NA12

Marfa by Memo Paris is a very "round" and light fragrance. It is a creamy tuberose, a little bit sweet, but not too much. The general vibe I get is "chic but relax" (or, pardon my French, "chic et décontract"). The perfume is marketed unisex, but leans very feminine. The person who uses Marfa wears jeans, but those are perfectly tailored for them, and probably cost the equivalent of my rent for a month, and their shoes are always very classy. A nice white shirt complete the look, but it's probably a designer white shirt without logo. Their hair is always perfect, but in that "I just woke up like that" vibe, and they have the most radiant smile. Maybe they have a ranch somewhere, and if not, they certainly know how to ride a horse.

On my skin, the opening is mostly tuberose and ylang-ylang, with a slight citrus note from the orange blossom. The agave gives an interesting sweetness to the ensemble, backed by the musky base and the vanilla. Interestingly, the opening on the paper stripes features much more mandarine and orange blossom than on my skin, where the tuberose, ylang-ylang and agave power trio take all the place. The dry down is also very creamy, with a creamy musk and sandalwood coupled with the vanilla, and a very slight woodyness, the tuberose and ylang-ylang progressively disappearing in the mix. Projection is moderate (4-6 feet I would say) and longevity is pretty good (main tuberose scents 3-5 hours, the creamy dry down lasted for a few more hours on my skin).

It is very nice, however, not the best tuberose scent. I like the agave note, it is quite different from other sweet-white flowers combo out there; the vanilla is subtle enough, and a good mix with the sandalwood and white musk for it not to be clogging, giving an airy feeling overall. I'm just not sure I know where I would wear that - it's classy, but not really a night-time fragrance (in my opinion, but you could do that), but it's too classy and projects too much to wear every day. I guess it classifies as a "brunch fragrance" - for a classy daytime setting. Or, if you are that classy lady (or gent) described above, just wear it everyday.

L'immensité is a very well done, but quite unimaginative offering by Louis Vuitton. It is a classic aquatic/fresh masculine perfume, in my humble and widely uninformed opinion, probably one of the best in that category. However, I don't know how to reconcile those two views: on one hand, it smells amazingly nice, it is very well blend, but on the other hand, it doesn't offer anything new or surprise you in any way. While the marketing for L'immensité by Louis Vuitton speaks of "flying through a limitless horizon" (darn that weird designer marketing!), in reality the perfume smells a tad boring. It evokes pictures of casually well-dress men refreshing after golf or that man reading The Economist in the Air France Business lounge with the brown shoes and the polo shirt. You know, that man who doesn't really have a hobby except expensive watches exclusively bought from Jura in Switzerland and talking about his job, probably in commodity trading or at a venture capitalist fund. He is a bit boring, but darn he smells nice!

The perfume opens with a reinvigorating and fresh burst of grapefruit, transported by the ginger. On my skin, it soon gets more watery, a smooth transition into a fresh citrus with a nice ginger background. While no floral notes are given in the official description, I do get some floral notes in there, maybe a light geranium. There is, however, a very strong citronella note as it dries down, different from the citrus opening. On the dry down, it stays very fresh and aquatic (thanks to the ambroxan) the notes of amber and lambdanium gives a slightly resinous, salty and musky scent, the ginger still lingering in there somewhere.

True to marketing, it leans very heavily masculine, and while I sometimes enjoy wearing more masculine scents, I feel this one has such a classic masculine freshy smell that I would be overstepping some invisible lines wearing that for other purposes than sampling it (but that's just me though). It is extremely potent - testing this at home, first on a blotting stripe, and made the mistake of placing it slightly on another sample: that poor paper sample of Another 13 did not stand a chance and is forever contaminated by the gingery freshness of L'immensité. On my skin, I got excellent longevity (upwards of 8-9 hours) and sillage seems quite good too - according to my roommate, you could smell it immediately when I entered a room.

But it smells so nice... I wouldn't mind smelling that everyday on my partner! However, considering the price point, I don't think my gift budget would ever accomodate such a bottle.

Twillight Mauve (summer edition) by Zara is not a bad fragrance per se, it's just that it's very synthetic and a bit too youthful for me. It's just not "me".

On the opening, a strong alcohol draft, mixed with fresh notes of citrus and apple, and maybe watermelon, but I'm not quite sure. The whole ensemble is very aquatic (the so-called "sea-breeze" note named on this page feels very ambroxan to me). There is a slight floral note in there, but very hard to discern which, maybe peony, I am not sure. As for the dry down, well there is not much dry down. While ambergris, cedarwood and sandalwood are named as base notes, I cannot detect much of any of them - maybe a bit of sandalwood if I squint. It's very linear and disappears quite fast (3 hours maximum). Not much projection either.

Well, it smells a bit cheap. When people say "cheap perfume", this is the kind of thing I have in mind - overly fruity and feminine, slightly synthetic, and strong alcohol smell on the opening. It's the kind of "first fragrance" you buy a 12-15 year old girl so she can feel like an adult. It's youthful, fruity and fresh, but a tad synthetic. And I'm a bit too old for that. Of course, that's just my opinion, and I am sure some older ladies (or gents!) could really like that smell and rock it.

Unfortunately for me and those 50 ml I bought, it's not for me. While I wrote in another review that my first blind buy was Love at First Sight by Une nuit nomade, technically, this is not true. This one, Twillight Mauve from the Zara Summer collection was actually my first blind buy, and also my first blind buying regret. You have to understand that it was at the very start of my journey into the world of fragrances, and buying a 20£ seemed at the time like a better investment for a first bottle than something more expensive.

Fleur des Fleurs by Une nuit nomade evokes a walk in a tropical garden at the end of the afternoon, just after the rain, when the flowers are drying under the sun. The opening is very much citrus and white flowers, but the citrus rapidly disappears to fully give the floor to the flowers, with the ylang-ylang and the jasmine dominating the bouquet. The tuberose is certainly there, but not as prevalent as the other flower notes. On the dry-down, a faint vanilla, maybe a little bit of amber or wood, but very, very subdued. Despite being mostly white flowers, it doesn't feel light or airy at all, almost feels heavy because of the base notes, which is not a bad thing, but gives a more mature feeling to the perfume.

It is marketed toward women, and it leans feminine, but I can see a man wearing that. I see the person wearing Fleur des Fleurs as somewhat of a self-assured person, who knows who they are but are optimistic and outgoing, maybe a bit of a dreamer too. A nice daytime perfume, perfect for spring or summer, but a tad too mature of a scent for me, and it leans a bit too feminine for my taste. While it doesn't suit me personally enough to get a full bottle, I really enjoyed the sample I got. However, longevity is moderate at best, 4 hours maybe, and after that only a faint vanilla skin scent remains. Sillage and projection are not too bad in the first few hours, but it's certainly not something that gets too much attention.

Love at First Sight from Une nuit nomade is a nice, fresh floral with a heavy dose of lilac. It evokes the late spring lilac, a walk through the park just after the rain, when the sun shines again. You are young, it's spring and you are in love, what could go wrong? It's a very nice refreshing floral, perfect for spring or one of those early summer days where the breeze is nice and the sun not too harsh.

The lilac is the centrepiece through the life cycle of this scent. From the opening on my skin to the dry down (that unfortunately comes rather fast for my taste), the lilac notes really grab the attention. This is slightly old fashion, almost on the verge of "old lady" smell because of the ever-present lilac (be aware that my bias in this opinion might come from the fact that my grandmother loved lilac). I say on the verge, because in my opinion (or on my skin), the ambroxan and the passion fruit keeps it from falling in that category by giving it a fresh and almost ozonic edge. The opening is that fresh mix of lilac and passion fruit, mostly floral with a little sprinkle of fruitiness.The acacia note is almost undetectable, and it is a very linear fragrance, giving me almost only lilac on the dry down.

It resolutely leans feminine, but I can still picture a man who's comfortable in its skin wearing this. Mostly a day time fragrance, but not a bad choice for a spring or summer evening. The longevity is average (4 hours at best on my skin) and the sillage/projection is acceptable (arm’s length, maybe a bit farther).

My first blind buy, since I usually buy samples first, but there was no smaller samples available for this one, so I bought the 30 ml. Since I was really eager to smell those passion fruit notes, and liked most of Une nuit nomade offerings until then, I just took the risk, despite lilac not being a note I am particularly fond of. In the end, I do not regret, got a lot of wear from it.