Tag: amouage

Beach Hut Woman by Amouage

October 17, 2018

Notes: bergamot, mineral notes, driftwood, ylang-ylang, patchouli, and cashmeran.

I’ve tried many new Amouage releases in recent years, including Bracken Woman, Imitation Woman, Lilac Love, and Blossom Love. Frustratingly, none of them seemed to want to work with my skin chemistry. I’d almost given up hope of finding a contemporary Amouage release that works with my skin when I read about Beach Hut Woman. I don’t do typical beach scents like the quintessential Bobbi Brown Beach or Replica Beach Walk. I’m not really a typical beach person in general. I sunburn way too easily to spend my vacations laying out all day. Luckily for me, Beach Hut Woman isn’t the typical vacation beach scent and it really suits my style.

Beach Hut Woman opens with a bright, clear bergamot citrus note. I also get the mineral notes. To my nose, it’s not the typical calone note you might expect. It’s quite salty to me, and comes across as slightly seaweed-y! This opening is actually really interesting and appropriately beachy, while also signaling that this scent will not be the typical sunscreen-and-sand beach composition.

After an hour, the dry patchouli note starts to appear and it lasts for the rest of wear time for me. The driftwood note, which is the heart of the composition, appears as a woody note with a quiet presence. The sillage is low at this point. Beach Hut Woman sits closely to the skin and is really an inward-leaning scent rather than projecting out. If this is not your style, you likely won’t enjoy this scent. However, I find the low sillage appropriate for the vibe of this scent. The driftwood note conjures up images of visiting a beach house during the off-season. You can smell the salty sea air, but it’s too cold to go for a swim.

The cashmeran base softens things out like a haziness falling across the sea at dusk. There is something that feels universally familiar about Beach Hut Woman at this point, as though we’ve all been to this beach house at dusk. I imagine that most of us have been around this type of nostalgic smell before, whether it’s a summer house that’s been closed up for the off-season, or clearing out an old attic at your parents’ house. This kind of dry down won’t be for everyone. It’s not opulent, rich, or warm. Beach Hut Woman leans on the cooler side, although there is some coziness in the dry down from the cashmeran. Overall, it’s a contemplative and cerebral scent. I find it has a similar vibe to Wood Sage and Sea Salt from Jo Malone.

A full bottle of Amouage is out of my price range, but the packaging and presentation for Beach Hut Woman is beautiful. To me, this is completely worth the splurge if you can afford it. I wouldn’t recommend blind-buying this scent in particular simply because it’s so different for a beach scent, and you may not like the low projection of this composition. Beach Hut Woman is an emotional scent, in that you really need to be in the right mood to wear it and enjoy it. I also find it very nostalgic. I’d love to try Beach Hut Man (I hear that it’s a minty fougère) but I can say for sure that Beach Hut Woman is definitely worth a sniff.

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I purchased my sample of Beach Hut Woman from Luckyscent.

The info on notes is from Fragrantica.

The photo is my Beach Hut Woman sample vial paired with earrings from J. Crew.

Memoir Woman by Amouage

February 12, 2015

amouage memoirNotes: absynth, cardamom, mandarin orange, pink pepper, wormwood, clove, incense, pepper, jasmine, rose, white flowers, musk, French labdanum, oak moss, styrax, and leather.

I don’t know what it is about this time of year, but I always find myself craving Amouage’s Memoir Woman. February is the shortest month of the year, but it can often feel like the longest. Sometimes you need a little something extra to get you through this last bit of winter. Amouage is a brand known for opulence and, just from glancing at the cluster of notes listed above, it’s easy to tell that Memoir Woman is definitely something special.

For me, Memoir Woman starts out dark and becomes brighter as it develops. The opening is a zesty dose of aldehydes, pepper, and orange fruit. The leather note is also present for me right away. It conjures up the feel of a deeply luxurious black leather, like grabbing a black handbag on your way out the door for the night.

As the leather develops, smoke begins to waft and curl its way around the skin. Smoke and incense fragrances have been playing very quietly with my skin chemistry lately, but not Memoir Woman. This is a bold fragrance and the smokey note is no exception. Because of the clove note, I get the distinct impression of smoking black clove cigarettes. My friends and I used to smoke these in college (thinking we were so grown-up!) so there’s a bit of a nostalgia factor here for me.

I know the only fruit note listed is the mandarin orange but, after a couple hours of wear, I get the impression of red fruit. It’s both sweet and tart, and it has some texture to it, almost like raspberry jam. Perhaps it’s the combination of the pepper and the florals. Whatever it is, it’s quite appealing. And the composition never crosses the line into being too jammy or sticky sweet.

The leather note is at the heart of the dry down. It’s a little less dark here, but no less rich. I sense soft musk and rose, and there’s a lingering sweetness rounding things out. The perfume still casts some projection even in the late dry down stages, and it lasts for ages. The scent lingers on clothes, on my scarves, and on sheets. If I wear Memoir Woman to bed, my bedroom smells like this dry down stage in the morning.

I’ve tried its counterpart, Memoir Man, and I far prefer the Woman version. It just feels that much more rich and full-bodied to me, and it’s the one I find myself returning to again and again. Amouage runs on the extravagant side of the price scale. I personally have not splurged on a full bottle yet, but I hope to eventually. Amouage is the perfume house turn to if you’re in the mood for decadence, and Memoir Woman is my preferred choice for indulging.

samples and full bottles of Amouage fragrances are available from Luckyscent, which is where I keep replenishing my sample of this fragrance.

Image and info on notes are both from Luckyscent.