PerfumeBore

This is like a photo mosaic. You look at it closely - you see wormwood, frankincense, cloves, orange, wood, cardamom, florals. You step away - you see all these combine to form a mosaic of a smoky plum. Dark, viscous, velvety smoky plum that reminds you of vampires and gothic cathedrals.

It's interesting, but actually Dior's Poison opened this perfume to me. Before testing Poison, I thought this smelled simply of plum, and I always was bewildered to look at the pyramid. Why are there so many notes listed, when all I hear is smoke and plum, thought I to myself.

Then I tested Poison, which does smell like a plum, and it has a literal and simple plum note. At first, I thought they are very similar. But when I compared them side by side, the smoky plum disappeared from Memoir, and instead all the beautiful spices, florals and herbs emerged. It was like magic!

This probably depends on where a person grew up and the olfactory experiences. I'm from Eastern Europe, and to me this smells strongly of hospital, iodine and bandages. If you don't know what iodine is or what is smells like, you are unlikely to associate this with hospitals and bandages. The smell itself is not unpleasant, but it's very weird to be smelling like a hospital. If I heard this perfume on somebody, I would think they are sick and visited a hospital recently.

I know that this iodine smells comes from the saffron and oud notes (not my favorite notes for that reason). I could not rate the smell, because I do understand that this depends on the olfactory experience of the wearer, and also on the particular way oud and saffron are imitated in the fragrance (I highly doubt these are natural, they are way too expensive, especially oud. Natural saffron to me also has a touch of iodine, and I dislike the spice for that reason. No idea what oud smells like).

There is a strong and pleasant lavender in this, together with the musk elevates the whole composition.

NOT a safe blind buy. Anything with oud and/or saffron is not a safe blind buy.

Just like the bottle has a veil of every color enveloping the juice, the scent has a veil of different notes that envelope the magical frankincense. Frankincense is the heart of this perfume, quiet and meditative among the rainbow of festive and seductive spices, flowers and resins. When I return home after having had sprayed it some hours earlier, I can still smell it - and it seems like the air is sparkling with frankincense, like snow in the moonlight. Extremely beautiful fragrance, wonderful in its complexity, shows different facets every time I wear it.

This is one of those rare cases when I like the vintage formulation better than the modern one. The smell is very similar (dare I say "identical"?), but the materials are markedly different.

The modern one leaves a bit of a strange unpleasant smell on my skin, especially in the deep dry-down, when I sniff very close to the skin. It doesn't happen with the vintage.

I tried an EDT, which is quite comparable in strength to the modern EDP. The smell is deep, a tad sweet, with strong incensy-woody-leathery character to it. A prominent amber note with the resinous benzoin. I can swear I smell tobacco as well, even though the note is not listed. There is a dense floral body to the scent, although I would not call this a floral scent by any means.

A vintage formulation is definitely something I'd recommend trying to anyone who likes Habanita. Absolutely delightful.