
Collage by Sandi of Shimmering’s ingredients
After the glimmer subsides, Shimmering finds its center, intimate, human, and familiar. Lavender and geranium form a duet that feels both vintage and modern: lavender, which has been dried and softened by time, and geranium, offering a crisp, green-rose scent that keeps things from swinging too sweet. There’s a mortal quality to this phase — as I breathe in Shimmering, I pause, taking in a steadying inhale, and smile. It’s the point where the perfumer’s hospital memory becomes emotionally legible: quiet, steady, and absolutely alive. I feel myself tethered between two worlds.
Pixabay
The final stage of the perfume is where Neil Morris Fragrances Shimmering truly earns its name, with a glow that lingers close. Mahogany introduces a polished, woody backbone while Iso E Super wraps the composition in that familiar holographic warmth that sits beautifully against my skin. Amber lends a soft, velveteen, gossamer musk that keeps the fragrance personal rather than overstated. The overall effect is a warmed translucence — the scent of light meeting skin: sheer, sensual, endlessly radiant, a polite presence with a steady warmth.
Sandi AI
Neil Morris Fragrances Shimmering is for those of us who prefer elegance that whispers ethereally. If you love airy, modern florals with a polished, woody-musky finish, as I do, this might be a new favorite. There’s restraint here, and constraint can be an act of courage. Neil Morris didn’t try to dramatize his memory. He translated its beauty, warmth, and hope into a fragrance that suggests rather than declares. That subtlety — the choice to suggest emotion rather than parade it — is what gives Shimmering its quiet power. Shimmering isn’t intense, and it doesn’t need to be. What it does is rarer: it lingers in the edges of moments and lifts them radiantly and undeniably tender. If perfume can be a form of solace, this is a very graceful one. There’s sincerity in Shimmering that reads as transcendental rather than commonplace. It lingers in my memory the way light does — not by force, but by the small way it warms like an unnoticed current of unconditional devotion.
Notes: lemon, clary sage, Hedione, lily, lavender, geranium, mahogany, Iso e super, amber, globalide.
Sandi Lundberg, Senior Contributor
Discloser: A bottle of Neil Morris Fragrances Shimmering was offered to me for review.
Thoughts are my own.
Discover the magic of Shimmering and more at Neil Morris Fragrances.
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Thanks to the generosity of Neil Morris Fragrances, we have a 30ml bottle of Shimmering to give away to one registered reader in the USA only. You must register for your entry to count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Sandi’s review and where you live. Draw closes 10/10/2025
Please read Ida’s piece, The Three You Should be Wearing and enjoy Neil Morris’s Profile in American Perfumery.
Neil created I Will Bring You Flowers for ÇaFleureBon’s 10th Anniversary.
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