Siwa
Memo (2008)

Smells good, cosy and well blended, but way too soft.

Aldehydes and violet act well together on top. It begins to smell like heliotrope to me a bit later. Very powdery. The narcissus appears some time later. Slight cinnamon. Vanilla later, as it settles into a skin scent. Easy to wear. Not overly creative but, pretty...

The dang stuff has grown on me. I love it!

I wonder if I got a wrong sample. I smell citrus, vanilla and rose... lasting power is good, but it doesn't have much sillage. I'm the only one who smells it.
So different from what I'd expect from reading the description, notes and reviews... but good anyway !

A strange but refined semi-gourmand centered over a soapy-boozy white chord of cereals (kind of rice cream in my perception), liqueur and balsams with a sort of durable floral botanic vibe. I detect the aldehydes with that typical characteristic radiance and catch the role of the sweet spices (the cinnamon is just yummy and tasty but not pungent). The note of whisky is well calibrated and starts fading in the central part of the development. Thanks God the floral note of narcissus is tenacious (but discreet) providing a touch of articulation in the body of an easy and soapy juice. I catch more a sort of soapy-neutral amber-benzoin than properly a tasty-yummy vanilla in the base. The scent is comforting, dreamy, averagely mild and ethereal but in a cosmetic kind of vein and a bit poor about complexity, structure and sophistication. The lasting power infortunately is too faint.

When you spray it you have a sniff of vanilla, cinnamond and wiskey in rapid succession. The three are well blent but disapper instantly. What is left is only a faint idea of alcohool. Why working on a nice accord if it doesn't last more than 30 seconds? This is the first Memo product I try, but it is not promising.

These Memo scents are strange creatures, transparent and ghostly almost. Ethereal interpretations of times, moods and destinations. Siwa is cereals, vanilla and aldehydes, so soft as to be almost haunting. Like walking through an abandoned holiday villa but knowing you still feel the traces of parties before you. I know gourmands are now everywhere, leaking their sugars, caramels and chocolates into an already sticky atmosphere, but I found myself oddly addicted to this. Popcorn and whisky are listed in the notes and it does have a whisper of Glayva, a weird whisky liqueur I sipped in my teenage years, with pretentions to sophistication. It smells like well made white chocolate on my skin, with little traces of spice as it settles, the popcorn thing? Who knows…..maybe it's the lick of nut butter? I went through three bottles before getting bored. Can't really explain why I liked it so much, it just smelled so good on, deeply comforting and so …white. Actually, thinking about it now, maybe the popcorn note explains the lack of control I had with Siwa, constantly reapplying and inhaling. I find with popcorn, once I start I just can't stop.