Memory Motel

Well, well, well. Looks like I’ve finally found my perfect tobacco fragrance. I’m completely baffled to not see honey in the top notes. Not only does the opening of Memory Motel smell like honey to me - it’s hands down the most realistic honey I’ve ever smelled in a perfume. It reminds me of the freshly made honey we would buy for my grandpa from little outside stalls during the summer in Denmark. It’s heavenly. The tobacco is great as well, sweet and a bit earthy. Like sticking your nose into a bag of high quality tobacco leaves. While there's a hint of smokiness in the dry down, it's nothing like full on cigarette smoke. I haven’t the faintest clue what carnation smells like, but I don’t get much iris. On me, it goes from honey to sweet, spicy, leathery tobacco. It’s perfectly blended, the vanilla never becomes overpowering. It’s unapologetically a tobacco and leather fragrance, but with the perfect amount of sweetness. Instant love, I will absolutely be getting a full bottle of Memory Motel. While it’s a somewhat dark perfume, I don’t find it to be overly “dense”. Sillage is pretty good, and longevity is moderate. Perfectly unisex.

Oh Memory Motel, where do I even begin.. First things first, it's odd that only one person has mentioned how chypre-ish this is, at least in the opening. It shares the same structure with modern chypres - effervescent bergamot, powdery oakmoss and mildly earthy, albeit clean treatment of patchouli with an added spicy edge from carnation. However, 5-10 minutes into application and Memory Motel did a complete 180 on me. The chypre nuances are now replaced with an ashy vanilla accord, polished leather and high quality organic hand picked, dried and rolled cigars, pungent and aromatic without the sharp chemical smell of cigarette smoke. Smelling Memory Motel is like taking a trip down memory lane. It conjures up this small yet irresistibly charming jazz club located in the heart of Saigon that I visited a couple years back, you know, with all those jazzy ambiences - the dim lights, the smell of expensive leather couch, cigar smoke and live performances of some Nina Simone classics. Satisfyingly nostalgic with just a hint of melancholy, a work of art for sure.

Since some of my favourite notes are listed, I had big expectations - and they were absolutely fulfilled. It opens kind of fresh but it settles immediately as a patchouli-tobacco-leather scent that somehow still manages to be delicate. There’s something in the iris mixed with warmer notes that always feels extremely nostalgic and emotional to me, and this perfumes is the epitome of that. This is the perfume of your room in a fresh yet sticky summer night, while you’re sitting on the leather couch where you first made love with the one you know will be the forever the most epic love of your life. Them and their scent are long gone, but the one of the pack of cigarettes you just smoked wondering why and how it all went wrong with them in the end still lingers, even if the floral breeze coming from the bushes in the nearby gardens fights to drag it away. My only complaint is that, being quite delicate, its longevity is also very ephemeral, but still, not a deal breaker. (@sharpteethstarlet on TT for more reviews 🌝)

Ohhh lovely! The smell of dusty damp carpet with sun drenching a couch through a window on a cold day - you know the last people here probably smoked but that’s okay it gives the place a lived in vibe... Yeah... I totally get the Rolling Stones - staying in a Motel in Montauk analogy... it totally works for me and don’t let this put you off. It’s a quirky vanilla scent done so much better than 4160 Tuesdays et al. I would describe it as a Purple Vanilla scent! I disagree with Framorena’s review - this is a Vanilla scent though in part I agree the complimentary scents amazingly are strong enough to clearly make themselves known (more so nose to skin) yet still make this vanilla with an awesome skew. Only Olfactive Studios Vanilla Shot does as well in making a dual personality vanilla. Super pungent. If you like vanilla and left field this will not disappoint.

During the spring of 2021 I went on a "journey" to find the most excellent tobacco based fragrance. This journey ended when I found Memory Motel. I've also always been partial to leathery fragrances, so this one was a double whammy for me. The leather, and the tobacco note interplay really well here. Giving each other equal space thru out. One thing that I particularly like about this one, is that the tobacco is dry. Often with tobacco fragrances, it smells like wet tobacco. Which can be a bit syrupy at times. But here it's a nice dry tobacco. But not dry in the sense that it's old and stale. It feels like sticking your nose in a leather pouch filled with the finest pipe tobacco. If you like leather and tobacco perfumes, you have to try this. Longevity and sillage is also good. Maybe not a 5, but definitely a strong 4.