Winter Palace

Sipping on a warm and cozying up next to the window with a cup of tea that has a hefty squeeze of every citrus you had available, a drop of sweet vanilla extract, and a twinge of milk. The snow or cold rain beats against the window as you curl up with your blanket and sip your tea. Life is good. This scent starts with a bright citrus and tea blast, a creamy blend mixing them together oh so delectably. As it dries down it gains more and more of this sweet and resinous vanilla amber combo that is just so good. This opening might not be for everyone, but give it 10 or so minutes and some room to breathe and this fragrance is divine. The dry down base on paper is very similar to a much less labdanum heavy “Grand Soir” by MFK. This is super cozy and I have worn it nonstop since getting it from a trade (thanks Grady)! This is a great fragrance for any snowy or rainy day/date in, or if you want to bring that energy with you :) Long last performance with moderate projection. Surprising compliment magnet. Unisex. Happy smelling! EDIT: I have worn this more often than most of the fragrances in my collection ever since I got it back in late January. Now that I have really gotten to know it, it has become one of the easiest reaches in my collection just because of how wonderful this sings off my skin. It starts off really fresh and sharp with this medley of freshly squeezed citrus (the orange and the lemon being the most noticeable to my nose), but smoothed out by this WONDERFUL red tea note that is to die for. Then as it dries down it warms up, getting creamy and velvety smooth resinous/vanillic sweetness, but never venturing too far as the tea and citrus still hold strong. I don't get orange soda, as the tea is super noticeable for me, but the orange in this is super noticeable. For those who claim to smell only the lemon, I'd spray it a few times and let it sit somewhere dark and cool so the blend can smooth out a little bit, was a bit sharp for me when I first got it in too. This is super good, but a fragrance that really had to grow on me as time went on. This is easily my favorite tea focused fragrance, and probably in my top 10 or 15 fragrances I've smelled. 10/10. Signature scent worthy. Edit 2: This has become my signature scent for foreseeable future. I am already halfway done with the bottle.

Winter Palace is definitely one of the best tea fragrances I've tried so far, and it's certainly my personal favourite Tea fragrance bar none. It opens up on my skin with a lot of citruses, but Lemon is definitely the most prevalent, and beside the citruses the tea is very prominent in the opening smells very fragrant if that makes sense, and while the opening is quite good, the drydown is even better, more than I expected first going in. Once it settles down, the Lemon settles into the back and provides some brightness, the and a very prominent Maté note pops up on my skin even more than the Tea does but its still quite pleasant, and all of that is finally complimented a sweet and soft Vanilla and by some sweet ambers to top off the scent profile. Tea fragrances in general are quite easy to wear and this is no different, but it wears so elegantly yet it's sweet enough to be inviting and universally liked yet unique that makes it quite special, I personally can't see many people hating this fragrance unless they don't like tea or maté. The Tea/Mate + Sweet Vanilla-ambers + lingering citruses are a really nice evenly balanced combo, that stays quite level even when the citruses start to fully fade after 3 or so hours in. Touching in the wearbility I think this is a pretty good all rounder for most occasions and weather outside super hot days, but its definitely office safe and could work as a formal fragrance. Perfectly unisex, and it lasts up to 7-8ish hours on my skin with a soft-medium projection for the first few hours. I havnt heard it be discussed openly in quite some time but I still think its so timeless in its quality and appeal, and I can see many people using it as a signature scent for now and in the future. 8.9/10

My nose might be off -- my wife has a very different opinion of this fragrance than I do -- but I only smell citrus in the opening, with only a hint of herbal tea in the background. It is reminiscent of Creed Viking Cologne on the one hand; on the other, like those old scratch-and-sniff dolls from back in the day, if one had a lemon scent -- what @saiaise called "super synthetic citrusy candy." And, yet, I really like it. The mid takes on more of that menthol note that others have mentioned (although I think spearmint is more accurate for the opening; I don't detect menthol until the dry down), but the citrus is still prominent. @lfir3, I don't know why people are calling this a winter frag. Maybe they've bought into the name? Winter Palace is to me a citric freshie more appropriate for the spring / early summer. But again, my nose may be off. Whereas I only detect the lemon and orange accords, my wife smells something completely different. In her words, "It smells very Middle Eastern." I own a few Mid East frags, though, and they're oudy / spicy -- notes that I just don't detect with Winter Palace. I'll have to give this cologne another go in a few weeks when my olfactory senses might be reset (assuming they even need to be). Whatever the case in the moment, I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I like it. I sprayed many Memo fragrances on test cards when I was at the mall, and I wasn't super impressed with Winter Palace at the time. I know it's Memo's most popular fragrance; maybe knowing that at first made me cynical. From those tests, I thought Argentina was actually the better version of Winter Palace, even if they don't smell exactly the same. But now that I've bought a bottle of Winter Palace, I'm enthralled by it.

Winter Palace, from Memo Paris An utterly beautiful masterpiece that has captivated me in every way possible. First of all, this is my current favorite perfume, and I do not see that changing. The bottle design caught my attention before I even smelled it. It was like it was drawing me in, I found myself staring at it, wondering what it could smell like. Then, when I finally got my hands on a sample... I was a bit disappointed. At first I didn't love it, it wasn't bad, just not a love. However, after wearing it a couple times, I found myself addicted to it. Every time I smelled it, I would be filled with this uplifting and zen sensation. This quickly became my favorite fragrance of all time. I have many fragrances, and this one is still king. Winter Palace can be worn day or night, dress up or dress down, any season, any time, any occasion, anywhere. The versatility is one of the best I've ever come across. The longevity is moderate, but I overspray this and I tend to get about 8 hours from that. Is this full bottle and full price worthy? To me, absolutely, but it is a scent that everyone might not enjoy. The most prominent notes to my nose are citrus, tea, and amber. If you like tea scents, you might want to grab a sample of this. It is not an earthy tea like some others, but a citrusy and delicious tea. Winter Palace is addicting, inviting, and uplifting. This was my first review, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Winter Palace deserves my first review, and it certainly deserves my money.

Intoxicating scent - intimidating price. But oh, goodness, it makes me weak at the knees. A tea unlike anything I've smelt before in perfume - rich, malty, herbal all at once - mellow but tannic, golden-brown, fragrant enough to restore you after a winter walk along the Great Wall of China. Garlanded with all the aromatics I love most, with the opulent, mellow resins and balsams hinting at some more that probably aren't even there (? star anise? cinnamon? fennel?), and the styrax and musk perfectly discreet and not distracting from any of the more individual notes. For some reason (OK OK it's probably the dragon on the bottle) this makes me think of Gong Li looking lovely in 1920s luxe Chinese winter fashion in the film 'Raise the Red Lantern' - fur, silk, spice and steel all at once. Beautiful fresh-then-warm citrus notes up top give it echoes of Fendi Theorema, never ever a bad thing, while the benzoin's kept in impeccable balance. Good survival on my skin, too- 6h+, which is better than average if not amazing - a stunning trail of sillage, and still giving out wafts of supreme gorgeousness from a scarf 48h after application. I'm a commoner and I'm in love. Must work harder, sell assets or commit crimes to break into this Palace. I want it badly. So very very badly. I had thought that after finding Mona di Orio's regal Bohea Boheme I'd never really fall so in love with another tea fragrance, or feel the need for one. Wrong again. This is SPECTACULAR. Sigh....

Winter Palace is a beautiful balance between tea, mate, cloves, citrus and a warm, soft vanilla. Different from other tea centric perfumes that I own. Very cozy, soft, fresh and green scent but with a hint of warmth and powderiness. Not a sweet perfume per se, even though vanilla is easily detectable. I am happy to say that it doesn’t have any bitterness in it either. Overall, a very pleasant, easy to wear mix of tea, citrus, vanilla and some orange blossom. If you normally like these notes in perfumes, Winter Palace is a safe blind buy, if budget allows. Memo Paris fragrances aren’t the cheapest on the market, but their older releases can be found for discounted prices online, which makes them more easily accessible. Even though the name makes you think of winter season, I don’t find Winter Palace a winter appropriate perfume because of its scent profile and its performance. For me, Winter Palace is rather a fall and spring season perfume. I’d wear something like African Leather for winter months... Acceptable performance, on skin lasts around five hours with a minimal radiance. Very subtle but very elegant and understated! It’s a tea fragrance where florals are kept minimally while soft spices and citruses are are forefront, alongside the red tea. As a side note, I prefer Winter Palace over Inle, both tea/mate forward perfumes, both from Memo Paris. In my opinion, Winter Palace is the better approach to do a tea scent.

I have both versions of Winter Palace — the older white bottle with the metal plaque and the newer white bottle with the sticker label — and to my nose, there is a clear difference between them. The old bottle smells noticeably soapier and feels much weaker overall, with performance topping out at around 3 hours on me. The newer bottle is more potent, more citrus-forward in the opening, more bubblegummy/tea-like and gently sweet in the middle, and slightly more floral in the deep drydown. The juice in the new bottle also looks more neutral, while the old one had a slightly amber tone. The packaging has changed too. The newer bottle, cap, and box feel a bit more compact, and there is also a leaflet tucked into a pocket inside the box, which the older one did not have. That said, the old metal-plaque bottle still feels more premium in hand. The sticker bottle is not bad at all — it only feels worse because there is such a direct point of comparison. As for the scent itself, I find Winter Palace very versatile and easy to wear year-round, pretty much any time of day. Still, I personally enjoy it most in lighter daytime summer settings because it remains airy even when it has sweetness. Between the two, I clearly prefer the newer bottle for the stronger performance and more engaging scent development.

Memo became one of my favorite houses, because their creation fall exactly where I am in my comfort zone, easy niche. Not generic designer scents, but also not weird ultra niche strange art creations. They just make beautiful fragrances. Also, if you want to explain to someone why low quality cheap dupes are not the real thing, you can take Memo's perfumes as an example, the smoothness, roundness and quality would make the point when compared to the harsh, sharp edged inharmonious nature to most dupes. My favorite scent at the moment is Winter Palace. It opens fresh, sweet, resinous and spicy all at once without being too much of any. The drydown is smelling I love because I am certain I have smelled it a lot as a child. Maybe some sweetened tea, but that is what you get. Sweet (not black) tea with resin. Beautiful!! I still do not recommend blind buying anything that costs north of 50 euros, but that of course is your call. As for the performance, it lasts on skin for ages, the first time I sprayed it on I could still smell it after a shower. Does not project insanely but most perfumes do not have to. The bottle looks nice, I am creating a shelf at home for my most nice looking bottles and the Memo ones are all going on there.

One word: cozy The definition of how a warm, fluffy blanket is hugging you while you are at home, it is snowing outside and you are sipping a hot cup of tea. I'm not the biggest fan of this type of descriptions, but this one was just on point and when I tried it, this is the absolute first thing that came to my mind. In terms of the fragrance itself, it opens with a blast of citrus that gets nicely combined with the cloves and then it gets gradually sweeter and more aromatic. Reminds me quite a lot of gingerbread spices and Christmas-oriented spicy desserts. You can definitely tell that there is tea in this, vanilla as well, both blended together with the spices in order to create this beautiful scent. It is really good, but I must admit, it is not a performer (~4-5h, but much more on clothes), but rather something for you to enjoy for a few hours, and I think that's perfectly fine as its magic comes to life when you are close to someone or hugging other people. After a few hours, you mostly get labdanum and vanilla, so if you're getting it for the tea note, maybe you might reconsider it.

Ooohhh what a fragrance! My favorite Memo Paris fragrance. Immediately, with the first spray, you smell the uniqueness of the fragrance. It opens fresh and zesty, but not overly acid, somehow creamy and spicy. It has a warm tone to it, making it perfect for colder days but zesty enough for warmer days. It is sprinkly like a chai tea but not spicy enough to be an oriental smell. It’s such an intoxicating fragrance, you cannot remove your hand to stop decoding the aromas. I have never smelled anything similar (still a newbie, though!). To me it has such a nice blend of a bitter tea, somehow bitter orange and grapefruit mixed with something creamy, spicy and warm. I am a huge fan of Kenzo Jungle. Whilst it does remind me of it, the smell is totally different. Jungle is definitely spicy oriental, and this one cozy spicy. So happy I found this fragrance, super unique and feminine, but not too much. No unnecessary sweetness or flowers. I have yet to test the longevity and silage, but based on first impressions, both seem moderate to low (sadly).

an awesome redolence with tonka and lemon introduction, escorted by palatial vannilla ,the mate and amber smell so delicate here, the mystic benzoin and labdanum are used in a very contrastive , but also consoling form through the DNA of the scent, it consociates so properly with musk and styrax in the stem ingredients that it feels like that it isn’t a regular fragrance that you would put on while, going to shopping, to gym or to work etc. To the contrary, you have to wait for the right occasion to wear it, and I have a feeling that this special event, whatever that might be, would have this special calling upon the spirit of that fragrance, and the fragrance in return would have the sufficient 6th sense to receive that recall, and I believe they both would be communicating beyond our 5 known senses and hence will decide by themselves, in which particular opportunity the scent would whish to be worn, and you, in case you’d be lucky enough, you could only get to sense it, and then find yourself spraying it on accordingly.

Winter Palace has tons of character and screams Fall-- it's a faraway combination of light and dark, bright-but-mellow citrus and dark-yet-convivial black tea with a warm but not impenetrably resinous backbone. I get a blunted but well-projecting orange note, surrounded by equally noticeable lemon and freshly brewed black tea. It sandwiches the warm and bright notes into each other, so you never get one without the other. It isn't your typical cold weather scent; for me, it redefines the notion of "comforting" where it's become boring and rife with approximation to heavy base notes or linear vanilla and amber. Palace is incredibly well-blended, intriguing, and projects off the skin well with no harsh notes (though it isn't completely amorphous either). It's a testament to the fact that moderate can be far more distinct than either the citrusy or spicy extremes you get in the traditional library of tea scents. Unique and worth a try if you want a creative dedication to tea that takes you somewhere new entirely.

This smells like a delicious, luxurious tea service in Tibet (not that I've ever been there, but I was thinking of a wintery and mountainous location). It was windy and snowing here today, and this was the perfect scent to accompany me through the cold. From the beginning, I didn't get many citruses like everyone else, so I immediately was able to experience the dense and creamy red tea scent which was heavenly. The tea is super luxurious and rich here. As this developed on my skin and clothes, I got toasted ambery vanillic whiffs through my mask and was instantly warmed from head to toe. I have an old decant of the original Tea for Two from L'artisan and compared the two side by side, and I think that this is a little smoother in the tea, amber, and spices, and more likable. The usage of tea, and how it was interpreted is very similar to my nose, but Tea for Two is more transparent and scratchy, whereas Winter Palace is more creamy and vanillic. Between the two, I'd opt for Winter Palace for sure.

This is absolutely beautiful - smells like tea and cinnamon and blood orange to me. I would consider that this leans more masculine, but is totally wearable as a woman too. I usually go for super sickly-sweet 'girly' gourmands but I still absolutely love this. My only complaint is the longevity - I got 3 samples of this with a bottle of Sintra so I've had ample time to test this out, and it only seems to last around 3-4 hours at most and settles to a very intimate scent very quickly. This is beautiful for autumn/ winter but I've been wearing it in July in Britain too, and it's not been too overpowering or heavy. I wore this around my mum who said it smells quite powdery to her, which I don't personally pick up, but it's worth noting that everybody I know who has tried this has a different interpretation. Definitely worth trialling first, and to be honest at this price point I don't think I'd buy a bottle because of the longevity, but it is honestly stunning.

For my 100th review on Fragrantica I wanted to post a perfume that I really love, and what better than to post Winter Palace in the beginning of winter. This is really signature worthy for me, and not just in the winter months. A strong initial spray with an herbal tea, a lot of citrus and someting sweet. It is dreamy, and each wear I smell something different, but it is still as intoxicating every time. It is never cloying, never too much, just perfect. The spices blends beautifully with the green-ness of the tea, and the fruity citrus makes this absolutely mouth-watering! On the other hand I am a bit surprised that theres no ginger in this. I could swear I smell something reminiscent of that in here, but I am no expert, I don’t know all of these notes that well. But as I said, this is really great, and suitable both in winter and summer! Perfectly unisex and with a great longevity.

Great perfume by a house I didn't know about It's a perfect tea fragrance (which are underwhelming a lot of time) that has the red tea as the main note with a great balance between fresh and sweet A citrus note in the beginning and by the end it becomes this sweet quasi-gourmand, but the tea is always present It has a great longevity and silliage too, it's not sauvage elixir or tobacco vanille, but it's really rare to see a fragrance with those notes with such a spetacular performance! Since I bought it I appreciate it even more: the dry down is marvelous, it is sweet but not clotting; the openning is fresh and candied; the tea is always present, which is kinda of a rarety, since a lot of tea-based frags feel more clean than tea-like This could be a daily driver if it weren't so expensive, but if you have the money: 100% recommend!

Memo describes this scent as "fire and ice" and it is truly fitting! The citrus/tea notes are bright and present throughout the wear of the fragrance but contrasted by a deep, balsamic, ambery sweetness at the base that is reminiscent of a lemon desert. It never becomes heavy/cloying so you could wear this year round; other than maybe the hottest days of summer. Unisex, great longevity, moderate sillage. Over time, this has grown on me and become one of my favorites from Memo (I have 7 full bottles and dozens of samples from the house). Side note: Although not actually important, Memo changing this bottle from black/gold plated with the black/blue dragon to a plain white and gold bottle was a terrible choice! I've LOVED all their bottle redesigns but this one should not have been changed! Sigh...

This is the tea fragrance that set me off into a rabbit hole. Hands down my favourite tea fragrance I have ever smelled. It’s not a typical tea freshie the way most are, it has body and character from the tonka and amber notes. It smells like a spiced, tea latte you’d sip in the dead of winter. Almost like a chai latte (with a bit of whatever spice is in rootbeer) but not so on the nose and a more elevated and something more or ne sais quoi about it. It was the first sample I got that completely emptied within a couple days. I will say the performance is not great and usually I dock a point for that but the scent is just so good that I still gave it a 5. Love this. Would bathe in it if I could and I e never said that about a fragrance and my collection now is 100+ bottles.

I'm picking up on more wood and less spice than other people, which is great for me because I prefer things a bit more woody overall. This great! This is REALLY great! I thought perhaps it was really dumb of me to buy it in the middle of summer but it turned out to be fine. It reminds me so much of hanging out on enclosed wooden porches in the US south before it rains. The red tea is a lovely ruby red, the orange is a little candied, the wood is dusty but warm with sap and resin. I have a feeling it will be wildly different from my perception in winter. But for now I'm in love, the best tea scent I've tried all year! And, look, I try not to let the bottle influence the purchasing decision. But I love looking at the dragon mean-mugging me.

A steaming mug of red tea with a few drops of orange extract on top. You put your head over the mug and at first you get the beautiful orange, then quickly you start to smell the tea coming through underneath. The notes dance around one another. As it dries down, vanilla and a few other spices come forward and the whole thing blends into this beautiful spiced orange tea smell. It stays linear for a good few hours before transitioning into a more ambery vanilla. Overall, I love this stuff and the orange in the opening is particularly beautiful. My only real gripe is that the sillage isn’t good on my skin (or clothes). After the first couple of hours I can’t smell it on myself unless I put my nose to my skin. Longevity is very good though.