CB I Hate Perfumes "Memory of Kindness"

I'm going nuts with vegetable inspired scents here. Next in line is another great summer favourite of mine, CB I Hate Perfumes "Memory of Kindness".

This scent is recreated from a childhood memory of CB founder Christopher Brosius. On a sunny day, he was crawling around in the warm soil under some tomato wines, enjoying their smell, when his aunt called out for him. He startled her as he came crawling out from under the wines but instead of getting angry or irritated she just smiled and took his hand. 

On me, Memory of Kindness starts out smoky. Within minutes there is the CB signature soil accord. Here the soil is warm and sun kissed. Like walking through a vegetable patch on a sunny day when the bees are buzzing and you can almost feel the garden growing. The main crops here are tomatoes and this is my favourite rendition of tomatoes in any scent I've tried so far. It's hard to describe. If you think about tomatoness being a trinity, represented by a triangle.

• In one corner is that green sharpness you get from tomato wines and stalks. 
• Second corner is the juicy sweetness that burst into your mouth when biting into a sun ripened cherry tomato. 
• Third corner is the savoury meaetiness you get from a dried tomato. 

Memory of Kindness ends up in the very middle of this triangle. A bit of each but no side is overpowering. This might also undermine the reality of the tomato note, but hey, you can't have it all.

I like this scent a lot. It's very far from most peoples idea about how a perfume should smell and I have a difficult time to explain exactly what it is that I like about it but, as with all love, I just know that I do. It reminds me about CB "In the summer Kitchen", there is a similar initial smokiness and, of course, they are both about vegetables. But Memory of Kindness is warmer, less about Italian herbs and more close knit and introspective. I'm rating Memory of Kindness 5 out of 5. For making me smell like a tomato and loving it.

CB I Hate Perfume, 3 from 1

I've been going through my stash of CB I Hate Perfumes and here are reviews of 3 of the ones I like.

Winter 1972 is what I reckon CB:s masterpiece. There is a very skeletal version of the CBIHP signature soil accord, giving the impression of breathing crisp air outside on a chilly winters day. This scent supposed to be about snowy fields and hand knit woollen mittens. I'm not getting that. I'm getting being outside on one of the last days of winter. Most of the snow is gone, but the ground is still frozen. It's still cold but there is a, barely noticeable, hint that spring will be coming this year as well. The way CB captures the sleeping nature and the promise of what is to come never ceases to amaze me.

To see a flower is really rather similar to Winter 1972, when smelling them side by side. There is the soil accord again but with a generic floral element added to it. The fresh air that I'm getting from Winter 1972 is not as strong. There is no walking on an airy field, with this one you're crawling on all fours, marvelling at the wonders of nature, looking at insects buzzing around and finally burying your nose in a delicate little flower you've just found. This is a subtle and very realistic rendition of nature that I love. According to the CBIHP site, this scent was inspired by a poem by Georgia O'Keefe:

In a way,
nobody sees a flower really,
it is so small,
we haven't time and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.

Beautiful, isn't it

Patchouli Empire starts out resinous, bordering on rubbery, but within 10 minutes it settles into unadorned patchouli. It's peppery with a tiny hint of mothballs. I find it a unique scent among the CBIHP:s. There is no signature soil accord, no nature, it does not feel like a time or a place or a situation, it's just patchouli. Maybe I'd say this one feels more like a conventional perfume in that aspect. It's light and wearable and great if you just want patchouli and nothing else.

For other, a bit meatier, reviews I've done on CB I Hate Perfume, take a look at:
Russian Caravan Tea
In the Summer Kitchen

Pic: Wikipedia

Russian Caravan Tea by CB I Hate Perfume

It was CB I Hate Perfume that first took me from a person fleetingly interested in perfume to becoming a bit of an obsessive. I don't even remembered how I first heard about them, probably somewhere on the Internet. I read about Christopher Brosius and his approach to perfume making, about how he gets inspiration for his perfumes from incidents or places and before I knew it I had ordered something like 20 samples from the Perfumed Court and I've been an addict ever since then.

CB's scents are very much hit and miss, some are great, some are not for me but they are all interesting. The first one I fell in love with was "Russian Caravan Tea". The official description is "Smoked black Indian tea, bergamot and the hint of shelves full of old books".

On me it's not really like that. I get no trace of smoke and the bergamot is soft, not at all like the bergamot that flavours "Earl Grey" type of teas. It is lemony bordering on mandarin. The whole concoction smells like nice cup of English Breakfast Tea with some lemon in it to perk it up. It's a very comfy scent, wearing it is like first having a long shower, slipping into a bathrobe and then sitting down on the balcony in the sun, having brunch. It's also doesn't evolve very much. The citrus is a bit more pronounced in the beginning but apart from that everything stays pretty much the same.

The samples I've got are water based and I often read complaints bout that they are weak smelling and how they don't last for very long. It's true, they are weak and I think the longest time I've been able to feel a CB is for about 4 hours, they often disappear after 2. To me that is not such a big issue. I rather dab it on several times during a day than wearing myself out smelling to much from the start, but I suppose everybody feels a different way in this matter.

I'm rating it 4 out of 5. It's a comfy comfy comfy scent. When I think about it, it would probably be the perfect scent to wear when you know you're in for a terrible day at the office.

CB I Hate Perfume - In the Summer Kitchen

Imagine a beautiful, young, Italian mother in a 50-ies movie. She is cooking a lot and working hard to take care of her big family. This is what I imagine she would smell like.

The most distinctive note is a light, unobtrusive, smokiness. I think it stands out to me because I normally don't wear smoky perfumes. I also come to think of a pot of Italian soup, full of green herbs and fresh vegetables that have been cooking over an fire until it's just done, all the aromas and flavours to blending into one another.

But paradoxically I wouldn't call it a foodie scent, and not a green scent either. I find it comforting and easy to wear, maybe that's because I also cook a lot and take care of my family... It's far from glamorous, but for that Italian 50-ies mother archetype ambience, it's just right.

I'm rating it 4 out of 5.