Amouage - Memoir Woman

Today I´m going to write about Amouage´s Memoir Woman, but before I do I just have to chatter a little.

First of all I´ve become an aunt again, to a sweet little baby girl, born on the other side of the world, in Chile. I´m so happy that everything went well and both mother and baby is feeling fine. Now I have to wait and see how long it´ll take before I´ll meet my newest little relative. Anyway, I have allready see pics of her, Facebook is great!

And, me and two of my daughters vistied Stockholm this Saturday and had so much fun. Times really fly when you have fun and we didn´t really manage to visit all the shops we had plan to visit. I almost didn´t test any perfumes at all! But, I had plenty of that on my latest trip to Stockholm anyway.

And, last but not least, I bought a set of "Egyptian perfume essences" on Tradera (Swedish Ebay), for about 2,50 €. For that amount of money I don´t really care if the scents are stale and old smelling and waisted, the bottles and the box are worth the money alone. But my little set arrived yesterday and I´m so excited about them that I can´t hardly think about anything else! They (all five of them) smell amazing! I´ll write more about them some other day and probably I´ll hand out some samples of these amazing "essences" (some kind of perfume oils in my opinion). Don´t miss it!!!

Oh well, Amouage... any returning reader knows that I haven´t fallen that hard for Amouage´s exclusive and rich charm. In fact, I have only really liked one scent from Amouage this far, and that is Reflection, which after all isn´t really my kind of scent, and even though I like it, I have never planned to buy more of it. The others I´ve tried are without doubt very rich smelling, well made and smelling really good, but not really my style. But now, I´ve found an Amouage suitable for me, Amouage Memoir Woman.

Memoir Woman is different from anything else I´ve tried from Amouage which have been huge florals with some kind of golden feeling to them. Memoir Woman is nothing like that at all...

With top notes of absinthe and citus folowed bu jasmine, rose, cinnamon, cardamom and clove, Memoir Woman is called a modern chypre, even though I don´t really agree with that.

On me it becomes strangely dreamy, floating, dusty (in a good way), spicy, aromatic and fairytale-like. A scent for a goth princesse, with pale powdered face elegant funerals and lingering mountain roads with dramatic cliffs. This scent is what you should wear if you where invited to a party at Count Draculas place. Oh no, Memoir Woman isn´t a happy, bubbly kind of scent, at least it doesn´t ewoke such emotions at me. No this is melancholy, yearning and a woman standing in the storm on an abandoned dock and waiting and waiting and waiting for that ship that never arrives. The sad queen wandering the empty hallways and rooms of the abandoned castle morning her dead king kind and all the dead little princes...

Amouage´s Memoir Woman triggers both imagination and sadness for me, this is a scent I would wear if I ever tried to write some horror novels, actually Memoir Woman inspires me to write that kind of litterature. A muse for horror writers is fairly accurate...

It´s suggestive and adorable in an un-expected way. On me the note of clove can be too dominating, either smelling to much of dust and smoke or to spicy and antiseptic, but in Memoir Woman it manage to stay away from that road. Insted it´s creating a caressing weil together with cinnamon and cardamom, both subtle, sensual and sad at the same time. Like a fragile and grey butterfly.

memoir Woman is a scent worth trying for anyone having some weak spot for darkness and melancholy, but also a must try if you haven´t really manage to find any fave among the other Amouage offerings. There is also a Memoir Man, but I haven´t tried it. Anyway, I belive Memoir Woman can be worn by man to, it isn´t that feminine. It last really good, almost all day and sillage is also good but not to much (at least not from my little dab on sample).

I´m having troubble to smell the musk, oakmoss and leather in the base, on me Memoir Woman is fairly linear but at the same time swirling.

Which is your favorite Amouage scent this far? Do you think they are over prices and not really worth that much money? I belived so before, but however, Memoir has changed my mind, even though I doubt I´ll ever have a big bottle of it, but a big decant would be nice.

Pic: whatthefuckiswater

Amouage - Reflection Women

Earlier I wrote about Missoni by Missoni. During the summer it has been one of my big favourites, and I was really tempted to buy a bottle of it. I didn´t, but maybe I will buy a bottle of it next summer, or maybe I´ll have other favourites next summer. Last summers favourites hasn´t been as much used this summer.

According to me, Missoni is that kind of perfumes that goes well with colourful clothes, sun tan and colourful cocktails. I wrote, that I during summer isn´t the white dressed kind that drink rosé wine but more of active, funloving and sweaty kind.

Amouage´s Refelction Women is the sort of perfume that make me wish that I was the white dressed and romantic type. No, Reflection hasn´t been a big favourite this summer, and I doubt it will be next summer. It took me time to even decide to try it again. It wasn´t until mid-august I started to like it. And no, I wont write about how that slowly changed, so that I now love it, because I don´t, but I have reach the point where I at least like it, quite much.

Reflection has some similarites to Missoni, they share an aquatic but still warm scent. If you took away all fruits, oranges and chocolat from Missoni I think you would have something very much like Reflection. Since they´re both created by Maurice Roucel it isn´t after all that strange? Well, I don´t want to suggest that Reflection is Missoni down stripped, but at first Refelction is like Missoni, but with something missing.

Yes, I have had troubble with other perrfumes from Amouage before, Reflection is also quite different from what I usually like, still there is something in it that I like. It might been the fact that I feel like someone totally different than me when I wear Reflection. Reflection put a spell on me, but in a very quiet and modest way.

Imagine that you´re in front of a big table filled with the most incredible beverages, the finest wines, amazing beer, stunning cocktails, creamy hot chocolate, delicious tea, smothies made from super berries, exotic fruit juices and in a corner of the table a glass of water. Admit that the glass of water wouldn´t be the first thing that got your attention? But, in it´s simple and obvious way, the only thing that we could drink over and over again without getting tired of it. A glass of water is the obvious choise if we´re really thirsty. Water is the thing.

This is how I slowly started to feel about Reflection, it´s like a glass of fresh, cold and very good water.

There isn´t much fuss going on in Reflection, soft floral notes solemnly floating around in water. Magnolia, freesia and jasmin. In the beginning Reflection is transparent and kind of cooling, but after a while it warms up and I can smell some notes of fruit. More like a flower with a soft fruity scent, than some actual fruit. From the flowers I mostly smell the freesia, but that might depend on that I don´t really recognise the smell of magnolia?

To me, Reflection is a mature, motherly kind of perfume that doesn´t make much noise. It is like a cool hand on a small one´s hot forehead. Reflection is a soft winner in the long run. My favourite this far from Amouage, even tough it isn´t at all me.

It´s last really long, wich is quite surprising considering the scent to be so transparent and discrete. The sillage is also quite good. As other perfumes from Amouage, Reflection also smells expensive. But, to me, not worth the price. I am happy to have a small sample, and because of it´s quality, I guess it will last a while, but I won´t buy a bottle of it.

Reflection isn´t really an autumn scent, I think it´s best for summer, but I am also looking forward to try it during winter.

Do you have any favourite from Amouage? Or some you´re curious about? And by the way, what is your limit for how much to pay for abottle of perfume?

Otherwise I am quite excited about that Parfumerie Generale seem to be offering 30 ml bottles soon. Guess what I will be wishing for Christmas? :) Even tough I have no idea wich of them I want the most, I´ve got several favourites from Parfumerie Generale.

Pic: Anna Wiberger, Cult Design

Some of my disliked perfumes.

I am quite entusiasthic as a person, especially when it comes to perfumes. Readers of my blog can easily belive that I really looooooove everything that I encounter, but that is of course not true. Among ten tried perfumes, maybe I swoon about 1 or 2 at most. Sometimes, even if it is rare, I come across an entire line that I really like, as Odori. The usual is that among ten perfume I find about 6-7 ok, nice but not at all good enough to make me go ooooooh. From time to time I even come across perfumes I don´t manage to wear at all, all I want is to run and scrub myself.

Today it´s time to write about the perfumes I´ve come across during the winter and that I don´t like at all. I know I´ve write very positive about some of the oils from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, but I´ve also experienced oils from BPAL that is horrible. Do you feel like smelling like poison mushroom, slowly rottening and molding in a damp cave? Well, then I think you should try Destroying Angel from BPAL. Honestly, I didn´t think it was really a scrubber, but my husband tought it smell like a relative when he has a hangover, so my husband beg me to wash it away, so of course I did. Another from BPAL I have to scrub off was Oya. It smell like something acrid, sedating and headache inducing, the closest I can think of is some kind of narcotic tranquiliser. Not good! Both Oya and Destroying Angel make me shrud when I think about them. The picture above is of Destroying Angel, I find it quite beautiful, but it is one of the poison mushrooms killing most people in US what I can find out. Obviuosly among the one´s that eats mushrooms, I guess more people die of heart diseases and cancer, but you get it.

Another disapointment was Hermes Eau de Merveilles, not a scrubber, but so boring. I try to like it, many do, but on me it smells like something old and stale. Rue de Cambon from Chanel is also a bad one on me, something in it make me think of wet diapers and something moldy. Thanks, but no thanks.

And, Amouage, oh really. For 195 euro/bottle I do expect something more than a nice and strong floral! I have only tried Gold and Lyric, but they don´t manage to make me curious about the others.

And also, CdGs Stephen Jones, that I loiked so much when I´ve got the sample a coupple of months ago. I tried it again some days ago, and no, it didn´t do anything for me no more. It was so artificial and cold, all I could think of was that it would stop smelling.

Well, one good thing is that I´ve order Luckyscent´s samplepack with Le Labo perfumes. I am looking forward to try them finally, it was about time, wasn´t it?