Zauber600

Mémoire d'une Odeur seems to be perceived very differently if you look at the statements of today so.

Contra: There is talk of glue with 3 letters back in the tube should, scorched plastic, moldy wood ... and then even treated with wood varnish.

Pro: beautiful bottle, Romatik, melancholy, sensuality, Kamillig-furnierholzig, very light and different.
This is also expressed in the ratings from 0 - 10.0 ... everything there. I have not experienced such a thing here for a long time.

Lately, the perfumer of this fragrance - Alberto Morillas - often got bad reviews for his fragrances as soon as his name came into play.

But if you take the trouble and look at his œuvre

- 371 fragrances with an average rating of 7.3 for well-known brands such as Armani, Bulgari, Carolina Herrera, YSL and many others -

one notes that yet some very well-known and successful fragrances were developed by him (sometimes with others in cooperation). Most are mainstreamers who need to earn profit with sales in the broad mass. As is generally known, these are provided with a fixed cost framework for fragrance, bottle, packaging and especially for marketing. Since one remains rather on the commercially safe side and for unusual smells then often the courage is missing.

And as has MitParfumo Stulle on this subject so aptly noted: Mr. M. is then just an artist who also likes to earn money - this is not honorable (artists also like to eat warm!) .

There are of him but also some exciting fragrances and indeed where he has certainly been given freedom. I think of Kilian, the expensive Bulgari series, Chopard and also my favorite of his, Opus VII/Amouage.

The latest Gucci Guilty releases for the gentlemen of Alberto Morillas have softened my previously also rather negative opinion. I find them bold and also successful, especially Gucci Guilty Absolute and also Gucci Guilty Cologne pour Homme.
The new fragrance - Mémoire d'une Odeur - is also one of them. Provided with a promotional film in which a lot of strange people jump around a dreamlike beautiful castle, make fire and other strange things ... the message is of course not to understand: In my opinion, it is about an 80/90s revival fragrance, to me at the first test immediately came 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' by The Verve

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyu1KKwC74

or even the movie Call Me By Your Name - Elio

in mind. This fragrance also has somehow something very true to life and alive in itself: sad and happy, soft and hard, bitter and sweet.

The pyramid given here is incomplete, according to my nose. Mémoire d'une Odeur starts with a bitter-tart chamomile note that is quickly underlaid by honeyed coral jasmine flowers (weeping tree), some lavender is probably also present. The fragrance gets its lightness and clarity from the abundant use of slightly soapy musk, the base is creamy sandalwood and fresh cedar, an almost unsweet vanilla gives the counterpoint.

Mémoire d'une Odeur lies somewhere between Comme des Garçons perfume, Гоша Рубчинский Gosha Rubchinskiy and Fougère Royale Houbigant (2010) ... this as a rough guide. The fragrance is very idiosyncratic and I can't get it into the appropriate words. But I think that some of the male Parfumos should know these fragrances, for the ladies remains then only - if they do not know the fragrances - with interest a heroic self-test since I do not know myself (well) with (comparable) women's fragrances. Sorry!

For me, the composition of Mémoire d'une Odeur - as well as the other two Gucci fragrances mentioned - times a bold step away from the usual mainstream monotony despite the certainly also here stringent specifications.

Durability and sillage: 5 - 6 hours and medium
Edit: Corrected down, from the tester had the fragrance a better H/S than from my bottle (2 test runs)

Genre: Comme 'Comme des Garçons' Odeurs (pun!)

For whom: gentlemen and ladies who enjoy unusual fragrances

When: Actually, always - but from 25 ° upwards, it becomes smoother and the durability and sillage are much better!

Alternatives: Alternativeless ;-)

Addendum:
At the Fragrance Foundation was 2020 fragrance of the year in the category Universal Prestige

Gucci Mémoire d'une Odeur Eau de Parfum
COTY
Firmenich
Perfume: Alberto Morillas

https://fragrance.org/awards/

This fragrance is used to describe Governors Island. An island with old trees offering a wonderful view of the southern tip of Manhattan. Formerly a military facility to protect the New York harbour ... today a destination with many possibilities to relax and to trace the history in the partly still preserved buildings.

With Governors Island, Bond No.9 has created a relaxing fragrance that starts with lavender and a pleasant (slightly ozonized) note of ambroxan, which is then supported before a very individual resin/wood mix of incense - I call it incense stick vibes - that olfactorically suggests the forest. Everything is kept light and fresh by clean musk and blown through by a breeze of vetiver.

And now comes the surprise:
This fragrance, whose noisy siblings include Duro by Nassomato and Musk Aoud by Montale (and certainly a few others), is completely withdrawn and laid-back, without getting any loud at all or swinging excessively with the synthetic club. Even the Ambroxan is so supple that it doesn't burn away your nose hair.
Muscenone and also Anbroxan are used today in many well-known and popular fragrances .. here, however, really skillfully.

I am surprised and have been happy: As much as I love the often bold-synthetic style with the mostly more or less existing oronic-maritime-aquatic note of the bond scents ... this alternative to the previous portfolio had to be in my collection!


Genre: American Forest Impression

For whom: Lovers of rather withdrawn fragrances

When. When? Anyway... he always goes

Durability/Sillage: Loosely 9 hours/after 3-4 hours then slowly becomes more skinniger

Clear test recommendation!!

.. ... how Boellis came up with this story about this scent is not clear to me. I expected a powdery-sweetish Italo classic and got an intense wood scent.

The start with Hesperidien is immediately crossed by a tarragon note which condenses with saffron to an ingenious herbaceous spice mixture. White blossoms are added - quasi to relief - before the long lasting Holzoverkill starts with creamy sandalwood and some other woods. The icing on the cake was the addition of ambry patchouli and musk to soothe the initially wild scent.

It has little to do with a classically elegant dandy. The scent pyramid already points in the right direction: wood scent.

The scents placed aside the woods push this initially very strong scent - unexpectedly for me - into a more filigree direction. The Italians simply have a knack for this, as do the fragrances of Mazzolari, Farmacia Anunziata S.S. and, in particular, Bois 1920, clearly demonstrate under-safran estragon.

While testing I immediately thought of "Aoud Musk" (sweeter + fuller with 'Oud') and also "Duro (Extrait de Parfum)" (this somewhat darker, more resinous, louder and more linear).
I checked this later, tested "Anthracite Noir" and "Library Collection - Opus VII" against it and found that we have a much brighter and clearer variant than usual in this genre.
And this is exactly what makes this fragrance interesting and also - discreetly dosed - wearable in the office or during leisure time at warmer temperatures.

For whom: Wood scent lovers who are looking for something between "Royal Oud" and "Black Afghano (Extrait de Parfum)"

Shelf life - Sillage: Loosely 8 hours (for an Eau de Toilette very good) - the first hour strong, then decent

Conclusion: Nothing really new, but an interesting variation of the theme wood scent and competition to the brachial-linear Nasomattos.

For me, the first test was simply a deterrent ... I have difficulties with some of Pierre Guillaume's creations that I know of. On the one hand to recognize the ingredients and on the other hand to value the unusual mixture of them.

Here it's more like the latter. A light incense scent per se is of course good. Refreshed with a lot of citric already unusual and very difficult to get used to. But when you add such exciting things as fenugreek, fresh elemi resin and patchouli, balsamic notes (almost unsweet!) with subtle oud/musk support and the main actor saffron, it gets exciting. Especially because 20.1 - despite its ingredients - does not smell like any of the usual oriental fragrances.

So exciting that PG has an interesting treatise on Indonesian smoking rituals on its homepage, which probably prompted M. Guillaume to compose this composition of contrasting light-dark and hard-soft accents. Another aspect was that of a protective scent in connection with smoking rituals.
I think it's an exciting but not new concept.

By the way, the scents on the outer packaging are:

Agrumes
Saffron - Cassis
Bois de Kyara
Oliban
Ambre
Musc Animalisé

and exactly the last of the ingredients differs 20.1 from another fragrance that is similar to it in a broader sense:

Comme des Garçons Eau de Parfum (1994)

which is described first-class in picture and sound by Siebter.

After a while of wearing 20.1 I noticed the similarity to CdG, but this one is much darker, doesn't smell like an oriental scent in spite of the corresponding ingredients. However, it is much rougher/aggressive and in this sense more armour than protective cover.

I think the new PG - as well as Aqaysos - is very successful. Both process black currants very differently and for this reason alone are worth a test.

Genre: Incense Fragrance without Christmas Market and Orientalisms

For whom: Lovers of portable but unusual unisex scents

Alternatives: The above Comme des Garçons Eau de Parfum and Aël-Mat by Lostmarc'h in the sense of an even softer protective fragrance with a beautiful camomile note

Conclusion: I'll stick with this brand!

... for me not because I refuse to use this mostly inaccurate term. But I don't want to go into more detail about definition questions in the field of aquatic fragrances and their various variations.

Hamptons (for me somehow the American Sylt) has as basic idea a similar as Millésime Impérial, a maritime hot spot of the rich and beautiful in summer. At least that's what Creed's marketing sarge and the name of this bond scent say.

The Aquatenreihe of Bond covers beside Hamptons still:

Shelter Island (a great spicy fresh fragrance with lily, oud and amber)
Sag Harbor (landscape painting with herbaceous, flowery, fruity and maritime notes)
iLberty Island (Sweet fruity fragrance with Marsh Mellows as base)
Coney Island (fun in the bottle: margerita, fruits, chocolate and caramel, sea salt, total only slightly sweet)
Montauk (a badly judged woody scent I unfortunately don't know)
Governor Island (a delicate resinous forest fragrance with some sea salt and incense sticks)

In this series, many different locations with equally different concepts are represented olfactorially. Such a thing can of course only be an idea, a hint because everyone who knows the places personally certainly has a different scent memory. I think this series is generally well done, it has - supported by the synthetic Bond used - a very good shelf life / silage for this often volatile genre.

Only Hamptons falls out of this scheme: At the first test I noticed a flowery mushiness that hasn't changed much and smelled more like a women's fragrance. Hamptons is also considered in some descriptions as a women's fragrance .. for me, however, it is - like most bonds - a unisex fragrance.

At the second attempt it got better; The start with a citric freshness note can only be perceived as single for a short time, as it quickly combines with the exuberant scent (which I perceived as muffíg at the first test) of lime blossoms and jasmine. The fragrance now turns into a pleasant spicy sweetness and the magnolia is added, which with its rather fresh appearance relativizes the sweetness somewhat.
In the base, amber and creamy sandalwood now support the fragrance, which becomes very close after 2-3 hours.

After a brilliant start, the fragrance quickly becomes very close ... which is certainly due to the idea of the discreetly not conspicuously scented Hampton inhabitant / visitor. For me personally, the difference between a strong head/heart note and a very reduced base is a bit too crass but not really disturbing.

Hamptons is - just like Sag Harbor - rather an olfactory impression, the attempt to depict a diverse landscape. This has also been successful, after repeated wearing of the fragrances and knowledge of the localities the subtleties are revealed. The flowery-spicy orientation and the decency of the fragrance after the head/heart note are basically just right.

Genre: Stylish maritime unisex fragrance

For whom: Lovers of maritime scented paintings
(Here also Sag Harbor with a nice grape note is recommended)

When. When? Free time and not in winter

Shelf life / Sillage: 6 - 8h (more than three sprayers required) / rather low overall