Amouage creative director Christopher Chong aimed for something truly great with his two latest fragrances — Memoir Man and Memoir Woman: “to unlock the unfathomable mysteries that reside within human nature.” Well! It’s certainly not the usual perfume goal of “we aim to move 2 million units during the first twelve months of our launch.” In the Amouage “Memoir” PR brew, there’s mention of Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal, a “Black Swan” (Memoir Woman), and absinth (perhaps quaffed as much as used as an ingredient during the Memoir creative process?)
Memoir Man, described as a leather-woody-fougère fragrance, contains notes of wormwood/absinth, basil, mint, frankincense, rose, lavender, vetiver, sandalwood, guaiac wood, amber, vanilla, musk, oakmoss, leather and tobacco; it was developed by perfumer Karine Vinchon who I “met” a few weeks ago as I sampled her L'Artisan Coeur de Vétiver Sacré .
Memoir Man begins with a slightly musty, yet creamy, wormwood scent mixed with ‘cool’ mint. As the herbal opening develops, I also detect some sheer leather and a hint of lavender mixed with rose (always a pleasant combination to me). Then, Memoir Man begins to “solidify” and morph into wood. First, there’s milky sandalwood, then balmy guaiac. A wonderful vanilla-tobacco-musk accord combines with the wood notes in Memoir Man’s base to produce a beautiful, but quickly disappearing, aroma I can only describe as deep, dark and vivid. Within a half-hour of application, Memoir Man settles down to a long-lasting, frankincense-rich, slightly smoky, dry (ashy) wood accord, and I believe your opinion of this accord will determine your opinion of Memoir Man.
To me, Memoir Man does not match its Amouage “storyline” — I get no sense of the “underworld,” “sorrow,” “damnation” or “anguish”…unless one imagines getting unduly upset about the fire going out in the grate (that persistent, haunting, smoky wood accord). I do detect some “poetry” in Memoir Man; not the “decadent” poetry of Baudelaire, but the poetry of something simpler, solid, and touchable. During Memoir Man’s early development on my skin, I’m reminded of two things: walking in the aromatic forests of the Pacific Northwest, and watching, years ago, a Haida artist carve a totem pole from a huge, fragrant cedar log…not bad experiences for a perfume to conjure.
Amouage Memoir Man is available in 50 and 100 ml Eau de Parfum ($225-260). For buying information, see the listing for Amouage under Perfume Houses.
Note: top left totem pole image [cropped] and cedar leaf image via Wikimedia Commons.
Thanks for the review Mr K. I don’t know what to say. Was not my fav Amouage, but I’m going to retry before I make up my mind. Did you get any Wazamba or Filles en Aiguilles vibe from this?
C: definitely some Filles
The last sentence sold me. (Not the one with the price– the part about forests and cedar logs.) I either need to break down and buy a sample, or break down and brave parallel parking on Hawthorne and go the Perfume House to smell it.
Yes, please go and smell! Then you can tell me what you think!!! And it will be fun too.
Miss K: go to the P.H…and spray on a good amount!
Go smell and report back!
You have your orders.
so it is written, so shall it be done! ( you can’t see me but I’m standing arms akimbo, feet braced wide…doing my best Yul Brenner here)
Me too. I lived in the Seattle area for 9 years, but explored all of Washington state and I love your description Kevin because I very frequently smelt all kinds of wood and greenery and the mustiness of the rainfall combined with it.
Thanks, Dolly. I love that “mustiness” in rainy weather…as long as it’s OUTside.
I’m glad I was online today when you posted this, I have been testing Memoir from a sample spray for the last two days.
Unfortunately my skin amps up the mint in this and verges on the edge of toothpaste, the wormwood being ‘green’ and raw vegetable-like. The mint stays for twelve hours and then the basenotes arrive- leather tobacco and a hint of oudh. I love the basenotes and the composition is well done and long-lasting, but mint is not for me. Epic Man was my full bottle purchase and the oudh, leather scent arrives @ the beginning.
Not dark @ all (Memoir) and the mint wormwood beginning would make a great springtime eau de cologne. YMMV
Bear: the mint was “clear” on me…but far from long lasting. I agree…the first 30 min. of this scent, if it could be made to last longer, would be a great fougere.
Kevin: Thanks for the review – I normally like wormwood very much when it shows up in fragrances. This sounds so intriguing – but I’m a love or hate with frankincense. I’ll have to test this for sure. All the different comments and reviews about this are so helpful. I do love those PAC NW forests….. Any old man’s beard clinging to the bottle, lol?
Anns: no bear or wool plaid in sight! (or smell)
AnnS make that BEARD, but “bear” would be apt too, no? HA!
Yes, now I’m imagining a NW bear party with all the bears running around in their favorite Amouage. Ha. The Black bears get to wear Memoir, the Golden bears are wearing Gold, and the Grizzlies are wearing Epic….
Haven’t test Memoir Man. But I am a HUGE fan of Lyric Man. That’s one beautiful burning rose, roaring silkily and brightly when developing on my skin. Loved it!
Thanks Kevin. I really wanna test Memoir Man after reading your article!
Craig…you’re welcome!
Me neither, but as I have said before I have ordered a sample of Amouage Dia Man for my husband and swore I was going to keep my nose out of it, but couldn’t help myself and I liked it so much I started to wear it. Thanks for the article.
Got this in the Luckyscent sample set but haven’t had a chance to test on skin yet. It sure smells interesting, that’s for sure. I hope I get the Pacific Northwest forest vibe in the drydown. Opening the vial I got a strong whiff of herbal liquour, Not sure if that’s the wormwood as I haven’t smelled that before, but it reminded me of an herbal liquor my Hungarian uncle drinks. Strictly for medicinal purposes of course.
of course.
Jirish: I understand! The chocolate cake I’m eating right now is also, a-hem, anti-bacterial…so healthful!
did you bring enough chocolate cake for the rest of the class???
Daisy: I did take many slices to work to share…but STILL it’s here, apparently growing overnight into more slices.
oooooo that’s my kinda cake! Like Strega Nona’s magic pasta pot! Always magically full….but that ended badly…
Sorry, flashback to my children’s library days…..
I wasn’t sure about Memoir Man, I found the opening a bit, well, blah. Anise-y fresh but not terribly distinctive. I did find that I liked the drydown more so I think it’s one of those scents that improves as it develops. Perhaps I would have liked it better had I not tried it at the same time as Memoir Woman which made a much stronger impression.
May I ask what your impression was of Memoir Woman?
I loved it
but I’m a big Amouage fan. Keep in mind that I tried it a couple of months ago before it was officially released so I’m speaking from memory but it had a gorgeous smokey, leathery opening. I got something plum/prune like but those aren’t listed in the notes so it must have been something else. As it developed it reminded me a little of Ubar for a short while and the drydown had that Lyric-like animalic vanilla thing going on.
So a beautiful cold-weather scent. Very striking, I thought it was a lot more dramatic than Memoir Man. I do need to get to the shops for another sniff now that they are available in the shops.
Thank you for the reply…you make it sound so amazing…smoky and leathery is what I am after
I have a sample coming soon…this is one Amouage that I might be head over hills for…hopefully not….wellll hopefully,since I would just love that bottle on display.
Abyss: Memoir Woman is more like a classic fougere to me: Brut made with sensational ingredients. Memoir Man’s top notes were the most interesting part of the fragrance for me…as I said, DRY wood and ash/incense/frankincense make up most of the day’s wear with this one.
Darling you had me at” walking in Pacific Northwest forests”!
“Not bad experiences at all.”- IMHO it’s one of the best!
But I choose to run<3
I wonder how Woman will be? I'm waiting for my decant to see.
Thanks for the nose up.
Enjoy out lovely autumn day<3
Tamara: it’s gorgeous!
Hi Kevin! I recently sampled this fragrance too and the different experiences people have with the same scent is so interesting. I didn’t detect any of the mint [though I did identify a green, herbal aspect] or smoke, but we both got a similar forest vibe – the dry down of this was very similar on my skin to OJ Woman.
RD: the mint must be floating in a bubble in the bottle and sometimes it is released…and sometimes escapes the spritz. On one day it was strong…another day hard to detect. but both days it didn’t linger.
I’m kind of cold today ….so the prospect of the firing dying on the grate IS unduly upsetting! Walking in the aromatic forests of the Pacific Northwest makes it sound very appealing but I know there’s lavender in the mix and lavender is real deal breaker for me. So far the only Amouage for men that I like quite a lot is Dia. I am, however, a huge fan of the women’s scents….in fact I’d go have a spritz if I weren’t currently doused in Traversée du Bosphore….no, really : “doused” –I’m decanting today and a few sprays have gone a little wild!
How is that one?
On me it’s very leathery. It opens with a blast of something fruity (pomegranate mostly) but that quickly is overtaken by that note they’re calling turkish delight (?) –almost a flowery cookie….then the leather starts to really bloom–that’s what leather does on me anyhow—but that flower cookie hangs in there. It’s different, that’s for sure. I like it….although I’m decanting 3 bottles today so I may be a little tired of it in about …oh…15 more minutes….
Flower cookie. Yum.
Last week, Gaze called Iris Poudre “bunnies and cupcakes,” which I thought was very apropos. (He’s 12 today!)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GAZE!!! quite the astute young man!
flower-cookie-leather sounds hilariously delicious
I’m going to send you my sample of Memoir Woman with the next batch of goodies. {I can’t believe I have a few things you haven’t tried yet!}
It always feels like a little victory, doesn’t it?
Yep. Oh and Boo – I’m sending you the men’s version.
Awesome, thanks!
Cool!! I’m verra verra excited! It’s Amouage and I’m….well, I’m an Amouage HO ….so you know I’m practically dancing foot to foot to try it. Y’all can joke about my tendency to buy unsniffed all you want…I’m not going anywhere near Amouage w/o testing!
Daisy: your family will come home and think you’ve been making sweets!
and often they are right!! But I do love some tasty cookie scents: Mazzolari Alessandro, 180 Ans, Note Vanillee, SDV, Angelique Noir, Molinard Iles d’Or, Theorema….need I go on??
ya wanna know what’s really cool? I’m decanting Traversée du Bosphore on my kitchen island…..but I’ve got a pot of Chili simmering on the stovetop (I believe I mentioned earlier that I’m sooo cold today) and the combination is fabulous smelling!! So the moral of the story is: if you’re going out for a steaming hot bowl of chili—make sure you spritz on some Bosphore first !!
Educational blogging. yeah, who knew?
Maybe I’ll celebrate the arrival of TdB with a pot of chili too; do you think you can send the recipe with the decants?
too late my dear—your Bosphore is already in the hands of the United Postal service
But it’s just a basic chili : ground round, dk red kidney beans, tomato sauce, loads of peppers and onions, a ton of dark chili powder and some assorted stuff like dried parsley flakes, coarse ground black pepper (only at the end) …..although I’m toying with the idea of adding some cocoa powder like was mentioned on Robin’s choco-binge post the other day…but only in my bowl so the rest of the family doesn’t freak out over something “traditional” being “tampered” with…..sigh
The DH is going to love this! Although, I think I’m going to go ahead and through in a brick of dark chocolate, and just not tell!
oh! I have dark chocolate…..I’m putting some in my bowl.
D: HA! Cumin and pepper go with LOTS of things apparently!
and dark chocolate goes with EVERYTHING
K, it may be an ethnic thing, but I put cumin in EVERYTHING. My poor Swedish husband
I’m going to try the cumin-choco combo in something soon, and will report!
I’m looking forward to trying Memoir Woman–hopefully this weekend at Perfume House–but not getting my hopes too high.
I had myself in a lather over Lyric, which I *knew* was going to be the most perfect thing in the verse… I did like it, quite a bit even, but it didn’t steal my soul the way I thought it would.
It’s stunning, but in the same way some of the Chanel’s are for me (Bois des Iles today): they lack a sort of chewy-dense-ness I crave.
(Bois des Iles comes awefully close!)
Sycomore is one of the chewiest things I’ve ever smelled. Granted, I don’t much like chewy…
Mmm! I’m going to have to try that one
I received the Lucky Scent sample pack as well and tested out the two Memoirs a few days ago. I didn’t exactly get mint or forest from MM–more like grass. After a while, it did get woody and smoky. The mental associations I got were weeding the flower beds and then firing up the charcoal grill to cook an outdoor dinner. These are not bad associations at all, not even the weeding. I love to garden, and weeding is just a part of it. Memoir Woman smell much more like a “typical” Amouage, much richer and warmer in the opening. I also had Ubar on my other arm, and it still remains my overall favorite Amouage.
Had to have, Sycomore on steroids, AWESOME.