Azulejos tiles, Portugal ©Pixers. Photo, creative direction, and collage by a_nose_knows for Sintra by Memo Paris.
The lines are long at Casa Azul, but people tremble in a quiet calm, somewhat joyous, waiting to enter the boastful walls together and alone at once. It may be Frida they’re looking for, her art, her unibrow, her colorful clothes; but it’s more likely it’s the unapologetic authenticity of self they’re searching, represented—amongst other things—in the blue energy of stucco. Go South into the Caribbean, through Brazil, the Andes, and all the way to the Ushuaia port, and you’ll find the same connection to the life in the cerulean; go North into the Native American tribes and the turquoise, particularly since Atsidi Santi brought about silversmithing, became not only a symbol of skill and power, but of plentitude and luck.
Talaveras tiles ©123rf; Navajo Sleeping Beauty & Kingsman Turquoise Bracelet, ©Native American Jewelry; Sao Luis tiles, Brazil ©Pixers. Collage by a_nose_knows for Sintra by Memo Paris.
In Europe, turquoise came from French, where it means… Turkish. Irreplaceable as it now is in the collective thought of beauty seekers, the color trend itself came, yes, from Cappadocia, where it had arrived from farther East in the form of Persian gemstones and the same intricate, exquisite tilework we now see in Sintra. And although Portuguese azulejos made the trip back East and reached, in style, as far as the Philippines, the Sintrans (and the Indians, for that matter) owe their cultural ceramic legacy to traders on the Silk Route…. which, in turn, learned ceramic from old China.
Roman tiles ©123rf; Persian turquoise ©Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry; ©Fitzwilliam Museum Shop. Collage by a_nose_knows for Memo Paris Sintra.
Unsurprisingly, wherever it landed, the color turquoise stood out against the older esthetic background of earth tones—and *popped*. Spiritualists, gemologists, and new-age colorists go as far as attributing it a 4Cs scale, using a system not unlike that found in the quantification of diamonds: aqua is the color of c-almness, c-larity, c-ompassion, and c-ommunication, attracting dual-tone effects: single-focus, indiscrete joy, massive opacity, hungry growth. Narcissistic, I think they all call it, and they might be right: in the Pantone book, the teals are endless.
Moroccan tiles ©Omid Scheybani; Tibetan turquoise breast plate, ©1stdibs; Uzbek tiles ©123rf
Memo Paris Sintra by Alienor Massenet under the creative direction of co-founder Clara Molloy is calm and clear, yes, compassionate and communicative– and it’s also as blinding as any secretly stressful, swaggering, self-centering, play-driven piece of art can be. Boastful, well blended, and ludic, Sintra is also monolithical, reaching a focus as inexorable as that specific and oh-so-sweet point where too much pleasure becomes pain, where getting lost turns worrisome, when the pretending gets too real; that being said, enough is not enough with this, and spraying with abandon, no matter how wide and high the first puff, is recommended. The citrus is creamy and confectionery sweet, zesty enough to make it palatable enough to want more; more Sintra by Memo Paris means sweeter and more cream, which would be alarming save not for a smart, razor-sharp petitgrain and a mere hint of forest berry for crisp balance.
Fun like an imposed ride you surrender yourself to, ridiculously alive, critically insolent, and—nowadays—much needed. A joy.
Official notes: bergamot, red Fruits, petitgrain, orange blossom absolut, jasmin, milk, cinnamon Madagascar, rose absolut, balsams, vanilla Madagascar, caramel, cedar, musk
Other perceived notes: coconut
Disclaimer: Sintra by Memo Paris provided by Europerfumes Thank you much.
– dana sandu, Editor
Sintra by Memo Paris. Photo, creative direction, and editing by a_nose_knows
Thanks to the generosity of Europerfumes, the US distributor, we have a 75 ml tester available ($300) of Sintra by Memo Paris in the US for one registered reader (you must register on our site or your comment will not count). To be eligible, please tell us what you enjoyed or found interesting about dana’s review and if you have tried a Memo Paris perfume before (the brand is now known as MEMO). Draw closes 11/7/2020
Available at Luckyscent.com to sample or purchase.
This is our Privacy and Draw Rules Policy
Follow us on Instagram @cafleurebon @a_nose_knows @official_europerfumes @memo.paris
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.