Italian Leather
Memo (2013)

I like the Memo line
Although the leather here is blended with lots of herbs and lots of green notes, the outstanding note in this has to be the Tomato Leaf, it may not be liked by the masses, but I think it is fantastic.
This also has touches of sweetness coming from the vanilla.
Myrrh and Clary Sage add to this lovely green note.
In my collection this is quite unique.

Far from traditional Mass pleasing designers out there, so a big thumbs up from me.

Overall Scent 7.5-10
Performance 7.8-10
Silage 7-10

When I first tried this I remember feeling surprised to a rare degree. Feeling truly surprised by a scent in itself is a form of pleasure to me that, on the long run, exceeds other pleasures, especially when something has the potential to evoke this sensation of surprise over and over again. "Italian Leather" is one of very few scents that can do this for me; it's amusing.

Its most impressive trait is its dissonance. Smelling "Italian Leather" is like smelling two or three perfumes at the same time, one of them is a pungent, somewhat sour botanical impression, like stepping into a greenhouse where the evaporations of plants have taken on a beastly thickness, verging on zoo-like (indoor sections, monkeys, bats, spiders and their excretions). Amongst this green hemisphere of the scent may be a mediterranean impression which I experience as, if anything, fleeting, and which I probably would not have identified as such without that idea being suggested by the perfume's name. In parallel to this challenging greenhousy impression which evokes a natural world full of unfair events (nest robbery), coexists a non-consolatory sweetness with an industrial aspect to it, which makes me think of marshmallows or scented plastic toys more than vanilla, verging on decay, reminiscent of Etat Libre D'Orange's pursuit of 'morbid sweetness' in "Charogne", which is based on the idea of a rotting carcass. This sweetness and the dung-spiced greenness remain almost entirely in a neighboring relation which leaves me with a stimulating sensation of incomputability, and makes "Italian Leather" very modern to me. It's an adventurous scent, on a mental more than just a sexual level. Its resinous quality qualifies it also for cold weather.

As much as I like it, I understand very well why many people feel suspicious of Memo. I agree that their products are overpriced and the whole concept of the "Leathers" in combination with the strong emphasis on elaborate bottle design seems strategic in a sense that does not raise hopes for the most excellent craft behind the perfumes. The idea of coming up with 8 different leather scents is not without its charm but there's also something a bit forced about it: what if you just can't generate as many great scents around that one idea?

I don't know a lot about Sidonie Lancesseur's other work but in "Italian Leather", she has created something interesting, provocative and modern.

Right away, you can smell the tomato leaf. After that, I start to get hints of vanilla and leather. As it develops further, the leather just hangs out in the background while the tomato leaf and vanilla take the lead, giving off a sweet, earthy and green scent that surprisingly works, at least for me. It feels very unisex. At the very end of the drydown, it's a smokey, woody vanilla with some leather.

The performance is impressive with big projection and 10+ hours of longevity.

I was considering giving this a thumbs down, but the base was a sufficiently innocuous sweet vanilla for a neutral. Early on, the woods aroma chemical dominates (the one that reminds me of roasted peanut butter). It goes on to remind me of the typical Xerjoff smell that I don't like. It doesn't smell like a leather fragrance to me.

Quite an unique opening with a smoky dusty leather paired with a vegetal aroma; I can really feel the tomato leaf in here. The leather is mostly in the top notes (never strong) and as it dries down it fades to the point I don't get it anymore. There is a high contrast between the bitter leafy part and the sweet, roasted sugar which has a nice impact on the fragrance. The vegetal feel remains throughout the life, as well as the smoke and at the point the sweet notes start to appear they grow stronger and stronger. This goes well with the smoke, creating that roasted aroma, but it also makes it safer and not that interesting as the opening, where there was a lot more going on. There are shadows of resins and powdery notes that appear behind the vanilla.

Agree with nsamadi. A scrubber.