Note to Self

For those who already discovered Memo Paris’s graphic golden bottles and whimsical scents while perusing Colette in Paris or Harvey Nichols in London, news of the brand’s US launch in Bergdorf Goodman next month with come with a collective sigh of, Finally! Clara Molloy and husband John (previously an executive at L’Oreal and LVMH) created the luxury perfume line 5 years ago with Aliénor Massenet, a nose whose claims to olfactory fame include blends for Chloe, Giorgio Armani, and Maison Martin Margiela. While the name is pronounced like the mundane office document, it’s actually refers to memory and not memorandum. The core range of 11 scents, Les Échappées, evoke obscure destinations: the patchouli, rose, and vanilla notes of Lalibela, a Christian pilgrimage city in Ethiopia; the pear, tuberose, and iris of a Sundance movie theater; and the dreamed-up smell of the lunar surface in Moon Fever. “We imagined the moon would be something like a party or a fever—hot,” says Clara of the citrus, neroli, and vetiver-tinged juice. “Maybe I think this because someone sang ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ at my wedding.” The two other ranges include a leather-based collection called Cuirs Nomades—three intoxicating scents of Italian, Irish, and French skins—and a botanical range based on seeds, called Graines Vagabondes, that includes the newest fragrance, Ilha do Mel, which launches in July. The juniper-, broom flower-, and vanilla concoction was inspired by an isolated, undeveloped Brazilian island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro with ideal surfing conditions and not a single car. So, while we start making room on our vanities, let’s also hope they’re willing to take stowaways on the next round of research.