Winter Palace, from Memo Paris was released in 2019. The perfumer behind this creation is Alienor Massenet. The notes are Amber, Benzoin, Bergamot, Grapefruit, Gurjun Balsam, Labdanum, Lemon, Mate, Musk, Orange, Styrax, Tea, Tolu Balsam, Tonka Bean, Vanilla.
This is okay. The people who think this smells like Floraiku I am Coming Home are just straight wrong. I don't mean "perfume is subjective" wrong, I mean they're embarrassingly wrong. You could not get two scents any more different. I am Coming Home is a minimalistic tea scent, with a zesty, zippy fresh ginger in the top. This is far more complicated, far sweeter, the tea note is not a minimal, photorealistic approach, but rather an abstract concept wrapped up in a ball of sweet resins and amber, of which there is none in the Floraiku scent. Do not buy this based off of that similarity, you will be disappointed. Anyway, now that point is made, Winter Palace. Yeah, it's okay. Overpriced in my opinion. It opens well and is actually very unique for a while. You get a bitter orange and tea note along with some cloudy resins and that is all quite nice, a smart mix of sweet and savoury. After about an hour it falls back to skin level with very poor projection, though on the flip-side, it does feel quite classy. At this point it's basically a mix of a nice, dusty, slightly powdery musk, somewhat irritating bubblegum and soft amber. Like I said, it's alright. That sounds dismissive, but it's not that, it's just that it's not a bad scent by any stretch of the imagination, it's just nothing special either. It does not live up to the hype for me, but is perfectly serviceable and would make a very classy scent for some middle of the road wear, like a dull day at work or maybe a first date where you don't want to be risky, but ultimately it's just a bit boring and uninspiring. I'm also not really sure what this wants to be, honestly. It's far too shallow for a true niche scent, but probably a bit too "weird" for someone who only buys designer perfume. Instead it just flounders somewhere in the middle, waltzing into the realm of obscurity. Unisex, leaning feminine. Poor sillage but 6+ hours of longevity when you get close in. Nice bottle, which is probably the best part of the whole thing.