Mémoire d’une Odeur

The fragrance that made me stop compulsively looking for new fragrances. Let me explain, after I apply this one more time for the review. I awaken in a cabin, bleary eyes adjusting to the sight of a warm golden ray dancing across a familiar room. I lay on a bed raised on an ancient wooden frame, no doubt from a tree older than I am. I sit up, planting my hand on the edge of a well worn but equally loved quilt. A powdery dust cloud rises to meet the sunbeam as I do so, dancing in the light like so many fairies before my eyes. Looking toward the sunbeam, the window fills in the scene - fields of flowers, some heavy after rain. Bulbs droop from the combined weight until they spring back, scattering mist into the air anew. Their essence travels into the cabin on a playful breeze, one that permeates through my entire stay. The sunbeam stops at a bookcase, drawing my attention. An incense holder sits atop its top shelf, a slim sandalwood-scented stick and its long-lost ashes being all that remain. Grabbing a tome off the shelf, I expect the same dustiness as my earlier encounter, but none comes. To my surprise the pages open with ease, being much newer than expected. Within those pages lie the fragrance's heart notes - Memoire owning up to its namesake. Its pages tell me my tales: of childhood book fairs, of diving my nose into the spine into a new book, mass market pages and barely-there glue holding it together. Of summers drying flowers and pressing them into bookmarks, the flowers dancing across these pages scattered in time. As the fragrance fades so too does my time in the cabin, until the next time I pick this bottle up to spray it once more. An experience bittersweet, though more the latter than the former: a reminder that we cannot stay in one place, one sensation, one scent indefinitely, and that to appreciate the ethereal is to embrace its nature. This experience has made me rethink perfumery, and has really brought about my awareness of perfume as an art form. Though I am admittedly still early in my scent journey, I realize that the beginning is the best place to be, full of wide-eyed optimism and awe that can only come with the wonder of discovery. That awe has given me the impetus to write my first (unneccessarily long winded) review here, in attempts to capture these feelings in words. It truly goes beyond trying to be a superficial "compliment getter" or "panty dropper". In modern metrics this fragrance fails at every turn. It has terrible projection, no sillage to speak of, and no staying power - after 3 hours my nose tickles my arm hair before it picks up any sort of skin scent. But that's not the point. This is a window, an intimate show between you and the perfumer and is unapologetically art for art's sake. In other art forms a vision this clear, this bold, this self-serving is the territory of one-night-only solo exhibitions. In perfumery it is available at TJ Maxx nationwide. tl;dr blind buy safe? hells no. but im so glad i did.

This one is deeply personal. A fragrance woven with time itself. The bottle, with its vintage apothecary charm, looks like something you’d find tucked inside a time traveler’s satchel elegant, mysterious, and from another era. But the true magic begins when you spray it. This isn’t just perfume ... it’s a portal. I remember standing inside the Gucci store, surrounded by the usual glamour and chatter. The sales associate handed me one of the many blotters since we wanted to test all their perfumes, and without awareness of which particular one i was smelling, i just took a whiff of the strip while still in conversation with my Dad and husband. And suddenly ... everything stopped and hit a pause. The scent wrapped itself around my senses and pulled me back. Not just in thought... but in feeling. In that moment, I was no longer in the store. I was a little girl again, in my late grandmother’s sea-facing home. The warmth of the sun spilling in. The green bathtub. That soft echo of water droplets bouncing ... The breeze carrying in whispers of the ocean. The scent herbal, woody, serene, exactly how her bathroom used to smell. It was all there. Every detail. So vivid, so intimate, I had goosebumps. I said guys something crazy happened and then I looked at the sales associate and asked her, “Which one is this, i had visions of my childhood sniffing this i am beyond amazed ?” And she smiled and said, “Ma’am, that’s exactly what this fragrance is designed to do... invoke memories in individuals its named Memoire.” I was like “WOW OMG” totally shook but mesmerised. My husband and Dad tried it too. Dad said it didn’t point to any one place, but it definitely felt nostalgic. Whereas my husband said it smelled like one of his relative’s vintage homes ... full of relics and stories. We had to bring this fragrance home. It felt so special and magical. Since then, I’ve made so many people smell it, curious if they too would be swept away by a wave of memory. A few definitely were. But Most just found it very comforting and nostalgic. But for me, Mémoire d’une Odeur is not just perfume, it’s a keepsake from time. A scented relic that holds a piece of my soul. The notes? Chamomile, almond, musk, jasmine, sandalwood, cedar, and vanilla. But no note pyramid could ever capture what it means to me. I hope they release flankers, and more perfumers attempt at creating something that actually transcends or transports people in imagination. - Bhavna Darira Chesan

This is a typical case of another misunderstood fragrance that was discontinued before the wider audience had time to fully appreciate it. But what can you do? That's life ,and sometimes we have to be at the right time and right place to experience fleeting moments. TOP NOTES The opening is very herbal and botanical. Roman Chamomile stands out for its dry, hay-like scent. Honestly, in the first 30 seconds, it can smell a bit medicinal to someone not used to it, almost like a herbal ointment or a fresh canister of expensive loose-leaf tea. There’s a “dusty” quality that feels very nostalgic—it reminds me of late summer fields when the grass is yellow and brittle. HEART NOTES After about 15 to 20 minutes, the medicinal edge evaporates completely, and the fragrance enters its most beautiful phase. The Musk accord takes over. This is difficult to describe, but on my skin, it creates a physical sensation of “coolness.” It smells like a smooth river stone pulled from cold water and drying in the sun. The Jasmine weaves in and out, providing a soft, honeyed luminescence that is never feminine or floral in a traditional way. BASE NOTES The dry down is when Mémoire becomes a close, personal skin scent. Sandalwood and Cedarwood come forward to give a sturdy, creamy, but dry base. Vanilla is barely noticeable as a note; instead, it serves as a fixative, adding a gentle, comforting warmth. After three hours, the scent smells like my own skin, but warmer, softer, and cleaner. It reminds me of old paperbacks or a favourite cashmere sweater that has taken on its owner’s scent over time. OVERALL It almost sounds like a cliché to end an review with that familiar phrase about why the best ones always get discontinued. Unfortunately, this is true for this release. While I understand that something like this probably cannot be appreciated by the general public, in the end, we, the fragrance enthusiasts, lose with each discontinuation. A lightning-in-a-bottle type of fragrance. Read the full review at scentgrail (.) com.

it fascinates me that this perfume is discontinued. it’s truly extremely unique and made me rethink the way i approached wearing perfume. memoire opens with a gentle embrace of chamomile tea and dusty jasmine, but i’m not sure how distinguishable individual notes in this fragrance are. it’s one of a genre of perfumes i feel are not serviced by a list of “ingredient” style notes marketing, and are better described as feelings. it smells like my adopted grandmother’s kitchen when i have come over to go out with her and am waiting for her to finish up her hair, and have put a tea kettle on the stove. it smells like opening a box of vintage lace mementos and letters. it smells like your mother’s photo albums forgotten on the shelf in her office that she takes out and looks over now and then. it smells like your memories of the first night at the guest house you stayed in when you went on a trip alone for the first time. it is mineraly, certainly, and dusty, and the chamomile and bitter almond and sandalwood do nothing to assuage it. but it is serene, melancholic, gentle, and tempered. it has a tea like quality but i wouldn’t say it is an aromatic, more of a musky soft aged scent. it lingers like a hug and it is easy to forget it’s there, but i often pick it up in little whiffs throughout the whole day. it is entirely unsweet, and i think it received mixed reviews because of its marketing towards younger people and it being off trend, but it’s an example to me that interesting, androgynous, experimental perfumery outside of edgy ouds and cocktail sandalwoods and synthetic musks, can still be done.

This may be ascending to a Top 10 spot in my large perfume collection. I blind purchased Memoire at TJ Maxx after missing out on one bottle in my area, but then snagging it on clearance at another location that I don’t frequent as much. Still $40 for 2 oz., but it’s Gucci, not Guess! (And I actually love Guess, too, but you get the point.) All I can say is, “Wow!” You know those perfumes that smell good when you stick your nose right up to your skin, but then you smell different but even more amazing notes from a slight distance? This does that. I’m no perfume note expert, but there’s the most gorgeous, addictive herbaceous and dewy/aquatic notes that I keep picking up from about a foot away from my hand, that are different and better than on the close-range sniff. This perfume isn’t a dupe for MAC Turquatic, but that’s another absolutely incredible scent that also has this same effect. Someone said this isn’t a safe blind buy. I’d slightly disagree, but can attest that it may not be for everyone. If you like sweet, feminine, girly...this ain’t it. If you like fresh, herbaceous, dewy/aquatic, almost creamy, then run your nearest discount retailer. One last thing: As much as I love this scent, it’s not memory-inducing in any way for me. Totally off-topic, but the scent that gives me inexplicable nostalgia is Jason Wu EDP. Not that I even knew about this scent or wore it back then, but something about it brings me back to circa 2009, living in Portland and working as a fashion intern and for Nordstrom. Now I’m off to leave this comment under that scent!

This is probably one of the most unique scents I've ever encountered in my 30 odd years of collecting fragrances. I read a review once that said this is what Arwen from Lord of the Rings would smell like and can totally concur. It is ethereal in the best way. Utterly the scent image of a fantasy fiction female character. This was a blind buy from TJ Maxx and at first I hated it. But I let it sit for a few weeks and then went back to it and tried again. This time I sprayed it and something alchemal happened. It was forest magic in a bottle. It was the scent of faded dreams and an old woman's half remembered memories of her first love. It was bitter and sweet and dry and lovely in the most original way and I fell in love. That being said, it tends to last like a half remembered dream as well, fading gently and silently til you can barely sniff it on your clothes. I solved this problem by ordering the knockoff oil perfume version from oilperfumery.com which is the best dupe I have found of it. Absolutely spot on. Adding this to my pulse points and overlaying with the riginal spray perfume makes the sillage and longevity of this scent eternal. It also layers fantastically with a couple other scents I have. If you are looking for something out of the ordinary run of the mill floral/fruit and oriental line, this may be for you.

Memoire D’une Odeur is a completely appropriate name for this perfume, as I spray it again two hours later 🤣🤣😂 I absolutely love this and hate it’s discontinued! I remember the first time I smelled it in a mall, it was just 2019!— & I thought, ‘strange... I’ll buy that later’. It smelled of medicine and chamomile and a time I wasn’t really there for (the 1970s) but could channel through the pictures from then and the grainy pictures from my childhood in the 80s. It smells like those herbal shampoo ads that they tried to imitate with more chemicals in the 90s (& even more now or a hefty price tag!). I love the herbal essence/ hay like component to this. The Jasmine is very subdued and it dries into a vanilla wood. It gets a thumbs up from my husband and my teenage son even liked it (as compared to the big florals or sweets I wear) Longetivity is like 1-2 hours for the top notes I love so much though! Not bad considering— but just a funny on the name and how it is completely accurate in more than terms of just the memories it provokes! I genuinely just spray this before I need more! The memory of a scent!

This is May and June in a bottle! This fragrance transports me back to going to the cabin with my family during the transition of spring to summer. Its 7:15 in the morning. The morning dew fill my nose as I step outside. Tall cedar and pine trees tower over me.. their scent filling the environment along with the dewy grass. The birds are chirping and singing. The white linen I hung yesterday sway in the morning wind. My cold hands grip my lucky mug thats filled with chamomile tea and exactly two teaspoons of honey. I take a sip, and let myself go. This fragrance starts with a strong, but humble chamomile note. As the fragrance dries down, the jasmine begins to sway in an out while the chamomile retains its scent. A few minutes later when it fully dries down, the chamomile and jasmine mend together and mixes with the cedar and vanilla base. The vanilla adds a well deserved creaminess that was missing during the opening. Memoire is so beautiful. It really does feel like a memory in a bottle. Makes me so emotional. 9.75/10 (i wish there was more vanilla hehe)

I’m doing another review because, well, I forgot I already reviewed it a while ago & tested it again before realizing 😅 My first review was “I felt like I was walking in a green forest in spring, the kind that’s wet with moss growing on everything. I don’t think I’ve smelled anything like this, intriguing.” It was a bit different this time. The first thing I thought again was that it’s very different, initially more masculine, and then something very familiar that reminded me of childhood. The chamomile maybe? The longer it went & the more I thought about “just what is that familiar scent?” And best I can come up with is the old green Clairol Herbal Essence shampoo that was popular in the 70’s and 80’s. Man I wish that was still available. Best descriptive words for me: herbal green woody powdery fresh clean woody soft. Becomes more feminine as it dries down. A little too masculine at first. Not something I’d typically wear but it’s so darn interesting & different, I can’t stop smelling my wrist. May have to snag a bottle if I can still find it.

One of my favorite fragrances of all time I’m currently half way through my fourth full size bottle of Gucci Memoire. I’ve been wearing it since it came out when I was in high school so there are tons of memories attached to this scent. My boyfriend (who doesn’t like fragrances) smelled this on me and loved it so much he wanted to wear it himself. He said the smell reminds him of something, he wasn’t sure what thought. It’s beautiful, it’s fresh, relaxing, meditative. I will always have a bottle of this in my collection, and lucky for me the price has gone down over the years. It definitely isn’t for everyone but those who get it get it. A lot of people comment on the longevity but I find the longevity to be good enough for this style of fragrance. It does last a while on me and I receive compliments on it. For me, I appreciate this for what it is it doesn’t need to scream or project like crazy and it’s great for layering!!

This fragrance does not pretend - and it's not trying to be something that is not. In a world where the uniqueness of the majority has been lost, where fashions & trends are reproduced, where gourmands dominate, this scent comes to remind us (memoire) that freedom of the spirit is the greatest quality. A pure,fresh,clean,classy scent. Dominant notes: chamomile,musk. Not fruity at all, but sweet in its own way. Easy to wear, light, soft, herbal, for all the hours of the day, a skin scent for sure - and very, very springy, like a field of dry grass & chamomiles. A perfume full of dreams, nostalgia and visions, as if you were a nymph of the forest. Like a caress of liberty. A fairytale on our wrists and necks. The tender, innocent child we hide inside. 🌾 This perfume + a white dress + your personality = You are spring itself. You are you. Star signs: Aquarius & Pisces

This smells like a beautiful lush spring or summer meadow. For some reason I picture myself on horseback walking through the meadow, the air is warm but comfortable. It is morning and the birds are happy and I am happy. I have deemed Memoire de un Odeur my fragrance for cloudy & rainy days and look forward to these types of days because i know exactly what fragrance i will be craving. Also, if i am going to be outside, for a walk or to the park, this is my go-to, easy reach. It's truly incredible. The bottle is stunning. My one complaint is that this deserves a heavy magnetic cap please. Sillage and longevity are quite fleeting which always makes me a little bit sad BUT I honestly think this adds to Memoire's beauty. Were it any stronger, Memoire would have a very different vibe. I love this little gem and will own many, many backups. Alberto Morillas is a genius.

It’s barely there. Almost so that I’m worried of getting scammed. After all, I couldn’t purchase it from the official site and resorted to an excellently rated seller from my country. What I do smell is very, very soft and aromatic chamomile, almost translucent jasmine and nutty (not sweet) almonds. It turns slightly floral on my skin (whenever a perfume has even a hint of white florals, it turns very sweet on me, so I was prepared for that), but the scent doesn’t drown in white florals at all. It’s still very much herbal green. I’m sitting in a tram right now and I’m confident that no one can smell me. How could they. I can barely smell myself, even though I just got the fragrance today. Makes me wish for more herbal leaning unisex fragrances. You definitely won’t find this kind of scent often on the current market. A very much needed change of pace.

I am surprised I have not reviewed this yet. I love this fragrance, but of course, I love chamomile. It is a very comforting, personal fragrance - the type of fragrance when you want to be home, and curl up on the sofa with a soothing cup of tea, a good book, and your favorite pet curled up beside you. It has a very fresh and clean focus without being soapy or screechy. The first notes that I smell after spraying it is the chamomile, a bit of the almond, and a touch of jasmine. Within an hour, this settles into a lovely, cozy chamomile with musk and sandalwood with hint of vanilla perfectly accenting the sandalwood and musk. None of these notes are overpowering, and the fragrance wears close to the skin. But I get 6 to 8 hours on my skin with a nice scent bubble around me. Great perfume!

Unique, ethereal, whimsical, strange and fleeting. Smells like chamomile tea if you rub it into dust in your hands. Faint herby vanilla in the drydown. I LOVE this. Absolutely blown away! This is miles and miles away in quality and creativity from what Gucci puts out for mass consumption. You will never find this at Sephora or a duty free shop. In fact, you soon won't be able to find it anywhere, appears to be discontinued. Grab your bottle while you still can do it for cheap! Luckily for me, this is very cheap at discounters. And I understand why it comes in such a large bottle. You really need to douse yourself in it to catch even faint whims of it from time to time, I'm talking like 20 sprays (this is coming from someone who normally does 3-4 sprays max of just about anything).

I hope I will forever have a bottle of Gucci Memoire on my vanity. I love this fragrance with every ounce of my being. Someone below described it as “ancestral” and that’s a perfect way of putting it. It’s herbal, floral, grassy, and green. It’s frolicking in a pasture with chamomile and jasmine everywhere. It’s definitely an acquired taste, not a crowd pleaser however a past lover of mine did wear this and I loved it on him. We didn’t last more than a few months, thank God but I will never part with this fragrance. I audibly gasped when I found out it was discontinued. It is truly beautiful and very “niche” smelling for a designer fragrance. It’s perfect for a spring day or a night in. It’s fresh yet sultry, innocent yet elusive. Truly a masterpiece.

This scent reminds me of summer in the north of Italy. Lying on a sun bed, next to a pool, feeling exhausted by heat but very content, an orchestra of crickets as constant background noise. The name refers to the scent of memory, and that makes sense. Its fragrance is of something I've never smelled before but seems all so familiar. It is soapy, clean and kind of herbal and tea like from the roman chamomile and kind of bitter from the almond but in a pleasant way. Jasmine and musk make this fragrance a bit sensual as well. I don't get much vanilla though. Longevity is not much as well as the sillage. But it doesn't matter too much, because reapplying in that summer's heat feels so refreshing.

I bought this as a "blind buy" and I don't regret it! Every time I spray it, I marvel anew at how Gucci managed to create a scent that really tells you something, the very delicate scent reminds me of a short walk in the fresh air, on a sunny winter's day, with touches of almond blossoms, jasmine and chamomile. The name of the perfume suits him so well.. it really smells like a good memory from many, many years ago, even if you can't really connect it to a tangible image. In short, a perfume that is an experience. The only minus is that most of the notes don't stay long, and for about an hour you are left with a faint smell of a generic perfume.. If that's all, I recommend "Mémoire"

You’re a child and you’ve been sent to your wealthy grandmother’s house in the country, alone. The house has floral wallpaper and thick floor-length curtains tied with sashes. The sun comes in at an angle and you can see little swirling specks of dust. It smells of wooden furniture, cloth upholstery and sweet, grassy whiffs of the meadow outside. You’re standing by the porcelain kitchen sink and washing your hands before dinner with the kind of bar soap that lathers up so well bubbles fall from your hands and sit at the bottom of the sink. The window is open and you can hear bugs whirring and small rustling sounds in the meadow. Apart from that it is still.

The holidays are sad when you're missing a parent. My mother used to offer me chamomile tea on nights when I'd come in from being out with friends, and on nights when I stayed in. The chamomile is the opening note that stayed with me. I love how it drys down to a powdery but not sweet scent. I'm amazed and thrilled there's a new fragrance out there that isn't hitting you over the head with sweet candy scents. There is something to the dry down that seems familiar, a scent I may have worn in the 70's or 80's? I'm stocking on up this one. Does the fragrance provoke nostalgia? Only if you have something worth remembering. I miss you, mom.