MEMOIRS OF A PERFUME COLLECTOR
LOST IN THE DESERT

2021

PERFUMER
Dario Fini

Vanilla
Bergamot

Jasmine
Bourbon Vanilla
Myrrh

Oud
Frankincense

‘Here I existed, here I found myself wandering in the endless sea of desert, where time and reality were long forgotten. Secrets buried below that tell the ancient stories of the past. The gentle voice of the desert lingers in the air, “unearth me, and within me, discover all my glories.’ – Memoirs Of A Perfume Collector

All of the Memoirs releases up until 2022 feel quite dense, oily and thick. My favorite of the original 2021 releases is Lost In The Desert.

In the case of Lost In The Desert the oily feel is filled with a boozy vanilla being the main player straight away. I’m not sure if its the oud or the incense that’s being used, but I get sort of a rubbery, sticky tree resin in the first minutes; mainly when smelling the skin up close it can be a bit harsh, although not unpleasantly so. When I say tree resin, I mean woody, not green.

After some minutes and from a distance it’s all about the boozy, bourbon vanilla mixed with the woods. It’s a comforting, sweet scent that reminds me a bit of a coffee liqueur like Amaretto. For a couple of hours it feels nice and syrupy with the woody backbone never fading away so it doesn’t become a straight up basic vanilla scent. The fragrance that it reminds me most of would be Van Cleef & Arpels Bois Doré. As in that one, I pick up an (unlisted) hint of dry coconut, the way you get in a cookie or Bounty candy bar, not a sun tan lotion.

I really enjoy Lost In The Desert. The scent profile benefits from the extrait concentration and oily nature. It’s sweet enough to be easy to wear and crowd pleasing, but it’s not just any vanilla and performance is good.