As many of you know, I don’t review many fragrances on the blog. I very much stick to what I like, and I’m usually quite resistant to trying out new ones (plus, I would not win the award for who can describe fragrances best). But now and then, a fragrance will land on my desk that I simply cannot pass up telling you guys about!

Maison Martin Margiela is releasing three new “Replica” fragrances this October 2012 ($100 CAD each).  The French designer created Replica to embody his interest for vintage clothing and accessories, and how garments are faithfully reproduced with a special label explaining the origin and function of the original piece.  He wanted to bring that same concept to fragrances and re-transcribe the scents of our memories.

Maison Martin Margiela Replica Fragrances

Maison Martin Margiela Replica Fragrances

I think this is absolutely brilliant. I don’t have a good memory (at all), but my sense of olfactory memory is amazing. The smell of tar reminds me of being on a ride at Disney World when I was four years old. The smell of Nivea Pearl ‘n Shine lip balm reminds me of the first time I laid on the beach in Dominican Republic about eight years ago. Not to mention I can associate almost every person in my life with a perfume or cologne, and remember the time period in which they smelled that way. I have a thing with memory by scent, so this collection really caught my attention.

The three feminine fragrances include:

• Flower Market: Paris, 2011; This fragrance smells like my mom’s flowers. Freshly cut flowers, wet petals after the rain, walking into the cold room of a flower shop… its so true to life, he did an excellent job of bottling this one up. It’s probably the most easy to imagine as well, because the smell of ‘fresh flowers’ is so common.
• Funfair Evening: Santa Monica, 1994; This fragrance is the most difficult to describe. It’s sweet, almost like you can smell the cotton candy and caramel apples. It smells like a warm, summer night with a slight hint of amber and musk to contrast the sweet notes.
• Beach Walk: Calvi, 1972; This fragrance is my favorite of the three. I think that I find it most relevant to my own memories, because I absolutely love the beach.  It smells salty, yet fresh- like when you go swimming in the ocean and your hair dries with the smell of sea salt in it.  It also has a hint of coconut, that reminds me of the tanning lotions I’d smell. It’s not overly sweet though, it also has a pepper-y note with a bit of citrus too. It all just ‘works’ together to create the scent of vacation.

The bottles, created to look like classical apothecary jars, have beautiful cotton labels (that resemble Maison Martin Margiela’s clothing and accessory labels) and simplistic packaging.

Love the apothecary-type bottles!

These fragrances, while still beautiful and feminine, are very strong and pure. Many colognes and perfumes smell like a mixture of certain notes… these just smell, plain and simple, like what the label says. That might not appeal to a lot of people that want to smell good, but don’t want to smell like anything in particular.

I know it’s not easy to understand what bottled “Funfair Evening” smells like, but once you smell it, you know it. You just remember it.

Maison Martin Margiela Replica Fragrances

Summary

• Price: $100 CAD each for 3.4oz / 100mL
• Availability: The Bay (Canada) and Saks Fifth Avenue (USA) – October 2012
• Overall: I’m really in love with the concepts of these fragrances. I associate scents with memories a lot, so these fragrances based off of memories really speak to me. I particularly love Beach Walk and Flower Market; although I wouldn’t wear Funfair Evening as a perfume, I love the scent of it because it really does bring back memories!
• Rating: A-