Of Shalimar and Decants

When Portia on Perfume Posse announced that she was getting back into the habit of using up samples and decants for the year of 2025. I leapt at the chance of using up some of my decants and samples as well. I figured that with all the decants and samples that I have, I really should start using some of what I have. The decants that I am currently working on is Patou Joy extrait, Amouage Honour and one of my decants of Diagilev. I figure to start out with 3 a month and stick to my dabber samples right now. If I can work on getting more than 3 a month, that would be awesome and it would be a bonus if I could actually use up some travel sprays and full bottles this year as well. But with the 3 that I mentioned that I am working on, I am almost done with those. And when I finish those 3, I will move on to something else.

But what do I do when I commit to this decant challenge/resolution thing? I order 2 more decants. I ordered another decant of Tigress Musk and a sample of Memoir Man. I think that since that I don't order decants too often anymore, it's okay, I just won't get more samples for a long while. What works a little more in my favor is the TPC doesn't do as many sales as they used to and I can't recall the last time that STC had a sale. I figure with inflation and all, it's not exactly worth it. Without sales and coupons, I am less tempted to buy. But I am doing that even with groceries (looking at sales and coupons). I am only trying Memoir Man because I haven't tried too many of Amouage's men's offerings and maybe I should try more. I did try the men's version of Lyric and Epic way back when and wasn't too terribly impressed. The men's version of Gold was something I liked much better than the women's version. But we shall see how Memoir Man fairs.

There is a reason that I did mention Fabrege Tigress Musk. Earlier, I did pull out one of my bottles of Shalimar and sprayed an unhealthy amount. The Shalimar bottle that I used was when it was the early days of my perfume journey. It's kind of vintage but not really and I haven't pulled out a vintage bottle of Shalimar or vintage anything in a long time. Shalimar was always a lovely perfume on my skin. But I had forgotten how slutty Shalimar is. It's not exactly vintage Bal a Versailles or MKK but the sluttyness is there. When I sprayed Shalimar, I started to get a really wicked craving for Tigress Musk and naturally it's in the pile of decants that I can't get to at the moment. The decant of Tigress Musk that I have already is probably half full. The reason that I only ordered a decant is because getting a full bottle never quite works out. When I remember to look, it's either not available or the cost is a little over the top for me.
 

Amouage Memoir Man EDP Review

 I finally bit the bullet this morning. I went to Luckyscent and ordered the Viktoria Minya travel set. I do like travel sets, especially if they are different scents like the one I ordered. A little less commitment. Sometimes, I get weary of plain perfume bottles. So this time, I went with some bottle porn or travel set porn. When the original Hedonist came out and my bottle arrived in the mail, I did squeal. The rhinestones in the bottle, the color of the perfume, the packaging in general was pretty much bottle porn.

I have enjoyed quite a few of Amouage offerings in the past. It seems like after Beloved, I kind of lost interest in Amouage. Too many new releases and a change in direction that made me lose interest. I've never really explored the men's offerings that Amouage has. I am working on that.

Last night, I applied Amouage Memoir Man for a test drive. I have never been the biggest fan of the men's offerings when coming from Amouage. I have found what I have tried to be kind of thin and I don't smell the resemblance to the women's version. Amouage Gold Man was the only one that really tied in to the women's version of Gold. I prefer Gold Man to Gold Woman. Memoir Man in ways has left me unimpressed. Thin, no relation to Memoir Woman but I've said that with other men's offerings. I am not smelling much of anything that's listed. I smell hints of leather, hints of wood and grass.

Memoir Man smells most like Chanel Sycomore on steroids with the extreme dry down of CdG Kyoto. I have both Sycomore and Kyoto. As time goes on, I get a little bit of a dusty smell to it. The lasting power is about 7 hours on my skin. I am not going to actively seek a bottle but wouldn't refuse a bottle if it were dropped in my lap.