Is Tales From Zanzibar Really The BEST? | Memoirs Of A Perfume Collector Ranked!

So this brand here you may or may not have heard of before. If you're in the UK I'm pretty sure you have. They are called Memoirs of a Perfume Collector and I've got around seven or eight of their fragrances. So today we're going to rank them from least to best. Yes people what is going on YouTube and welcome back to another video. If you're new here my name is TJ and over here on this channel I discuss all things fragrances and the fragrance industry. So if there's any content anything at all that you'd like for me to create let me know down in the comments. Now you guys might not have heard of the brand Memoirs of a Perfume Collector specifically but you may have heard of one of their fragrances. So they're best selling one and their most popular one and the one that I actually speak about a lot is Tells from Zanzibar. And I feel like it gets to the point where some people know the brand as the fragrance. Like in terms of like a Ventus people think that is the brand sometimes when the brand is actually Creed. And I feel like some people think that Tells from Zanzibar is the brand instead of Memoirs of a Perfume Collector. So they're a popular brand here in the UK. They're only stocked currently in Les Antoines in Belgravia and soon they'll actually be stocked in Javoy. So more accessibility and I know if you're in Paris you would have tried these guys because they're over there as well as Dubai. So if you've tried them you'll know how good their fragrances are. I rate the brand highly. I think they're a great brand. I've met the people behind the brand as well and if you didn't know they're not a French house or anything. They're a British brand. It's a two-man team and they source all of their oils from grass for their fragrances. So yeah that's enough about the brand. Now let's get into the fragrances. Now I think this is going to surprise a lot of people because before Tells from Zanzibar kind of blew up the one that was their main staple the one that everyone would kind of go for would be this one here which is Troubling Paradise. So here's a close-up of the bottle right there and something they do that is really interesting all of their fragrances are stories of places that these guys have maybe traveled to. So you'll see in the back of the bottle there'll be a little picture or design in there. So this is obviously Troubling Paradise all based off of the Maldives and a lot of people love this fragrance before Tells from Zanzibar came about. The notes for me are a little bit deceiving right because in here it's a mango fragrance so super tropical what you would think Maldives would smell like essentially but then what piqued my interest before even testing it was I saw there was a couple types of boozy notes in there. I think it was rum, cognac or whiskey with mango with some florals in there and ooze and I'm like okay cool. And I already know that like God of Fire has those tropical notes. They say it's got ooze in it and I think they say there's a boozy note as well and this is not a dupe of it by the way but in God of Fire I get no boozyness really and I get no ooze whatsoever and in this it is the exact same and I'm not even going to spend long on this because I know this is people's favorite and this is actually my least favorite from the ones that I own just because I swear when I take it off and I smell it from the cap or I spray it it reminds me a lot and when I say like 90% it reminds me of Baccarat Rouge 540 and obviously that's an amazing fragrance it changed the game in the fragrance industry but when it comes to what I want to wear what I want to smell like or what I want to smell in general Baccarat Rouge or Travelling Paradise is not it. But remember whatever I say is just my opinion so definitely go down check this one out as well as the whole range and you let me know in the comments if you like this one or not. Now moving on to the next one they have just released at the time of this video they've released it around two weeks ago now they've released a new collection called the Midnight Collection or the Midnight Series and you might notice on the back of the bottles they're not doing the design anymore obviously it's going to be harder to see because of the color bottles they're in but I believe they've released five in total so there's London there's New York there's Riyadh there's Rio and there's Tokyo I'm not sure if there's any more but there are more coming I've got some unreleased samples here that I'm testing as well so when they're released I'm allowed to talk about them I will but next we have got this one this is New York I think out of all of the fragrances here that I have from them this is probably the most elegant sophisticated smelling scent in their whole range but the reason I'm putting it in this position is because I think out of all of the fragrance I've got this is probably the one I would end up reaching for the least and you might see the juice from the bottle I have obviously sprayed a lot but this is because I didn't have the rest of them when I got this one so again New York is an oud fragrance but what you're going to kind of pick up in this if you're into your woody fragrances those super masculine smelling ones because I think this is hella masculine you're going to pick up patchouli you're going to pick up vetiver and some spices I even think there's ginger in this and it does smell nice it's one that I would opt for maybe for a date night or when I'm kind of dressing up I wouldn't wear this every day just casually because I think they have others in their range that are better for that but yeah I like the smell I don't love it and I know here in the UK now it's half term and loads of people are going to be going out checking out a bunch of fragrances definitely going down to Lessy and Ters to check out the range I don't think this one's going to get a lot of love especially in their midnight series because there's others that are much more mass appealing but I think for the type of demographic you're going to try and hit with this it's going to be the older demographic people like me 30s and plus maybe masculine I think ladies would like this but I think men would like this one more but yeah nothing really bad to say about the fragrance I think New York does the job well and I'm glad they released something like this because in their collection they're known for those fruity tropical scents juicy kind of aquatic they've even got ones called pacific grapefruit but they never had something classy opulent elegant in their scent until this and the next one up this one I'm sad to be putting in this position but this just shows the level of the house and the fragrances they're putting out again from their midnight series this one here is Tokyo now this isn't typically a scent that I would love yeah but for some reason I love it and that's a quick atomizer check as well by the way so Tokyo is this super buttery iris fragrance so when I say iris I know a couple fragrances will come to mind maybe the autumn intense maybe gris chanel extract this is nothing like those two it's creamy it's buttery and I think it's the iris it's actually the plant so it's oris and if you smell iris it's light powdery a little bit floral when you smell oris it's much more deeper the scent is more rich and it's a little bit more spicy so you get the oris in here that I think paired with the sandalwood and vanilla dry down is nothing short of excellent I actually think this is bad boy and like a lot of their fragrances taking you on a specific journey to a space in particular like Tokyo and you know what's mad about this year these fragrances are named after places and I know some people hate that but they're obviously meant to take you on a journey to that place and I know someone who's literally lived in Tokyo for a few years and they said this perfectly replicated what it smells like there and the feeling of being in Tokyo that warm huggy calm comforting kind of scent so that's exactly what you want when you're trying to replicate a place so they've done a good job there and someone also told me that they used to have a fragrance called Tokyo that they discontinued so I don't know if this is a recreation because I never got a chance to try that but if you're in that kind of cozy era you just want that nice relaxing comforting scent then I think this would be a great scent to get do I think this will do well in the summer no but I think as we go into like august september going to those cooler months I think this is going to bang and the next fragrance up again from the midnight collection and it was between this and Tokyo for this spot this is Riyadh there we go so we got the capital of Saudi this one here is Riyadh this is lovely they've released a few fragrances that are have florals in there a lot of these midnight series fragrances have rose in it as well they have London which for me is kind of like a green herbaceous fragrance but there's rose in there but I've mentioned in a previous video the rose in that fragrance almost smells like that english delicate rose something like um the house of creed would probably release with um like queen of silk or carmina that kind of rose you can imagine it's light it's airy it's fun the rose in this is typhros and this is a very dark spicy sexy bold rose that has some real character and depth to it again with this one it's all about the journey that this fragrance is going to take you on citrus is in the top you get some spices you obviously get vanilla in there I believe there's frankincense in this as well when I'm used to smelling frankincense in amouage fragrances you've got purpose 50 you've got those like pretty much all of amouage fragrances have frankincense in it but you can kind of understand the vibe that amouage you're going for so when I smell frankincense in a scent like this it's like it feels kind of weird if you know what I'm saying because it's not smoky or anything but you just get that kind of resinous balsamic feel so rose frankincense some oud in here as well and honestly this I had to smell it again because I've mentioned one fragrance a lot this year from Mattia Premier and it is Radical Rose Extract and I think this is one of the sexiest classy date night fragrances it is actually this one right here which I think is absolutely amazing I need to pick up another bottle but I honestly think that Riyadh from Memoiselle Perfume Collector is almost like cooler younger cousin to Radical Rose Extract and I would say this is 100% unisex first of all ladies are going to love this just as much as men just because that rose it makes you feel super comforting and I actually went on a date night with the missus last week and I had all of these in my bag and I was like yo just pick a new Memoiselle test out see what you think smell all of them she's like yeah I have to go for Riyadh so out of the five in the midnight series I think this one's going to be top two but now for the one that I think is going to be number one it has to be surely it has to be this one here Rio de Janeiro and I feel like you know when you go and try a house yeah you know what they're they're known for so like I said this house is known for those fruity sweet juicy fragrances so that's what people kind of want to smell from the house I feel like if you go to Amoise like I said you're going to want to smell those deep bold dense thick notes uh woody balsamic frankincense I think with Rio this is going to do really well just because this is another fruity sweet juicy fragrance and whereas with Tales from Zanzibar you got guava in there with Trouble in Paradise you got the mango in here I believe they say it's pineapple and passion fruit and the mango that I'm getting in here that's not really in here smells 10 times better than Trouble in Paradise and when I was in Lesley and Turds they was telling me this will have some sort of reminiscence reminiscence I don't know what the word is but some sort of similarity to Tales from Zanzibar just because it has that cassis in there and I always thought this cassis note which I'll pop on the screen I thought it was like a herb or sort of like cannabis basically but cassis is actually the plant of a blackcurrant or the blackcurrant on the plant it's meant to smell like blackcurrant basically and it does smell super juicy not super sweet how you might think if you think of pineapple and passion fruit not at all but I'm telling you this does a fantastic job and the florals in here balance everything out I think this thing is excellent so if you like Tales from Zanzibar which I'm going to come on to soon I would class that one as the longer it dries down it gets sweet it gets still juicy whereas with Rio de Janeiro this one as it dries down it gets a little bit musky so I would say if you're into those juicy proper tropical fragrances go for Tales if you like it to open up sweet fresh juicy but then dry down a little bit subtle a little bit spiky with the musk in there then go for Rio. Now that's the four Midnight Series fragrances out of the way they're the ones that I've got I probably won't get any of the others obviously I love Tales from Zanzibar but when I say first place was actually close between that and Belgravia Iris it was hella close because I think this is excellent so here we have got Belgravia Iris which I've spoken about on my YouTube channel quite a lot and in the back you actually have the store Les Cientures so if you don't know this is a collaboration fragrance with Les Cientures I think the brand was doing so well in terms of sales with Tales from Zanzibar and whatnot Les Cientures commissioned them or asked them to make a fragrance for them specifically so you won't find this one in Dubai you won't find this one in Paris or Jovoi or anywhere this is only going to be in Les Cientures. Now this fragrance is even so hard to explain even though they've called it Belgravia Iris this is not your typical Iris fragrance this isn't like Tokyo for example this thing is absolute magic oh my god that is actually fire you're also gonna get some citruses in here I think there's neroli in there bergamot orange all of that stuff you obviously get the dry down of Iris but I'm telling you there's something quite magical about this fragrance in terms of when I've worn this fragrance I'm not even capping like bad people say I'll get compliments I get compliments go and ask Oda Ragnar my man complimented me on this fragrance when I told him what it was yeah like he asked me the first time that was at breakfast my man has then continued to compliment me and say yo you smell nice bro coming out of Lyft coming back to the hotel out in Deira and bear in mind we was in Dubai and it was flipping 42-44 degrees sweating like absolute dogs and my man is still clocking the fragrance which already tells you about the performance and my man is saying how nice it smells so that just tells you all you need to know and obviously when you think of Les Cientures where it's based it's based in Belgravia which if you don't know is close to Knightsbridge and if you're not from the UK it's obviously a decadent area a nice place no one's really going to get rubbed around there it's like people sitting outside for coffee phones on their desk there's a cigar shop right next to Les Cientures bear cafes it's that kind of vibe so you would expect a Memoiseau perfume collector to make something for the brand that kind of replicates that and I think they've done it perfectly this screams elegance this is classy it's sophisticated but it's also like almost a little bit cheeky at the same time and I think there's bergamot in there and ginger which gives it that kind of fizz and I know this one's going to be hella popular because again when you think of bergamot, ginger, citrus ginger you get to Spiro Vibrato you get Ingenious Ginger, Bogari Tiger all of these fragrances that are fan favorites but done so differently where it doesn't dry down fresh it dries down deep it's dense you've got some florals in there I think you've got some resins in there as well so it's warm ambery woody this thing ah I can't even praise it enough when I'm giving this fragrance a rating like trust me I would say Belgravia Iris is at least a 9.5 when you're next going to Les Saint-Antoines obviously go try the popular ones but leave this one to last yeah go and smell the rest of them and smell how they they are and how they make you feel leave this one to last don't have high expectations for it and just I want to know you guys's opinions on it and I know loads of people watch me from all over the world so I don't know if you're going to be able to get your hands on this but when I go abroad I'm taking this with me so if you see me anywhere just stop me and say yo have you got it on you let me smell it and now last but not least we have the best from the house for a reason we have not one but two bottles of tells from Zanzibar we've got juice in both of them as well this is the first one here which is the 50 ml bottle and then this one here is the 75 ml bottle that the brand actually gifted me when was out in Dubai and you can see the juice color in both of these fragrances are quite different this is an older batch but yeah they now do their fragrances 75 ml and in terms of pricing 50 ml they was I believe 165 pounds now for the 75 ml they are 195 and for the midnight series they are 220 and all of their fragrances are like straight the parfum if you follow me on tiktok because I know loads of people on my youtube channel don't actually follow me over there if you don't go over there man TJ talks on there as well you would have probably heard you probably would be annoyed and be like bro I beg you shut up all this guy talks about is tells from Zanzibar and I think this really started to kick off um it was buzzing from like the end of last year but I think when I went to Essence I've done so many videos with people asking I find out your content creators uh center the day every other day I was rocking tells from Zanzibar so in every video I'm going yeah tells from Zanzibar about memoirs and everyone's saying haven't really heard of that one don't know what that one is then I came back and done a video outside Selfridges putting people onto some gems and that video went crazy got a couple million views and then this went absolutely nuts the brand told me so if you've seen me speak about on tiktok you can probably just skip this video but I absolutely love this one so in here you've got lime you've got mint I believe as well and you've got guava so imagine like a weird mix of a mojito just super juicy really fresh um the performance on this thing for me is absolutely amazing I'm getting around nine ten hours but projection is really good and I feel like the hotter it gets the better this does again this is one that they say there's coconut in here I think they even say there's oud I get no oud I get no coconut at all it's just guava all the way through and I feel like this started the guava trend because I've seen bigger houses especially when I was out in Dubai Roja Dub have just released or Roja Parfums has just released Iso La Verde which is a guava fragrance don't know where they got the idea for maybe they was doing it for years but I doubt it and I've seen loads of smaller houses start dropping guava fragrances even Bougerami jumped on it and was like yo I need to dupe this and Bear Brands when I was out in Dubai have duped this so I know there's going to be at least three or four dupes on the way in the next couple of months but I feel like the DNA of like a simple mango fragrance of God of Fire like how people done Volcan Fue or Mango Ice I feel like that's easy to replicate the dupe that I smelled of this when I was last out there wasn't amazing but then I did smell one that was nice so when I get all of the dupes I'll do a full review of all of them letting you know which ones are the best and if I think this is still worth it but yeah I don't want to hold you guys any longer if you haven't heard the memoirs of a perfume collector before make sure to go check them out I love the brand and I know this feels like maybe it's a sponsored video it's definitely not I just got all of these fragrances for I haven't really seen anybody on YouTube anyway do a ranking or review of the brand so I but I hope you guys enjoyed the video I'm going to be exploring a bunch of new brands soon I head to Paris in a couple days so lock in for the Paris vlog as well and I'll catch you guys in the next video love for the love