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Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Amouage Memoir Woman...Has Everything

By Marina

New York’s hottest club is CREASE.
Club promoter, Tranny Oakley, has gone all out.
And inside is just everything:
Lights, psychos, ferbies, screaming babies in Mozart wigs, sun-burned drifters with soap sud beards.
From Stefon's SNL skit

If you watch Saturday Night Live, you are familiar with Stefon, New York city correspondent and my husband's and my favorite SNL character, played by Bill Hader. The leitmotif of each of his descriptions of NYC's hottest clubs is that they have everything. Whenever I smell Memoir Woman, I hear Stefon's voice lispily intoning that it has EVERYTHING: absynth, cardamom, mandarin, pink pepper, clove, incense, black pepper, jasmine, rose, musk, labdanum, oak moss, styrax and leather. I mean, does it not sound like it in fact has everything short of babies in Mozart wigs?

With the exception of such uncharacteristic offerings as Reflection (and several Opuses, as well as some masculines...Memoir Man, for instance, is an epitome of minimalism, in comparison to its feminine counterpart...), Amouage has never subscribed to the less is more philosophy. And good for them! In the olfactory sea of PC, one-note, generic eaux and "these are not perfumes" we need brands which would insist on dousing us with juices that have everything, last forever, and throw a sillage formidable enough to clear any of New York's hottest clubs. Kudos in that respect should also go to Mona di Orio and several of Etat Libre d'Orange's blends.

If I had to humbly offer a critique of Memoir, it, therefore, wouldn't be that it is too much of a good thing. Absynth, leather, incense, rose and musk smell rather hot together. My problem is that Memoir is full of references to other Amouage perfumes. I smell everything from Ubar to Lyric in this opulent mix. But that is the danger for any extensive line that has been around for a while: sooner or later it becomes repetitious. Serge Lutens's is another example of that phenomenon. Which one of his creations do I NOT smell in Boxeuses?

Having said that, Memoir is plush, rich, dressed up to the nines...Wear it to the hottest clubs, much to the awe and delight of sun-burned drifters.

Available at Amouage's website and Luckyscent, $250.00-$280.00.

Please tune in tomorrow for the first post from PST's new contributor Ashleigh who will be discussing The Return to Classicalism; the New Fragrance Mindset.

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26 Comments:

Blogger The Beach Bedouin said...

I am waiting for my sample. You made me even more curios :-D
Nice description!

www.scents-of-arabia.blogspot.com

3:32 AM EST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Argh! Another mention of Amouage, sometimes I think if I want to avoid a brand for financial reasons, it keeps popping up left and right, tempting me with delicious teasers.
I love your review! And I´d like to smell something that has everything ;)

4:04 AM EST  
Blogger NewKidOnTheBlog said...

I wear this when I go to New York's hottest club ... "Sniff"!

5:05 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

bosnishmuslima
let us know what you think when you receive it!
(you have a beautiful blog!)

7:19 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

B,
I think you have to give in and give Amouages a try :)

7:20 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

P
Very good, that is very funny! :)))

7:21 AM EST  
Blogger Katy Josephine said...

Marina, I think it's the opulence thing I struggle with in Amouage perfumes. Their scaled down (usually for men) scents work better for me...they are quite opulent enough. However, your reviews always pique my interest to try again!

8:22 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Josephine
The mens are scaled down for sure, but perhaps it seems especially so in comparison to women's. I mean Lyric Man is only somewhat "understated" in cmparison to Lyric Woman :)

8:26 AM EST  
Blogger ScentScelf said...

Okay, now you've got me trying to scent Stefon...I'm thinking he'd either hop from 'fume to 'fume, Angel to M7 to Juicy Coture to coconut to...

Nevermind.

Riding the line between repetition and exploring themes...tricky for any artist who wants to play in a particular zone for a while...necessary if they need to muck around in the elements until they have explored all variations, or found just the right one.

Monet did all those haystacks. Garcia Marquez did all those humans finding their way through life. Stefon tries out all those nightclubs. I guess you've just kind of got to dig where and how they explore, which is I guess why Serge has acolytes--because they like hanging in his club.

At the moment, I feel like I'm trying to cram too many thoughts into one comment...though I never got to the soap sud beard. ;)

How about I just go back to "enjoyed hearing your thoughts on this one"?

10:13 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

S,
No, not too mean thoughts. It's very fair: they (SL, Amouage, Monette :)) have found themselves so to say. Some will be able to do the same thing much longer than others. Stefon certainly can't be that longlasting a character, even P and I will get tired of his one schtick eventually.

10:16 AM EST  
Anonymous Victoria said...

No, it is definitely too much of a good thing for me! It smells like NYC night club, crossed with Indian temple. That being said, I would rather see this than another "I am not a perfume, yet I am sold at over $100 a pop."

10:28 AM EST  
Blogger The Beach Bedouin said...

Will do anyway. And thank you so much, I am so glad you like it! And of course I love yours!<3

10:29 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

V,
LOL. Taj, New York's new hottest club has everything...:))))

And I agree, this is preferable to the emperor with no clothes, bottled and sold for a ridiculous price.

10:31 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

bosnishmuslima
thank you!!

10:31 AM EST  
Anonymous mocards said...

I really loved Memoir Woman and this is coming from an Amouage "light" person. The only other Amouage fragrances I've liked well enough to wear are Lyric (love and adore) and the two sissy Amouages: Eau d'Amouage (just like), and Esprit d'Amouage (like a little bit more). Wondering what happened to me?

10:43 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

M,
sissy Amouages, LOL! I adore Lyric too.

11:10 AM EST  
Blogger Abigail said...

Here, here! (heartily concur)

I love that SNL skit and I adore Amouage Memoir Woman.

I tend to love unapologetic perfumes anyway, and clubs that have everything (well, back in the day I did) :)

12:34 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Abigail,
Of course, back in the day! :)
Unapologetic. I love that term. Perfumes should be like that. And clubs. :)

12:44 PM EST  
Blogger Brian said...

What I love about that character is that he seems to have so much fun doing it that he can barely keep from cracking up. It's infectious. You feel like you're in on the joke. Memoir is retrospective, I guess, isn't it? I love Memoir for the guys. Yum.

12:51 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Brian,
Aah! I didn't make that connection, duh. Memoir, retrospection...

I too think it's great that Hader can't stop himself from laughing when he is Stefon, you are right, it is like being in on the joke. Overall, I think this character is a standout in the otherwise rather boring cast.

12:55 PM EST  
Anonymous Flora said...

Obviously I have been going to bed too early, as I have never seen this sketch series, it sounds hilarious! I am much too old for the "hot clubs" of course... :-D

I am all for the "over the top" perfumes myself, and even if this one is not their best, I embrace the concept. After all, I am the one who is still inconsolable that the original Ubar was discontinued - yes, the new version is wonderful and I am thrilled that they revived it, but the first one was so MUCH of what it was, it bowled me over with its bottomless depth and intensity, and there was nothing else remotely like it.

Memoir shoiuld be arriving soon at my local shop, I can't wait to try it.

3:56 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Flora,
Ooh, I want all perfumes to have bottomless depth and intensity :)

4:13 PM EST  
Anonymous Sturduh said...

So if I wear Memoir Man on my left wrist and Memoir Woman on my right, do they cancel each other out or will I pass out? Must remember to make sure I'm wear clean knickers :-)

6:15 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Sturduh,
Maybe it's like matter and anti-matter, the world will collapse :))

7:12 AM EST  
Blogger Carol said...

gosh I heart Stefon!

10:55 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Bloody Frida,
He seems to have quite a fan club. :)Deservedly so.

10:56 AM EST  

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