Milky Way at night over Omani desert Matteo Colombo travel photography
“You know Orion always comes up sideways.
Throwing a leg up over our fence of mountains,
And rising on his hands, he looks in on me.” ~ Robert Frost, from the Star-Splitter
Clara Molloy (the Creative Director behind Memo Paris, (read her Creative Directors in Perfumery story here) and her husband John are an adventurous couple, as their prodigious body of work implies. Together with the instinctive composition of their house nose perfumer Aliénor Massenet, they endeavor to evoke vivid landscapes they have treasured, encapsulate stolen moments in natural settings. Their latest Cuirs Nomades release Memo Paris Oriental Leather pays homage to the bliss of night-gazing in Oman’s Wahiba Sands (also known as the Sharqiya Sands) under the Milky Way canopy. The vastness of Arabian desert and firmament provided their impetus. Oriental Leather simply glows like the blazing morningstar ascending a duneswept horizon.
image of dawn over Wahiba Sands canberratimes.com.au
Few among us are as well-traveled as the Molloys. Their wanderlust is prodigious; I’m personally humbled by it – and would be over the moon to have visited half as many countries and cultures as they. Not having had such an opportunity, from my view Memo Paris perfumes feel conceptual: an emotion, a vision is fleshed out and rendered fragrant in service to the experiential. Such is the case regarding Oriental Leather. Is it Oriental? Most definitely – but not, perhaps, in a manner many have come to associate with Oriental. Is it leathery? It is – but this particular leather is neither as raw as Memo Paris Irish Leather or as suede-glovelike as other leathers with which we are familiar. Memo Paris Oriental Leather has a fragrant refrain that haunts us as we attempt to unveil its kinship with perfumes past. There’s a Proustian moment.
olfactory processing via cogblog, colby.edu (you can read Ida’s article on “Why I smell: or how i learned to love my Amygdala here
For several reasons, the great Guerlains spring to mind: Jicky parfum (1889, Aimé Guerlain) and L’Heure Bleue (1912, Jacques Guerlain) – both classified as Orientals, the former as fougère, the latter as floral. We are smelling bases exuding warmth and utterly luxurious. Each perfume contains benzoin and vanilla, for one. From Jicky we are gifted leather, lavender, cinnamon and patchouli. From L’Heure Bleue, the spectre of anise; in lieu of clove, coriander, cinnamon and pimento leaf behave as ‘grace notes’, imparting a toothsome spiciness. It is these elements which spark memory in the fondest sense. This is what is intended by the term ‘fragrant refrain’. Here the resemblance ends. Both Jicky and L’Heure Bleue demonstrate (to my nose) an interchange between coolness and warmth, the moist and dry. (Doesn’t it fascinate you how fragrances can be composed of similar materials and differ so greatly?)
via Memo Paris
Similar to these Guerlain beauties, lovely Memo Oriental Leather begins cool and warms over time – but it feels dry, desert-arid, in fact. I can detect no strains of moisture, no Miriam’s Well in it. The spices of the souk skew slightly masculine (if one were to assign gender to spice, which is patently silly in itself) in the presence of leather and lavender.
Geranium leaf has a wonderful legend which interweaves well: it is said that geraniums first emerged from the place the Prophet Mohammed hung his shirt to dry in the sun (shall we go then to the myth that geraniums also flourish near witches’ cottages?)! Just thinking about these things warms my heart… It seems as if we have traveled a considerable distance without realizing the inherent serendipity. I never anticipated as I sat down at table that this was where I would land. Truly the journey became the destination.
Notes: Coriander seed oil, Pimento Leaf oil, Lavender oil, Leather accord, Anise Seed oil, Geranium Leaf, Cinnamon Bark Essential oil Benzoin, Patchouli oil, Vanilla Bean absolute
Thank you, Europerfumes – for my beautiful tester bottle; I will cherish it. My nose is my own…
~ Ida Meister, Senior Editor and Natural Perfumery Editor
Available in the USA at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Scent Bar NYC
Memo Paris Oriental Leather by Ida
Thanks to the largess Europerfumes, the USA distributor we have a 75 ml tester (no cap) of Memo Paris Oriental Leather for one registered reader in the USA ONLY. You must register here or your comment will not count. To be eligible, please comment upon what appealed to you in Ida’s review of Oriental Leather. Do you have a favorite Memo Paris scent? Draw closes 10/25/2019
Follow us on Instagram @cafleurebon @idameister @official_europerfumes and @memo.paris
This is our Privacy and Draw Rules Policy
We announce the winners only on our site and on our Facebook page, so like Çafleurebon and use our blog feed, or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume…