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.

This is absolutely stunning. And completely unique. Sweet but not overly sweet. It is so well blended that I can’t pick out any notes in particular. It’s a semi sweet, vanilla/ incense/ tobacco/ carnation but it’s soooo much more. I don’t get any smoke like other people though and the comment about the dentist office... I don’t relate to that at all. I highly recommend trying each perfume from this wonderful brand. Suma Oriental and Ambre Khandjar are also stunning. Une Nuit Nomade sell their samples on their website for a very reasonable price and I bought travel sprays of my favorites, 25ml for 39,00 €. Took 3.5 weeks to deliver from Europe to Australia during the pandemic, so worth the wait!

An intrigue: Annick Menardo partially recreates her own Le Labo Patchouli 24 (my signature scent for a couple of years) without the definitive birch tar but with added iris and carnation...? P24 smells a lot like peaty Scotch. This could be the air over the moor where the peat comes from. I get compliments on P24 nearly every time I wear it; never happens with MM. It speaks in an inside voice. Overall: Soapy, pleasant, a touch ethereal... Also, amusing that the promo image features a dollar bill because it does smell a bit like a fresh note? The seedy motel association is iffy. I wonder if they'd called this Afternoon Garden or Graduation Day if your mind wouldn't just go there instead.

Thought this would be a heavy fragrance , but in my skin , everything is balanced . Not too masculine and not a super sweet boozy tobacco . The tobacco and leather are noticeable but not heavy , same with the rum. There’s a dustiness that reminds me of cocoa powder but that could be the iris and vanilla so it goes sweeter later in the Drydown. I finally found a boozy, tobacco fragrance that isn’t so dark and heavy that I can wear year round but only down side is this only projects for about 30 mins and becomes skin scent then I can’t smell anything after 4 hours . I will sleep with this on to see if perhaps I’ve gone nose blind. Otherwise I would totally buy a full bottle .

Truly a beautiful fragrance to me. Not as much tobacco as I would've expected from the notes, and it works. What really pops to me is the iris and carnations. The tobacco actually works as the base if that makes sense, because I feel like sometimes it can become overpowering and steal the show a lot of times. Anyways this reminds me of my grandma's couch, and the whole house really, like 1 to 1. In feelings, this fragrance evokes a still, almost dead air, in a slightly melancholy way to me. This also smells very similar to The Mariner's Rhyme minus the tobacco.

What a wonderful fragance !!! I had heard about it and boy did it delivered! It was love at first sniff. Memory Motel is warm, cosy, comfortable and terribly addictive. Once I had it on my frist I could not stop smelling it. You can smell tobacco almost instantly, the vanilla is present but is not sweet, it simply makes the fragrance "rounder". And the leather adds a little animalic touch which finished to win my heart. One of the best fragrances I had the chance to smell this year. It lasts for hours.

I'm sitting in a bar in old Havana, listening to live music and taking in the atmosphere. Men are smoking high quality cigars, women are dressed in heels wearing beautiful spicy floral perfume. The air is thick with carefree attitude. It's all mixing into one sultry scent. And that's what Memory Motel smells like. Wonderful performance. Perfectly unisex but leans a little masculine. Another masterpiece from Annick Menardo and now it's on my short list.

My grandpas cologne, the gorgeous one. Don't get me wrong. My late papaw was The Man in my life. I will always judge fragrances by how they would go with him, in his suit and tie, opening door on his old car for baby me. This is a scent of a gentleman, the kind that goes big. You can buy me a huge rose bouquet, or you can just simply bring one simple carnation, wearing this fragrance. And I will know. What a man! What a scent!

One of the very best tobacco-note fragrances out there, and surprisingly elegant for a run-down seaside motel. A perfect balance between sweet floral notes, stale cigarette smoke in the curtains, and a little hippie incense - it all feels very soft and smooth. Given the source of the fragrance's name, I would expect a hint of ocean/salt notes, but there's nothing like that. Very much a cool weather scent.

waw , you really fall into the warm, round, comfortable ambiance of an old area. It's very similar to Tobacco Vanille but with more caractere. The smoke of honeyed blond tobacco, an abandoned glass of rum, the patineted leather of old armchairs, oozing vanilla pods brought back from far away, the swirls of a hippy incense. Gorgeous

Bought a bottle at Lucky Scent in Hollywood on vacation earlier this year. I was looking for a spicy carnation and this was recommended as something that might "scratch that itch". I later acquired Carner Barcelona Sweet William (still looking for that "perfect" spicy carnation!) and I find they check a lot of the same boxes.

This smells so nostalgic to me. I would love it on a man and wear it myself. Beautiful contrast of brightness and heaviness. It’s sweet, spicy and earthy but it’s not thick/cloying at all. The spice: I’m getting cloves pretty strongly - maybe from the carnation?

This is the most unique fragrance that I recently smelled! Wow, I didn't expect that because it's out of the hype focus. It's the most realistic carnation so far. Spicy, mossy carnation with some abmer-like sweetness. Definitely worth trying.

A bit of citrus, nice clean powdery iris and carnation, some incense and a semi sweet base with tobacco and leather. Not to lipsticky, not to heavy or cloying just so well balanced. Classy and wearable

Amazing. Not too heavy. Feels like smoking a clove cigarette while sitting in a sunlight. Spicy-sweet, tobacco note is very soft, leather note is not sharp.

Soundtrack to this perfume: The Growlers album "City Club". Love them both

In my opinion, this is a masterpiece. Unlike many other perfumes that are barely related to their name, this one delivers what it promises. Maybe I'm primed by the name, this always plays a role, but to my nose Memory Motel smells very much like a stale 1970s motel room with an old carpet and a used, though emptied ashtray nearby. It starts slightly sweet, woody and smoky like a more conventional smoke/wood/amber combination but quickly dries down to what is really best described like an old motel room in which many people have smoked in the past. To be fair, the smoke in question is not cigarette smoke, it is more wearable and pleasant and only evokes the association with cold cigarette smoke. There is not really much noticeable tobacco in it, and the smoky woody chypre it develops into is rather dry and cold because the smokiness overpowers any residues of synthetic vanilla or amber in it. The initial sweetness almost completely goes away after a while. The atmosphere Memory Motel creates is stunning to me, I really feel like I'm in some motel on a cold winter morning, even though I've never been to the US and never in a real motel (only hotels). I do not get any association with the Stones song, but the choice fits; its one of those boring and overlong 80s ballads that aren't exactly the Stones' greatest music and by itself reminds of an old hotel. This fragrance clearly leans towards masculine, so much that I'd consider it a men's fragrance. Of course, this means that a woman can wear it, too, if she desires to smell like an old motel room. Which brings me to the downsides of this perfume and why I did not order a full bottle, even though I might later order a small one. First, this is a winter fragrance and, as I live in Portugal, is almost unwearable for me.This really fits a dry, ice cold winter morning with a temperature of around 0 C (32 F). Second, my girlfriend hates it. She's not a big fan of fragrances in general, but she really hated this one on my first try. On a second try, she conceded that it's not that bad and kind of tolerable if I spray it only once - but she's clearly not a fan. Generally, the smell of Memory Motel will evoke curiosity, but I believe it's not going to be a crowd-pleaser. Finally, be warned that this one is really strong. Like many fragrances with strong synthetic components, Memory Motel starts more harmless than to what it dries down. To cut a long story short, I really like this fragrance. It creates a beautiful atmosphere and is one of the rare perfumes that brings me to a parallel world, which is the main reason why I keep trying out niche fragrances. However, it may be somewhat hard to wear and is in my view a winter fragrance, even though it's not warm at all.

- wow! Great tobacco and leather fragrance. It's composed with light hands so neither note stands out. Carnation gives the fragrance a sweet cooling effect in the composition. I'm surprised there's oakmoss bc I don't really smell it prominently. The opening is just overall wonderful stuff. Love at first sniff. The drydown on the other hand smells like the iced water alcoholic beverage someone uses to put out the butt of their flavoured cigarettes. That's not a deal-breaker though. lol EDIT Dec 2020 testing again and while I liked it last month, I love it now! I don't generally like tobacco in my fragrances but this one was in the discovery set and it turned out to be an unexpected love. I just bought some travel sprays to have more time with the fragrance and decide if I want FBs and this one is among them.

FIRST IMPRESSION: A clove and carnation dream; I LOVE THIS. Like an old cedar chest where every drawer has its own clove/cinnamon/Christmas potpourri satchel, and a narrow vase with a few red carnations sits on top. Spicy, floral, woody. UPDATE AFTER SKIN-TESTING -- absolutely love the clove/carnation smell on blotter, and the clove is still lovely on skin, HOWEVER... whatever oakmoss molecule is in this fragrance is specifically the one that goes burpy crayon on my skin (BR540 and Mousse de Chene do this as well) and the magic of the blotter sadly does not translate to my skin.

Starts out as a dusty old library smell, not dissimilar to Olfactive Studio Autoportrait or Miller Harris L'Air de Rien. It's sweet, coumarin-y and a bit dank/dusty. It does evoke old and slightly stale, but in a good way. The drydown becomes considerably smokier (more woodsmoke than cigarette or cigars to me) and is nearly identical to me to LL Patchouli 24 (also Annick Menardo), which I also really like. It's so weird when perfumers just move their own accords around to different perfumes. I feel like Une Nuit Nomade got shorted because now it's lost its uniqueness.

I agree that it smells like a worn room yet there are sudden passages of fresh air. Rays of light shine through blinds and kaleidoscopically highlight both tidy and dusty facets playing tricks on your perception, and making Memory Motel strangely addictive. While I wish there was a little less of a specific vanilla note reminiscent of L'Air de Rien (and to a lesser degree Kilian Amber Oud), I will further test this as this is beautifully done. Longevity is eternal for me.

A sweet fruity iris locked in battle with a pack of marlboros. I get similarities to Miller Harris Etui Noir and Miller Harris Feuilles de Tabac. Did they have a baby together? A thick dose of strawberried pastel-fake flowers meets a very ashy smoke accord. So yeah, maybe it is meant to evoke plugging a cheap glade air freshener into the motel wall after a chain smoker had the room the night prior. I actually do like the smell. Pretty interesting. 8.1/10

This smells exactly like Swedish mulled wine (glögg), a spiced warm beverage we drink during Swedish christmas. I love it because of the association. If you have no clue what glögg smells like, this scent is a spicy, warm fruity smell. If I go to a cabin in the winter, trying to get into a cozy mood, this would be my number one pick of what scent to wear.

I agree, not unique, but it is a great name. I can just picture the "Memory Motel" with half full ashtrays, dated wallpaper, old wood floor, Kincaid prints on the wall, complete with the requisite lumpy mattress, covered by a debatably ugly 70's floral patterned bedspread. Sounds like a good time to me.

Nostalgia and modernity together! This is my favourite from the disco set. It's a powdery tobacco scent... for some reason I smelled a generous amount of cloves but it's not listed, maybe the tobacco gave me that impression. Vanilla softness and a light touch of leather, it's a nice blend.

ooh pretty. this opens with iris, oakmoss, tobacco and leather. i get some vanilla and patchouli a bit later. it smells like fresh cigarettes in a leather purse. i love tobacco perfumes and this one does not disappoint. it's smooth and very pretty. more subtle and not overpowering.

I interpreted Memory Motel as a sweet and spicy tobacco-leather with a touch of shaving foam. The carnation and bergamot opening comes off a bit like a nappy, but once it dries down, it has a wonderful balance, reminding me of the powdery drydown to Habit Rouge. Fit for a writer.

I detected a strong clove note that could very likely be the tobacco note listed in the pyramid. The second most prominent note is the tonka bean/vanilla base. Think Burberry London, JM Pomegranate Noir, and a touch of TF's Tobacco Vanille.

Decent tobacco forward scent. Truly unisex. Performance is trash. Less than five minutes of longevity with skin level sillage. All of the scents from this brand have the same abysmal performance and absolutely average scent profiles.

The warm spicy opening smells quite nice, with a hint of sourness. The smoky note is well-balanced with citrus. The dry-down still has a slight tartness, it’s very dry.

Un mélange poudré et très féminin Belle qualitée de matière première, l'iris et la vanille sont très beau

Great composition. If it was not for the powdery drawdown, would get myself a full bottle.

smells like a hug from my grandma

I really enjoy the opening of this, with the fresh bergamot and the iris before it becomes lipstick-y. The dry down is not so interesting to me, smells to much make-up bag.

Tobacco and leather with a floral touch. Bold, warm, for fall and winter for sure. More for a man. Dirty motel! Not so fan, sorry

What I get is incense, tobacco and clove. The dry down is a powdery, dusty Tobacco smell with clove in the back. I'm not a fan.

When I read these notes... it's all I love, yet when i tried the sample "dislike" is a mild word I would choose. I hated it to the point I could not even go through the 1ml sample. I do believe it is quite unique and it can be a signature scent, because the originality is there but unfortunately this blend did not go well with my nose. I don't know what it was, maybe geranium, but there is some rough bitterness that is making me nauseous which is strange because I like bitter things. Wish I could like this one better but I's my least favourite out of the entire collection.

Ordered the discovery set from Une Nuit Nomade, and first off, BEAUTIFUL packing, very evocative and artistic, and super fast shipping. <3 This is a very sweet, incensey tobacco. Not sure about the appropriateness of the name to me personally. For me, very light projection, doesn't smell like a motel room or anything. It's just very light.

very pleasant drydown. at the start sometimes I get unpleasant note many Une nuit nomade perfumes are lovely, only they don’t last on my skin. I wonder if that’s a concept of Une nuit nomade (cozy, close to skin, non invasive big city) maybe someone could comment on that

The name for it is perfect. Memory Motel. Yes, it truly smells of those cheap, old, worn-out motel rooms people smoke in and have sex with prostitutes. If you want to smell like this or simply as if you smoke much - this is your jam. I'm passing on this opportunity.

Baby powder, stale tobacco, dried flowers. Really does smell like a cheap dusty motel room. Scrubbed after 30 min.

After two hours: there is still something uncomfortable in it and very attractive at the same time. For me, this is somehow dark perfume. Do not bother to search the joy or happiness. It is more like something was lost. Something has passed, the memory remains. And "memory" from the name of the perfume is totally true. Memory, past, reminescence... and not entirely comfortable. it’s a little bitter, but it’s not hard, the smell isn’t as heavy as it is uncomfortable like when you’re in a space where you become mildly or a little more anxious and yet it’s exciting. You do nothing about that, you dont change because that can not be changed. You are still and wait... after two hours the carnations are felt on all sides. the most beautiful is at 10 cm, while when I put my nose to the skin - there is no doubt, something is dead like at funerals, in flower shops in the cemetery when the smell of flowers and frankincense mix. again, i wouldn't say it's a risky smell, it can just be unpleasant but if you like experiments give it a try. my memory of motels and bars from the eighties with all that leather and bistro chairs didn't smell like this, so that atmosphere doesn't occur to me. and at the opening it’s ... I’ll be honest, as if someone had managed to turn fear and all inhibitions into a formula! So unique and genuine. Very powerful and secretive. Like opening Pandora Box. This is during the day - calming the fear and turning it into tenderness to the end or softness because at the end leather is the Queen. This is my favorite part. Beginning is hard, like a struggle. Ending is such a great expirience. The packaging is top, I mean the box and the bottle is classic and everything goes with each other. The only thing that pulls out from below, so when I pulled it out of the bag, it could fall to the floor, so be careful.

Somehow comforting and sexy all at once. A leathery-tobacco chypre: warm, vibrant, spicy and sweet. I can imagine Marlene Dietrich swishing onto the cabaret stage and filling the room with this enchanting scent. Memory Motel opens with a touch of bergamot, a note that never fails to enhance without warping or one-upping the other notes. I like that the top note is just bergamot — a sunny, citrus-strewn path that leads you directly into the fragrance. An accord of iris, incense, and carnation makes up the heart; such glamorous music those notes make. The carnation gives it a surprising amount of spiciness and the incense plays that element up even more. I was surprised there wasn’t an actual spice note in there — clove or pepper maybe — because the scent has such a spicy bite to it. Nestled deep is a complex foundation of patchouli, vanilla, tobacco, and leather. Vampy and vintage. The tobacco note is moist, sticky, and very sweet. For me, the sweetness balances the spiciness perfectly. A gorgeous scent for fall/winter because of its warmth and mysteriousness. Sillage is moderate. The scent lasts about 5-6 hours on the skin and around 24 hours on clothing and fabrics. Definitely worth exploring, especially if you’re into sweet tobacco notes.

Check In.. I think it's fair to say this smells like an expensive hotel lobby. It's the smell of white wood ghostly in its splendor but to my chagrin, no vacancies for the bergamot note. Low-key iris markings are throughout making this qualitatively vintage with vanilla used to kindle remembrance. A queen-sized dosage of oakmoss budding with verdancy is detected but suddenly disappears without a trace. In its place, a scantly dressed patchouli note greens its way into the atmosphere followed by a languid amount of leather to help round out what serves to be the chypre experience. Check Out.. This smells like a better version of Susanne Lang's Tamboti Wood. A primaveral chypre with good enough robustness to prove your perfume point. Notice I use the word languid to describe the leather. The dysphemism is used to make a strong point about the lackadaisical nature of the leather. The cow hide note tends to be a fan favorite therefore, I felt the need to add my version of veracity in hopes that you're not caught off guard with said note. The meager usage of incense is like complimentary breakfast. It's an incentive to make you purchase the fragrance. Overall, this is simple but dare I say upscale. -BLIND BUY WORTHY-

Presumably any perfume could trigger a memory, ....if it was smelled before. So the suggestion that Memory Motel is somehow particularly nostalgic sounds like pure marketing, ...and a supposed connection with roadside lodgings might be only a desire for alliteration. This starts out suggestive of cotton candy (bergamot and vanilla?) and stays sweet. Lightly spiced carnation and powdery cigarette smoke drift in. ...Is that tobacco note lit? The whole thing is shifting towards a sweet but smoky leather mood. If this is about a motel, the mysterious traveller took a smoking room. Yes, orris powder and oakmoss are still there too. Regardless of exact storyline, this is a pleasantly languid and hypnotic blend, and why not? ...as Une Nuit Nomade scents are often themed around travel, ...so rest awhile weary wayfarer, and awake refreshed.

This smells like it could come from Imaginary Authors - especially Yesterday Haze - having that signature “dusty” vibe. However it's more refined than most of the IA scents I've tried, so well-blended that it's fuzzy (kinda the point, I guess). Tobacco and leather are balanced by an only marginally sweet, creamy vanilla with a dab of florals and citrus to tie it all together - but then sprinkle a layer of dust over the whole concoction. Cozy but haunting, like a ghost is giving you a hug. Truly unisex - ghosts don't have gender. I'm perplexed! I can't decide how I feel abut it. I got the sample as part of the discover set so I'll give it a real shot one day.