Pierre Montale

Intense Cafe by Montale Paris 2013

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

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Post by Greg Young.

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The house of Montale is pretty much all about wood. Especially aoud. Occasionally Pierre Montale will deign to include a stray gourmand, amber or leather note but really this Operation Iraqi Freedom house is for fans of wood. Especially aoud.

If the theory that packaging is a guide to the marketing strategy holds, then the house of Montale is also all about blokes. Especially DIYers who always have the oxy-acetylene torch or a spot welder ready to go, or those capable dads who are the first to set up the gas barbie on the weekend. At a pinch, their market may include Master Chef fans who wield a mean blowtorch in front of a quivering creme brulee.

Montale bottles are the blokeiest in the market.

If you are going to review Montale fragrances this is the time of year to do it. If you’re doing it around Easter, there is an obvious candidate: Chocolate Greedy. Fortunately, I was able to evade that cliche, but only because I don’t have any. As I write this Chocolate Greedy is almost the perfect, most succinct description of my current state. A missed opportunity to pair feast and fragrance, that’s for sure.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Intense Cafe by Montale Paris 2013

Intense Cafe Montale FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Floral notes
Heart: Coffee, rose
Base: Amber, vanilla, white musk

Instead I chose another of Montale’s atypical fragrances, the oriental gourmand Intense Cafe. Having had a big Easter celebration on at home, I felt that its warm vanilla would be more suitable on a pleasant autumn day than a big beefy aoud.

Intense Cafe is described by Montale as “A truly enticing fragrance. Brilliant Floral Notes reveal a surprising heart made of Delicate Rose and Sensual Coffee. This perfect duo leaves a very beautiful sillage of Vanilla, Amber and White Musk.” 

This one gets a pretty warm reception on Fragrantica, notably among men of my generation. Young ‘uns seem unimpressed, and it doesn’t seem to get much love from the ladies at all. Perhaps it’s the packaging. Consensus on Fragrantica is that rose predominates here and vanilla and coffee share a roughly equal second billing.

Intense Cafe Montale Rose PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

Rose and coffee are among my favourite notes, so Intense Cafe should be right down my street, but I feel that it doesn’t really deliver in that way. It opens with the kind of warm coffee made at Starbucks, laced with vanilla flavouring and then served to coffee drinkers who don’t really like coffee. Far from Intense, this scent is like a mellow cafe au lait in a New Orleans riverside jazz cafe compared to New Haarlem’s ristretto in a New York hipster haven.

Which is not to say it’s bad, just that a luscious vanilla rushes to the fore and shoves the coffee to the sidelines, yelling “pick me, pick me”. Intense Cafe pretty quickly becomes intense vanilla, with a thorn’s-edge of rose to prick at the sweet gourmand. On this day, for this occasion, walking around in warm sweet vanilla was no bad thing.

Intense Cafe Montale Coffee Paul Wilkinson FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Where Intense Cafe really does deliver is on Montale’s vanilla and amber promise. It’s 12 hours after I put this on, and I can still smell a trace of vanilla on my wrist, but a big waft of it is still there on my shirt. There are no longevity issues with this one. So even if you don’t like wood, especially aoud, Pierre Montale still has one for you.

Further reading: The Non Blonde and Ca Fleure Bon
LuckyScent has $120/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4.50/ml

What Montales have you tried? Does coffee sound good in a perfume to you?
Greg X

Aoud Lime by Montale

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 25 Comments

Hey All,

On Monday I had my first sniff into the big, bad, scary world of Montale (<<Jump to read). Guess what? It wasn’t any of that, um, no, I mean yes, it IS big! Montale has an enormous range and I have a sample group of 10+ and still I have only dipped my toe in their offerings. In the comments on Monday I was asked , challenged, dared even, to try Aoud Lime. People are saying it will take my chest (where I spray all first time frag sniffs), pick me up, shake me, throw me against a wall and leave me there groaning and too sore to cry. Well, never let it be said that Portia Turbo was one to walk away from a Cer Ay Zee Challenge.

Aoud Lime by Montale

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

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Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Pakistan oudh, Indian rose, Italian orris, sandalwood, patchouli, saffron, amber

11am: As my 2 samples of Aoud Lime go into a glass decant spray the juice is the same colour as one of my 1970s Shalimar parfums, rich amber coloured nectar and it smells like ambrosia. The initial rush is reminiscent of Bar B Q’d citrus or limes left in the sun after a cocktail has been drunk. An alcoholic, slightly dry, hot, citrus with a clean, synthetic oudh smell that could be medicinal but is mainly herbal to me so far and has no hint of the pooh smell.

Photo Stolen TheRawRecipe

1.30pm: I have now cleaned the bathrooms, dusted, vacuumed and steam mopped the house. Quite regularly throughout my cleaning frenzy I have been given little huffs that have stayed almost linear with just a push into rose territory, a spicy and honeyed rose. Aoud Lime has become a quiet scent by now, very pretty rather than the audacious, extreme, screamer I was expecting. I think after the first half hour that you could totally wear Aoud Lime to dinner, movies, theatre or not close proximity work environs. It has become a classy and cool fragrance on my skin that I would be proud to wear as a regular day scent or with an extra spritz or 2 for a big night on the town.

3pm: Finished the washing, swam, sunbaked for 45 minutes and still a lovely sweet oudh, citrus and wood, slightly powdery. Heading for skin scent but it really has been through the wringer today. I’m going to wear it again tonight to see if less strenuous activity gives it a different run.

Photo Stolen flickrhivemind

Go see the WhatMenShouldSmellLike review for further reading.
LuckyScent has 50ml/$110
FourSeasons has 100ml/$160
SurrenderToChance starts at $4/ml

Photo Stolen foodmatters

Sorry everyone. I don’t understand what all the fuss was about. this is beautiful and wearable for me. I will seriously be contemplating a full bottle of Aoud Lime after I’ve tried the rest of the Montales.

We wish you painless, easy and harmless world domination in whatever is your chosen field, and at least one beautiful moment before we see you tomorrow.
Till then,
Portia xx

Aoud Shiny by Pierre Montale for Montale 2008

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 47 Comments

Hello fellow Fumies,

Have you ever read a bunch of reviews and they have frightened you off something? All I keep reading is about how harsh,  strong, powerful and long lasting the Montale fragrances are. That they are kick you in the head and then jump on your carcass as you lay there dead by asphyxiation. Recently on SurrenderToChance they had a DailyChanceSpecial on the Montale manufacturers samples where you could get them for only 99c each. Of course I grabbed a bunch and they have been sitting there unloved and unsniffed since because I had to wait for there to be nothing involving people to do and nobody awake to skunk. Tonight’s the night!!

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Bulgarian rose, violet leaf, oud, nagarmotha root (Cyperus scariosus), sandalwood, patchouli.

My skin completely explodes with crushed violet leaf, slightly earthy nagarmotha root and a soft, clean, oudh for the first 15-20 minutes. It is fresh and lively, green and summery, and not what I was expecting AT ALL. Ha ha ha! I often read about the moment when you start to think you know something about fragrance and you get all, “Oh, I know what this will be like because I’m a frag DIVA!” It’s at that exact time something will come along and surprise the shit out of you. Well, here it is! While being lush and wet, like walking through the immaculate gardens of a tropical resort after rain, this is not a big fragrance. Yes you are perfumed and fragrant, you have better than good sillage and sit still for a while and people will notice that you smell incredible but Aoud Shiny is not a skunker.

Photo Stolen novinite

Oh MY! This is the part where the Bulgarian roses come in and smack everything else down. I have been wearing Aoud Shiny by Montale for nearly 40 minutes and slowly the roses have been taking over, right now they are all there is. A lavish, slightly spicy, full blown rose: those big fat global roses that open up as big as a salad plate. CooEEEEEEE! This splendiferous rose remains front and centre for a good, long while, maybe 1.5-2 hours and then a spicy, minty, medical/chewing gum experience takes over (almost like the opening of Geranium Pour Monsieur but less intense). It’s not an oudh-ish medicine but a dentist surgery, get  it?

Photo Stolen inspiredbythis

One of the things I really enjoy about this fragrance is the amount of time you get with each stage of the fragrances development, now at around the 3-4 hour mark the sandalwood is making a big buttered wood statement that doesn’t run completely over the lingering violet leaf and rose, it’s a triumvirate with the sandalwood walking slightly ahead. at this point I start to feel like we are really about to arrive in a Middle Eastern fragrance. Here is where the real depths of the fragrance begin to shine. While still retaining its light and freshness Aoud Shiny gives up its hidden depths to us and will continue to do so for hours more yet. By the time I lose the fragrance I’ve stopped checking the time, so some time after the 7 hour mark but before 10 hours. EXCELLENT!

I couldn’t find a dedicated review of Aoud Shiny by any of my favoured bloggers but on Basenotes and Fragrantica there was a mixture of love and hate reviews.
ParfumsRaffy has a selection of Aoud Shiny $100/50ml & $165/100ml
SurrenderToChance starts at $4/ml

There were quite a few complaints that Montale was doing another Rose/Oudh fragrance. I am new to the line so for me it had a fresh, lovely and unusual approach towards these 2 main accords, lighter than the heavy Indian and Middle Eastern oils that I’m familiar with and heavier than almost all of the Western fragrances. A fine, balanced perfume with a great, long story to tell. I can’t wait to try another Montale.

Have you tried any of the Montales? Do you have a favourite? Please tell me below in the comments,
We at APJ hope that you have enjoyed dropping in and we hope to see you back tomorrow. Till then, take care of yourselves,
Portia xx

Here is a gorgeous Belly Dancing Artist who gives the idea a great new modern spin. Do Enjoy!!