African Leather

The hype on this one seems fully justified from where I'm sitting. African Leather is one of several MEMO Paris bottles I own and arguably their most popular and best known work. It goes down with a burst of denatured ethanol lofting some heavy spices and for about a minute or so it is chaotic. Like landing at Lagos airport for the first time, it takes a few minutes to get your bearings and figure it all out. But then it dries down on your skin and the spices change as the florals in the heart emerge into the sunshine. The base is a beautifully judged, lush patchouli, amber and oud that keeps the leather accord here in some semblance of balance whilst offering the whole thing a unique vibrancy and richness. It is a lot nicer than I'm making it sound. Let's think a little now on the idea that some things can be more than the sum of their parts. I'm a lot more than a bald head, sarcasm, bad skin and tattoos, for example. Africa is not just a landmass made up of 54 different countries. African Leather is not just a series of accords; it is the way they are blended and the way they come at you off the skin in certain way. There is some kind of juju magic here. It has a feel akin to watching a pride of lions or a troupe of giraffes in the wild, but it isnt animalic or challenging. It doesn't smell dangerous. Think watching the Atlantic surf break on the deserted sand dune beaches of the Skeleton Coast. It has that kind of majesty. They say some people fall in love with Africa when they visit and African Leather is similarly beguiling. YSL's Tuxedo is my favourite patchouli fragrance of all time but African Leather runs it mightily close despite being as different a scent as it is possible to imagine. If Tuxedo is a hyper-refined, musky, ambery patchouli that sits on the skin like gossamer, African Leather is akin to getting run over by a battered 4x4 of patchouli, spices, old leather and smoky oud. It is resolutely masculine. I don't know any women who would wear this but I am thinking I would like to meet one, one day. The way African Leather dries down is how I imagine watching the sun come up over the Okavango Delta must be like from a plane. It gets better and better, more and more majestic as it dries as the amber comes in. This is signature scent worthy. Interestingly, the silage is mostly spicy leather whereas up close you get a lot more of the patchouli. Ignore anyone who says you cannot wear this to the office: this is an absolute banger of an officer wearer if you don't overspray. Three Word Summary - Majesty Of Africa Layering combination - Soleil Blanc by Tom Ford to push the spices a little sweeter, or Jovoy’s Remember Me if you want to focus on the vanillic facets. Outfit suggestion - Levi 502s, thick brown Prada belt, tan suede chukka boots from Drake’s, fitted white t-shirt tucked in, tan Ralph Lauren or Cucinelli textured field jacket, brown Ray-Bans. Scent - 10/10 Sillage - 8/10 Drydown - 9/10 Bottle/packaging - 8/10 Performance - 7/10 41/50

***This is according to my nose, and I encourage you to sample and find your own thoughts! A huge part of why you like/dislike a scent is YOUR memories. Really cool if you haven't looked into it. This. THIS. Truthfully, the closest thing I have to a daily scent. (I think signature scent should be what you wear to something important. Daily is what you like wearing most of the time, signature is your statement piece, what people will remember.) I find this to be MY perfect office/anywhere scent. Now is it a nice but boring Prada-like scent? Not at all. It's warm with an ALMOST creaminess to it.... almost. (Truly creamy is something like Halfetti to my nose.). I find it to be a slightly masculine (women who like more than floral fruits can definitely rock this), slightly complex yet simple enough to be a comforting scent. I understand there is a good number of people here who say this is sharp or medicinal, but I have yet to find a person who smelled this on me who didn't like it. In fact, most comments ask what it is and tell me it's comforting. The only thing I think could make this better is if it had just a bit more rose. You occasionally detect the note in this, and it adds a freshness that only makes it slightly more complex. (African Rose leans too far into this; maybe I can try layering them) If I'm outside in high heat for a decent amount of time, I prefer something along the lines of Vibrato. Any other instance, this is an absolute easy reach My skin gets strong (5ft) projection for 3/4 hours, then a comfortable arms-length bubble for another 4/5 hours. (Though I spray 1-2 extra times compared to my norm with this.) Maybe I just have the perfect skin chemistry for this perfume, but I won't complain. You should give it a shot and see if it does the same for you. Me: 9/10. (I have yet to find a 10/10, but a 9 means I rarely think a tiny change could make it better. I will always have a bottle ready, and want to wear it quite often) My wife: 8.5/10 (Really likes when I wear it, and wants me to keep it in my collection. The additional .5 is because she even asks me to wear it, even though it's seldom. Super impressive, as she usually only likes clean, soapy fragrances.)

I think people see a fragrance with "leather" in the title and expect a fragrance that leans so heavy on the leather that it almost smells almost like realistic leather layered with some other cologne. Tuscan Leather and the Ombre Leather line by Tom Ford come to mind, they both are very very leather heavy and everything else comes second, almost to the point where if I hadn't smelled them before and I smelled either of them on somebody I might think for a moment that they just naturally smell like that and they're wearing a leather jacket. African Leather isn't really like that, nothing by Memo Paris is really. African Leather is about using the leather note as a backbone to paint a picture of a place. It doesn't really use a whole lot of notes that are uniquely African, but the rose and oud in the background in combination with the leather gives it this dry woods vibe topped off by smooth cardamom and a lightly toasted smelling patchouli. This might make it sound like a strong, Middle Eastern, smoky bakhoor type of scent profile on paper, but it's much more interesting than that because it doesn't come off strong at all despite all these "beast mode" notes. Instead it smells like passing through a spice market in the Sahara as the sand travels with you and a mirage of a green, floral oasis ahead of you. I like good performance, but it's a pretty good practice in moderation that makes it a more unique niche fragrance and not one of the thousands of thick oudy niche winter fragrances out there. Putting the artsy desert woods and leather interpretation aside, I think if I were to picture this on a character it would be like a dude in Brooklyn wearing a flat cap and a leather jacket playing dice and hustling people in the 70s. Don't really know why I get that vibe.

Don't Let the Name Fool You: An Unexpected and Refined Spice Blend African Leather, one of Memo Paris’s most talked-about creations, masterfully subverts the expectation of a dark and heavy leather. When I first heard the name, an animalic, exhausting, and harsh leather came to mind. But the moment I sprayed it on my skin, I was greeted by a magnificent, vibrant, and warm breeze of spices instead. The intense balance of cardamom and cumin in the opening is incredibly well-crafted. The earthy, slightly green touch of geranium and vetiver allows the fragrance to breathe beautifully. The leather note here isn’t a screaming leading actor; rather, it acts as a high-quality, soft, and luxurious canvas carrying this entire feast of spices. It feels as though you are wearing a premium, buttery-soft leather jacket while carrying freshly ground exotic spices in your pockets. You can easily feel the smooth note transitions and depth you expect from high-end niche designs. An Unbiased Take: If you are looking for a pitch-black, smoky scent dominated solely by leather, blind buying this based on its name might lead to disappointment. However, if you are after a characterful, potential signature composition where spices take the lead, perfectly balanced by the freshness of vetiver, you should definitely give it a chance. Longevity & Projection: Highly satisfying, yet it doesn’t have a suffocating, synthetically loud nature. It has an elegant stance that creates its own distinct aura. Best Time to Wear: Perfectly suited for crisp autumn winds and the winter months. A high-quality, effortless, and versatile piece of work. It is a masterfully blended modern classic that even those who typically avoid leather can wear with ease.

I originally smelt this from a sample I bought a few years ago, I now own a full bottle as of this year and I have to say that the sample had a certain bite to it that my full bottle doesn’t have. I’m wondering if the sample I had was the original formulation, the opening is really where I notice it but the dry down is almost if not completely identical. The full bottle comes across so much smoother and creamier in the opening especially. That being said, wow... what an amazing fragrance. This is the one that got me into leather and anamalic accords, truly something special here. This is not blind buy safe and definitely for the most part a mature man’s fragrance. I’m in my early 20’s though and for the type of person I am this fragrance still works so don’t let that stop you if you’re concerned. Nice and spicy opening, as stated before with the full bottle the opening has a really nice smooth and creaminess that supports the spice nicely and doesn’t let it become overly spicy. If anything it presents the spices more as what they smell like rather than the spice effect they give off like the sharpness in my sample. This is a dirty anamalic that’s cleaned up with gorgeous florals, never venturing too far into feminine. This is exactly how I think a floral note should smell in a men’s fragrance. For me this is a 10/10, such a unique scent which is definitely signature scent worthy. This is by far the best leather fragrance I’ve ever smelt, the quality of the blend and ingredients is something to praise here. The presentation of the packaging should also be mentioned, it was a very nice unboxing experience and I loved looking for my fragrance on the map inside.