Fragrence Review - Montale Spicy Aoud

[deruitem]

It has been a while since I have posted reviews but I am back. I will try to keep these coming.

For those interested in my LONG thread of fragrances reviews from before see here

Fragrance Samples Discussion Thread

I have a bunch of sample from one of our fine B&B members en route. Should be here today! I will be posting a list and my thoughts on them. Cant wait. Expect to see some nice stuff!

www.badgerandblade.com

Montale Spicy Aoud

From Fragrantica

The scent combines fresh orange with warm saffron on a delicate background of patchouli, woods and musk

I have had a small sample spray since last winter and wore it a few times then. Today is the first time this year.

The opening is STRONG with mostly spice and a pleasant orange. However the orange is hard to detect over the spices.

It settles down to a typical Montale synthetic oud with a lot of spice from the saffron. You can detect the musk and the patchouli but you really have to look for it.

Performance is pretty decent like most montales. It is pretty good after a long and day and smells nice close to the skin after several hours. Before that it is a little to harsh for me. I recall the wife liking this after 12 hours or so when I got home from work.

Hope you enjoy reading these. I will keep it up.

 

[FireDragon76]

Synthetic ouds, to my nose, only ever seem to be a close approximation. They lack the depth of the real thing. But if they are used in a blend of other fragrances, perhaps that does not matter too much.

 

[The Knize]

Nice notes. Keep it up, for sure.

Synthetic ouds, to my nose, only ever seem to be a close approximation.

Synthetic ouds seem to me essentially a different category of scents than real ouds. They can seem quite a bit toward the real thing, or not so close an approximation at all. Scents containing them can be excellent, okay, or not great, just like scents containing many other scent components. I do not think perfumers have yet been able to synthesize the complexity and nuance of a natural oud. That is a big hurdle and may be impossible. Still the synthetics can be a nice scent component.

For that matter, I like Javanol. But it does not smell all that close to real sandalwood to me, even, say, Australian sandalwood. I do not think any synthetic or blend of synthetic and natural sandalwood matches or comes close to real Mysore sandalwood, not that I have smelled real Mysore sandalwood very often.

 

[FireDragon76]

I do think some of the synthetics out there are very good at capturing the strange aquatic, earthy quality that real oud can have. But the real stuff can also be resinous and very clingy, and that isn't captured so well in the synthetics.

 

[Bhugo]

@deruitem, love reading these. Keep them coming!

 

[The Knize]

I do think some of the synthetics out there are very good at capturing the strange aquatic, earthy quality that real oud can have. But the real stuff can also be resinous and very clingy, and that isn't captured so well in the synthetics.

Well said.