Memoize is a niche fragrance house that captures memories and bottles them for us to share – surely the very essence of that emotional connection we all for when wearing a fragrance? Which scent memories are we billowing forth this summer, and how did the founder’s own fragrant fanaticism begin? Read on to discover more…
You see, Memoize just get it – the scented significance of the personal connections we have with the perfumes we love most. Or, as they put it, ‘…the importance of creating a perfectly harmonious balance between fragrances and how they make people feel, incorporating notes that many would remember from their childhood, adolescence and beyond.’ Most importantly, they know that this fragrant memory bank is not locked away in an airtight safe – it’s something we live and breathe, and therefore can all add to, every day of our lives. So that ‘…these scents will become the basis of future memories, too.’
Sometimes it takes a lifetime to learn what seems this most simple of things – understanding and tapping in to our deepest selves – but although Holly Hutchinson founded Memoize in 2016, her fragrant memory lessons began far further back. On her seventh birthday, she was gifted her very first set of miniature perfumes. As her mother was ‘an avid collector of unusual scents’, perfumes were almost indelibly linked to scented snapshots of Holly’s childhood memories. ‘A French holiday in the sun, a ride across the waves by boat, venturing through trees in a garden of ferns and Laurels…’ The album of scent memories was filling up fast.
It was in 2011 that Holly could truly begin to follow her dream, joining a prestigious niche fragrance brand and pursuing a career in the industry. But after seven successful years, it was time to start thinking about reaching further, using her love of fragrance and design with the expert knowledge she’d gained, and finally launching her own brand. Holly says she ‘knew immediately’ what the concept should be: sharing the very memories that launched her own fragrant career, while helping perfume-lovers explore their own scented memory bank. So, shall we take a scented wallow in those memories…?
Losing yourself to the intoxication of seduction is the name of the game with the particular scent memories of Luxuria. Think of joyous summer picking wild berries with a loved one, of that moment when your mouth waters just prior to biting into a lusciously juicy blackberry – well, that’s what’s bottled here. Shot through with luminescent tuberose, muguet (lily of the valley) and ylang ylang, its dry-down dips you deeper to a base of vanilla-infused suede.
This best-selling scent became so beloved it was turned into an extended scent memory with Rose Luxuria – this time an airier, fresher caress of deliciously sparkling top notes of bergamot, lemon and orange that deepen to the juicy delights of tropical fruits. The heart proffers a bouquet of airy, almost soapy rose, the delicacy of lily of the valley, magnolia and orange flower dusted with orris on a throbbingly deeper base of amber, benzoin, moss, precious musk and woody undertones. So, so beautiful!
More recently we’ve been enamoured with the scented self-reflection of Ego as an olfactory wake-up call. The green freshness of fig leaf is followed by the piquancy of cassis. Together, these notes somehow feel like the familiarity of softly crushed tomato leaves, along with a mellowing lap of cool, coconut milkiness that caresses, silkily and cardamom speckled rose petals wrapped around ambered, tonka woodiness. Likening the development on your skin to the blooming of your soul, it’s a scented symbiosis.
Tempted to try more? If you’ve not had the pleasure of trying any yet, why not dive in to the joyously uplifting and soul-soothings scents in the Light Range Discovery Set; or explore the Dark Range Discovery Set to delve into your deepest desires? You can also shop the collection of Memoize London here, where we’re thrilled you can now buy full sizes from our shopAnd with extrait de parfum concentrations – these are scent memories that truly last…
Written by Suzy Nightingale
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