Valdar

Yes, the unwieldy title of my commentary gets right to the point, because the essence of this fragrance is beautiful, like a princess in a white dress: fresh, crystal clear, subtly fruity and actually lets you breathe deeply. Now the whole thing is, but a bit tricky, and so this wonderful kernel remains trapped in the (often mentioned) smoked melon for a long time. And this smoke melon, which initially conceals the depth of the actual scent, has a certain deterrent potential. Thus the smoke in the prelude is not sacral, ritual or balsamic, but simply burnt and ashy, making the melon look rotten at first. Perhaps only trained noses can guess in the first few minutes that a truly refreshing magic work is being woven through the putrid ashes. But this magic work takes about 5 hours (at least for me).

The base reminds me of a very fresh, arctic wind, which somehow revives the initially dead melon and now lets it shine in magical, vivid clarity. However, it is not possible to identify exactly which scent component produces this rescuing wind. That makes it a little bit difficult for me to find a perfume that has the same beneficial effect as this one in the base, but right from the beginning (No...Viking by Creed can't even begin to get close to that).

So I handle "Breath of God" in such a way that I sometimes spray clothes the day before I wear them to enjoy them the next day and that divine breath still lasts all day long. This practically speaks for a shelf life of 24 hours (on clothing).
But to return briefly to the metaphor with the captive princess: To free a real princess from a castle, one should not simply go to sleep and assume that she could escape from her castle the next day all by herself. But that's just on the edge...

Back to perfume.
The first few hours are simply too bulky for me to wear directly, even though I am not particularly sensitive to wearing controversial things
I find it difficult to evaluate this fragrance fairly, because from an artistic point of view it is great class, but this complex progression, with a revelation that is a long time coming, makes it simply very difficult to wear.

"Hey kid... hit this stuff here... this is real solid stuff, wild leather... chuck Norris' undershirt smells like a powdered baby's bottom," the salesman said.
Well, perhaps he did not say it exactly in that way, but the spirit of it went in that direction. So I sprayed the story on myself and found it breathtakingly beautiful, but contrary to my expectations not at all leathery, wild and "tough guys"-like.
The opening is extremely fresh and very green due to the juniper (which, by the way, I can only tolerate as a note in this perfume). In fact, the scent creates the image of a meadow wet with morning dew at sunrise, where a few horses trot around leisurely and eat grass. I've never been to Ireland, but in Iceland I often came across such scenes and it actually smelled similar, unless memory serves me wrong.
Later on, the perfume loses this natural morning freshness and gets a tea-like, very soft, almost cosy feeling due to the mate dominating the course of the fragrance.

In the end, the overall composition is incredibly coherent, the sillage not too obtrusive, but extremely stable and long-lasting. This makes it the perfect all-rounder for me, which I can wear at any time of the year, day or night and for any occasion. It's not a great corner, feels quite comfortable and yet wears something extraordinary that stands out from most mainstreamers.
Even if it is not what I expected, I simply had to have this perfume. Since then it accompanies me pleasantly on days when I don't know what I want to wear and reminds me of my holidays in Iceland

(If Memo puts out another "Icelandic Leather" now, I'll go crazy)

One of my favorites, "Bois d'Encens" from the Armani Privé series is a bit too expensive to wear it permanently as a signature scent, so I looked around for alternatives. In the course of this, I sometimes came across "Black Amber" by Agonist, as well as the aforementioned "Black Comme des Garçons". This one seemed to me very similar to the Armani at first and the price is absolutely okay. In the meantime, I must confess I was wrong. The smoke/pepper prelude is pretty much what I wanted, but as it progresses this perfume comes across as much clumsier, more saturated and somehow much warmer than my beloved Armani Privé. I miss the cool, aloof, sacral and yet so filigree aura that "Bois d'Encens" radiates here.
This is of course my subjective feeling. Don't get me wrong. Objectively it is a good composition. Unbelievably unique, the fragrances cleverly interwoven and an exciting progression, which undergoes a change of mood, especially due to the later use of liquorice, from exclusively evil and gloomy to a more sarcastically crazy aura. It makes me think of a horror clown at a midnight barbecue. This is funny, but at the same time a point of criticism for me, because the smell loses its seriousness through this association with grilled, spiced, smoked, i.e. generally edible things, and creates a warmth that is too high for me to feel.

As suitable for everyday use, I would see the whole thing less (durability is enormous and sillage is initially very bulky). Sometimes I wear this perfume at work (because I just don't care) and I always get exactly one compliment for it. Always by the same colleague, a native Egyptian, who associates the fragrance with some holiday from her former homeland. But since this colleague is already married anyway, I will rather not annoy the rest of my colleagues too much and look for other Bois d'Encens alternatives for everyday life. Nevertheless I like to keep this one and I will wear it from time to time, if the mood suits me or if I have a gig as a horror clown at a midnight birthday and barbecue party.

The name "Memoir" is very aptly chosen, because the fragrance actually reminds me of something from my past. I just can't figure it out. It's like a word that is on the tip of your tongue to come closer to your consciousness at any given moment, but in the end doesn't come to mind.
Is it the smell of a spice mixture for the preparation of white sausages, as you find it in Bavarian butcher's shops?
Is it the smell of an aromatic additive powder to supplement smoked meal to add that extra something to the smoke from smoking eels?
Or is it (and it must be!) the magical aroma of a salad dressing, which wanders through the cool walls of an old but noble crypt, since Count Dracula could not avoid hipster trends and now eats vegetarian ?
This must be it! Granted, I haven't often found myself in this situation...being in a crypt at this very moment while a vegetarian vampire spits out a salad with spicy dressing. But the last time I lived through this scenario I realized: This is it!!! It definitely smells like "Memoir Man" here!

Oh, what can I say?! It's a masterpiece!
It combines the sumptuous decadence of a rich count with the natural mysticism of a satanic hippy who roams the woods at night to summon demons.
Memoir One starts green, woody, cool, gloomy and yet familiar, to be fed in a course of about 8 to 9 hours by this beautiful incense from the undertones always a little more with warmth.
Suitable for any time of day or night and any season. Well, I don't see myself with it in discotheques or while shopping, but at any intellectual activity and at all serious events it makes the appropriate wearer sparkle out of the masses like a black diamond...eerie, luxurious and elegant. Yes, it's a very sublime and serious fragrance, but it does allow a joke to be told sometimes (as long as the humour is as black as the bottle).
Such unusual perfumes with a strong character are usually not known for generating compliments. Well, I, on the other hand, received by far the most positive comments for Memoir. Already after a few days more than after the consumption of 50 ml Aventus in one year.
So the fragrance is certainly not for sunny boys, not for dandies, wannabe casanovas, not for class clowns, not for wimps, but also not for bad boys in leather jackets.
No! This perfume is made for normal people like me, who walk around with a suit every now and then to look educated and serious, but then secretly sacrifice a virgin to the devil every now and then in the basement. Exactly for this blow man this perfume has been made... I love it.

A gigantic work from an artistic point of view. Immediately after spraying on, the scent transports me to a barren industrial landscape, in a world that has not been inhabited by humans for years. Grey buildings, whose moss and lichen-covered floors and walls slowly break open to be slowly recaptured by green plant loops and unscrupulous nature.

Here I got what I had hoped for from Montale`s Greyland. But while the Montale embodies a completely dead and dry landscape, "The Bug" resonates with a certain moisture and a hidden, natural vitality. It may sound strange, but even if I initially associate this liveliness with woodlice and all sorts of vermin, which airs itself in damp niches, the whole thing somehow has a positive course for me. Especially on the skin, i.e. in combination with its own vitality, "The Bug", which at first seems so bleak, develops an almost refreshing dynamic after a while, which reminds me of a cool wind that blows mould out of old ventilation shafts...yes, in its happiest moments "The Bug" even made me think of Terre d'Hermès for a short time

The shelf life is about 8 hours, while the Sillage is not very luxuriant for my feeling. This leads me to the conclusion that this perfume, while not at all suitable for everyone, can certainly be worn by certain characters. On rather cool, distant people, this fragrance perfectly underlines those qualities, but also gives a hint of spiritual depth and inner vitality.

By now I have tried almost all lush perfumes more or less intensively and this one also has this undertone of homemade, which is a common thread running through most of the lush fragrances. Overall, "The Bug" fascinated me the second most of all. Only "Devil's Nightcap" I found a bit more exciting and maybe a bit easier to wear.