Isla Rose

This was one of my samples in my Olfactif box this month, and while I loved how it tested on paper, on my skin it just turned into a bar of ivory soap. I don't hate it, because it's a very nostalgic sort of smell for me, but it's not at all what I expected based on the notes listed. Where's the vanilla? Where's the raspberry? I can't find them. :-(

A pretty rose in there somewhere, smothered by "red berries" and oud.

I am new to this community and still learning how to express my olfactory experience. However, I can say I was very excited to test this fragrance from Memoize London - I just recently discovered this fragrance house titled as 'luxury niche fragrance brand' and was blown away by the quality ingredients, i.e. perfume oils/extraits de parfum used in their collections. They offer a 'dark range' and 'light range' with beautiful themed fragrances. I love 'Superbia' which is a dark mysterious rose lingering in the background...but Isla Rose does not even get close to it. I expected a fruity sweet red rose in the top note as advertised which transforms into a balmy woodsy very comforting warm note in its dry down...unfortunately, didn't happen on my skin which is more of a sweet skin. The scent did not last long and developed into a soapy type of concoction. The advertised red rose/red berries in the top note turned out to be more of a greenish rose. The heart note is a bit floral, agreed, but nothing special or unusual. I am missing the proclaimed amber/wood/vanilla dry down, just a bit musky. It is, fortunately, just a tester, so I will not invest my money and better be on the lookout for a few more of Memoize's dark or light range collection fragrances which are absolutely gorgeous and of high quality.

The opening of Isla Rose is a generic Oud and rose combo—of course it’s synthetic and not the real stuff. After the sharpness dies down, I got an industrial cleaning liquid scent. I only wish I got soap like the person below me. Not every perfume needs to be a winner, and this happens to be one of my least favorites from my niche traveling sample box. A rare dislike and a hard pass.