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4YVA4OK18 – :
The first spray isn’t very good, I agree. However, when it calms down, I don’t think it’s bad at all, then again I don’t think it’s that magical either. I get tobacco, leather, a little bit of oud. I can see where people would think this is mostly a man’s scent, but I’ll be wearing it, more than likely mixed with something light- I think that would be nice. We will see what my husband thinks, since it has a main focus on tobacco and leather, he may like it, but he might not be able to get through the beginning.
lms61 – :
An amazing perfume. The first view times it lasts all day long, and then you get used to it. You just have the feeling it just doesn’t last. But after a time you realize it’s just a monster fragrance. The opening is sooo fecal and animalic. Amazing!!!!! The oud is very prominent en leather. In the drydown you get oud (still) tabacco and a little hind of birch and good leather. When your skin is used to it, it’s an amazing fragrance again. Very animalic oud and leather, love it…
Enjoymnboyday – :
I got couple Montale’s for myself on sale, this and Sweet Oriental Dream and while the latter cannot be removed by any means, including shower and pool, neither longevity nor silage is simply non existent on this one. I keep one at work and spray it every couple hours and it is still unnoticeable…
wladzuzya – :
Three people out of three said this smell like ladies perfume and I have to agree. First minute is chemical mix with hopes. Yes hopes. Dries down very quickly. Disappeared even faster. I can get wee bit leather and oud but nothing super strong. I like the way Montale did leather here but should focus ONLY on it. Performence is awful two – three hours max if so.
vitalik-1010 – :
ok ok…it starts with fecal strong note of a horse.but after 20 minutes became the best oud on the planet . pure masculine . dark …strong …leathery …Incredible different scent . the best oud for me . 9/10 incredible
performance . only for
men . from metrosexual to hard cowboy men.
Kex – :
I blind bought it yesterday…. saying that it smells fecal is an euphemism…
mks3175265 – :
skanky animalic leather…heavy duty performer….nice and wild!
gpf613Bessinepome – :
Very intense scent. On its own, not for me, but layered with other scents that moderate its medicinal leather. It works well to add some backbone to softer scents. Could be used to toughen up any scent, I suspect.
I sprayed Montale Dark Aoud over it and that was sufficient to reduce the harshness of ACA (Aoud Cuir d’Arabie). Softer, sweeter scents would harmonize it even more.
Something to consider…
TXD – :
It is quite difficult to describe this ACDA Montale.This one is not something easy and to comment on it is not easy either, a bit complicated. You hate and you love it at the same time; how many fragrance can do it? You can not accept but on the other hand you can not leave it.
Anyhow you either love it or hate it whatever, but you must be informed that this scent is not joking, it’s shooting and it’s shouting. I am crazy of oud but even me mixing this with some other softer floral scents in order to reduce anger of this beast 🙂
ldr900speagoessenda – :
To me just plain cheesy barnyard oud, and performance was not impressive either. Sorry but not sorry.
mansur199403 – :
Hmmm. Ultimately, it’s too medicinal, too TCP for me. Really well done but there are other frags along similar lines that I like better (Beaufort London, looking at you).
vfuybnjujhcr – :
i could not find this in their Paris store and found it in the departure duty free at our airport (no where else). After reading about it online i was intrigued enough to make this a blind buy….
AND WOW!!!! people are not joking about the explosion with the initial spray..it is a scent i love however cannot wear it all the time….it is purely a winter scent, and the colder the weather the better…
i wouldnt recommend trying to rock this at the office, the strength and sharpness of the agarwood and leather is not something most people can tolerate….
i would definitely recommend trying this before you buy it…its not for the faint hearted 🙂
roge – :
This is one of the weirdest fragrances I’ve ever smelled. I got it in a sampler pack from the perfumed court. It has the strongest leather smell I’ve ever smelled in a fragrance. It also has a “band-aid” vibe to it as well. You know what though, it’s actually pretty damn nice. It’s just too weird for me to buy a full bottle of and I feel that if I wore this in public people would react quite poorly to it.
gogasmail – :
I didnt understand the description of medicinal band on some perfumes, until I smelt this one.
This is truly MEDICINAL BAND-like, or Muscle sprain sprays. I used alot of these sprays when I was young for sports injuries, and this one is a reminder of them days
It has a faint oud scent hiding there and some leather too, but altogether smells very synthetic.
Pass for me
9346848 – :
edit:
after my first experience, described below, on a bored day I revisited my sample of this fragrance. I sprayed waay less on than I had the first time, and far less than I would of any other fragrance: literally one spray per wrist, one per crook of elbow, four total.
It lasted all day and although I still found it kind of sweaty and musky in a way that kept made me think my mom would appear from across the atlantic to retch upon my fragrance choice, it did smell very oriental to me. not oriental in the way the fragrance world uses it, but… middle eastern, I guess? I don’t want to be racist; I’m referring more to my imagination of arabian nights or cleopatra in legend and film, things like that.
This did not strike me as a prominently leather scent. The notes surprised me. I felt there were far more spices, like a spice market: cardamom, something sickly sweet, maybe some musky and floral notes. It smells like a very soupy, rich mix.
It is an OUD for sure that does not disappoint. Montale did not skimp on their ingredients, and they delivered on their premise. If you like this scent, then it is the real deal, worth it even if they were to charge double: it doesn’t change its nature, it isn’t sissy, it doesn’t cheapen itself. It is VERY bold. You have to have guts to wear it in public.
To me it doesn’t smell overtly masculine at all. Unisx in the aforementioned arabian-nights way.
For a perfume I could not stand after first loving it and then applyiing it and hating it, I’m developing an odd fascination with it.
It is not for the faint of heart and it is not remotely forgettable.. Have you ever have somebody become a close friend that you started out having a total hatred for? This fragrance incites passion, opinions, paradox, taking a stand. It’s not ‘meh’, it’s nobody’s idea of a blind buy christmas present for a meek relative. If you like stuff that will knock your socks off, try this. I congratulate Montale for really putting their heart into it and their money where their mouths are. For once I don’t feel like I’m being suckered by a fragrance line.
*
original post, from a week ago:
I had located a boutique in my area (bay area–ZGO perfumery) that carried Montale fragrances because I was and am in search of a signature oud to add to my budding collection of fragrances.
In the store, this was my favorite Montale oud, and my favorite oud in general. I left with 12 different oud samples, and this was the only Montale among them. On the paper sampler, it was my favorite. I love intense scents, and although I intentionally didnt want to learn the notes in it so I could smell it without pre-conception, blind, now that I read them, those are my four absolute favorite, beloved, notes in a perfume.
So it was with great alarm and sadness that after I sprayed this on my arm (it was one of only two that I decided to test on skin, because they were such favorites out of all the samples I had made up and bought that day), it began to smell AWFUL. The description that it softens as it dries down, despite huge longevity, is accurate. Nothing in the description is inacccurate, but it doesn’t capture that this also has notes not listed here that I smell. It smells like very cheap, bad, sophomoric incense that stoners hide the smell of weed with. It smells of literal sweat. It smells like the very worst of orientals and ouds smell–like what gives them a bad name. I do not shy away from fragrances of this type: in fact, I ask, shopkeepers to ‘hit me with your most barnyard, provocative, inappropriate fragrance’ and so on, just to see. I am not easily disgusted, overwhelmed, or shocked. I am always looking for more sillage, more longevity, more animalic qualitites, more leather, more warmth, more old-world masculine spice market musky type of stuff. Noctural, dark smells that I would wear in the day, to hell with what anyone else may think.
So I was surprised and sad that even when I tried a much smaller amount–four sprays total–of this the next day to wear overnight, it smelled awful on my skin and much milder and more tolerable but still grateful to have it removed by the shower the next morning.
The discpreepancy between what it smells like in the bottle, the air, and on paper; and the discrepancy between the pyramid and notes described above vs how it smells on me makes me think that my experience and response to it might be freak synergy of the worst kind with my skin.
I am still looking for an oud that is that strong, that obscene, that spicy, that leathery, that unapologetic, that arabian, that oriental, oud-y, incense-y, woody, smokey, and memorable. It will just have to be a different one than this. This is the only sample of fragrance that I have paid to have made up at a store (out of, by now, dozens and dozens) that I will not be finishing. It is just awful on my skin. Like somebody trying to hide bad B.O. with cheap incense-like body oils they bought at a smoke shop and doused themselves with. Yikes.
161077 – :
I have sample of this magnifient perfume and it is now empty so I ordered whole bottle of this. Top notes are allmost too strong but it changes quickly. this perfume have very beautiful leather note with shy rose and that period lasts long 10/10
Sklyarov60 – :
Smelly old socks left in leather boots in your grandpa’s barn.
I don’t know who would like to smell like this, but all credits to Montale for creating this skanky thing.
Performance is excellent.
dfi818Unlogrere – :
Wow this is edgy. I went all in spraying few times thinking mmm aoud leather what can go wrong! Well. The leather and aoud is the very masculine very strong scent. No sweetness, this to my female nose is almost unpleasant but very quickly realise this is quality, just eccentric. Definitely a scent that smacks you across the face, though I’m not sure this would be my top choice of eccentric. I think it is for real authentic leather and strong unrefined oud lovers.
**let’s swap samples I have 130+ niches within Europe! Check out my profile***
taugerurl – :
For those Oud lovers , Strong and masculine accompanied by the tobacco ,
Presentation ; your typical Montale packaging (cylinder).
Scent 10/10
Silage 10/10
Long lasting 10/10
Thanks,
aleks.2911 – :
Black freshly tanned leather. I very much dislike leather especially black leather, even as a child I disliked the look and feel of it, but I love the way it smells! A high quality niche fragrance at a great price point.
ESSERBCUM – :
I love tobacco and leather fragrances, but this one is offensive. I gave it 30 minutes, and it was still a nasty one. Couldn’t wait until I scrubbed it off.
dronbav – :
Ok.. I NEVER scrubbed a fragrance before. Never understood the people who hate a scent so much that they can’t bare to wear it. (other people wear it and think it smells great, right?). Well today I joined the “can’t stand it” train 😉
The smell – reminds me a lot of how the inside of a drum I bought in Egypt smells. So all in all..they nailed it.
BUT.. and it’s a big BUT for me.. the leather of Arabia smells like shit mixed with leather. No seriously, SHIT with leather. That’s what most of the streets in Hurghada kinda smelled. Maybe it’s not poo, maybe it is. When You’re in Egypt it adds to the experience. Everything smells different there – it has this vibe.
So again the name is absolutely perfect and the smell totaly nailed. I just can’t imagine WHO in the right mind would want to smell like a saddle that has shit on it.
I need to go scrub this of right now. It makes me sick
osoka666 – :
Wow, what a monster of a fragrance! I definitely love it. A very metallic, strong barnyard smell for a few minutes before it transitions into this gorgeous classy oudy leather that is to die for. I don’t know if this current one is a reformulation but it definitely didn’t scare me at all. I’m very happy to add this to my staples and before finishing, this is not quite a happy ending as I truly disliked the new shop in Paris, with Mancera products there and the assistants claiming: it’s the same nose who makes the Montale ones!!! Then the old story about Montale being a fake name, someone who doesn’t exist seems more real and it really makes the whole reputation of this brand very artificial and worrying. They should make it clear so that we actually know who is behind this brand and some gorgeous scents such as Black Aoud. Come on, the Shakespeare style mistery should not happen in 2016 lol.
novacain – :
I would say dirty socks rather than fecal, or more specifically the kind of poppers that smell like dirty socks. Someone mentioned cheap bathroom cleaner, another said band aids: it’s all true; ie fantastic. Like watching an evil black-winged genie emerge from a lamp.
sanja71 – :
I don’t consider myself much of a leather lover but Montale’s Aoud Cuir d’Arabie is well-blended to the point of being very appealing, among the best I’ve smelled of the house. It’s a mix of leather, oud, birch, and tobacco. The oud makes the experience animalistic, but it’s unusually smooth at the same time, blending well with the woody birch and pungent leather.
The leather itself is most pronounced at the opening, fading into the dry down within the first hour and a half. I get only a little tobacco in the dry down, which I would classify is as blend of the leather, oud, and birch. It’s a baseball-love-meets-oud sort of mix.
It’s not the smoothest leather (a prize I’d still give to Coach Leatherware No. 3), but it might be the smoothest animalistic oud leather, much smoother than I’ve previously imagined such a type of fragrance being, so it’s a pleasant surprise. Still, I can see how it might be polarizing since I confess that animalic scents tend to be hit-or-miss with me.
Performance is well above average, as with most cold-weather Montale fragrances, very strong in both projection and longevity.
8 out of 10
компот – :
Sort of has an Anita Pallenberg Satanic ritual smell. Absolutely fantastic. For people who wear Iris Silver Mist instead of just reviewing a sample.
filolog1 – :
Have you ever had a friend that perfectly assuaged a part of your soul that no one else on the planet seemed to be able to tolerate, and you kind of understand why? Or watched a movie that you really loved but didn’t know anyone to whom you could possibly recommend it? That’s territory inhabited by Montale’s oft-maligned Aoud Cuir d’Arabie. I can see why people might think it’s terrible. But my dear reader, they’re wrong.
I likely came across Aoud Cuir d’Arabie as an option for one of The Perfumed Court’s leather or animalic sampler packs. Researching it lead me to fear it. Approaching this one takes some huevos as the internet is full of very strong reactions. Reading reviews with terms like “fecaloid” makes even considering sampling this a forbidden affair. What kind of contrary idiot wants to smell fecaloid? Is this intended to shock? Is it supposed to be an ironic dare that someone would deign to intentionally smell revolting? Thankfully, not in the slightest.
A fragrance that paints a picture can be exciting and novel. A fragrance that is an experience can be worth visiting a few times. Aoud Cuir d’Arabie is, to me, much more than a dare or an experience. Yes it can conjure up associations and fables that may be off-putting. But frankly, it’s an amazing journey. With one spray to your skin you are presented with a live animal, bear witness to its slaughter, behold the vulnerable flesh made permanent and durable, and finally are handed a rugged, beautiful new product that will serve you for a lifetime. Yes it’s brutal. As are most of man’s luxuries.
I find Aoud Cuir d’Arabie to be very, very beautiful. Perhaps unconventional for a perfume, but magnificent nonetheless. It may warrant revulsion but it certainly doesn’t warrant fear. To me it is not offensive in the slightest. It opens with a fatty oud note reminiscent of a barnyard – in my opinion the comparisons to ripe bleu cheese are more spot on. It quickly melds with a rough leather and strong tobacco and birch notes. Together these strike a chord that entices the nose with a realistic slab of leather that hasn’t been coddled and perfumed. Rugged leather that whose origin nobody bothered to hide, the type used in cheap work gloves and tool belts. Life with a bit of death on it. Not tainted by it, but better defined by it, like shadows on a face.
Understandably not everyone would want to smell this one time, let alone wear it for hours. I approached this seeking leather and animalic fragrances, so I was certainly in the right mindset for it. I also have the benefit of a rural childhood full of barnyard smells and assisted in slaughtering and butchering animals for food, so I may be a bit desensitized if not downright nostalgic. Life is a tree whose soil is death. If you can appreciate the facets of life that aren’t polished and sanitized, or appreciate a bird’s beautiful song even more knowing that it is essentially a lewd proposition, you may be a good fit for Aoud Cuir d’Arabie.
mafia03277 – :
I can’t get enough of challenging fragrances. I had a sample which I’d only spray when alone and primed for the reaction which was and still is revulsion. I just now expect eviserated wilderbeasts and pig intestines hauled over sun baked rocks. Yet I am comitted to sitting it out because the reward is mmmmm sweet hypnotising primal…….natural leather. Raw and real. Awesome
pavlovdima33 – :
I taste too eccentricity that the House Montale prints in their various fragrances, knows not ?! All exotic, extreme, beyond the limit, unlike anything we have ever been known, even if it is banal, does not escape the eccentricity of the House. Aoud Cuir d’Arabie Montale is a highly awful perfume, never felt anything more distinct in that he perfumery walk, and when we think we’ve seen everything in this world, something unusual comes and surprises us again. Its opening, middle and end, but because he does not evolve N-U-N-C-A, are Birch aromatic logs smoked by submerged bitter Tobacco in a sea of Oud bubbling and exuding nuances that refer to fuel a backdrop where one perceives rustic leather touches too. The way the Oud is presented in this fragrance is the best way to know the real and terrible scent of Agarwood wood (Aquilaria agallocha), for those who still do not know her brutally, because here she is not medical, but oily, flammable, with a flavor that approaches gasoline, kerosene or equivalent. I must say that is not very sensible, it is an aroma that satisfies those who live in the country of Oman forward, and look there! I (my nose) even among controversies, taste, appreciate and love this too eccentric aroma. Montale have the values of their bottles of perfume nothing available for sale, so take a “blind” here is a terrorist act, or no going back, because it fixed and exudes enigmatically well from start to finish. If not for the imminent balance between the notes of the composition of this perfume, surely it would be a disappointment with all the letters.
Word of the Day: opposition… (day 43)
6manium – :
Listen someone about Montale Aoud Heritage ? (scent of oud wood with a seductive touch of musk)
PkR_Numkeefefepaype – :
I’m glad to get a chance to try this again, because I didn’t get a lot from it the first time, hard as that might be to believe. Based on this second try I can only assume I had the nasal equivalent of hysterical blindness.
Opens with strong oud-sweetened leather with a bit of tobacco and takes about five minutes to grow a rose. In fact, there’s so much rose that I am mystified why it’s not listed as an official note. Rose is kind of what Montale does, right? Why be coy?
After 15 minutes I take another big whiff and WHOA! Who let the horses out? Fortunately, at arm’s length I just get a nice rose sent; I don’t smell the big, bad barnyard unless I put my nose right up close to my wrist…which, of course I keep doing because I’m kind of nuts.
People talk about the dryness but I really don’t get the dry idea.
In the end you’re left with a less sweet version of the somewhat Band-Aidy leather from the beginning, before the Rose Parade started. It has its charms, but on the whole I like my leather a little less “raw.”
Frorfrocrep – :
Aoud Cuir Arabie (tested from dabber)
The opening of Aoud Cuir Arabie is an unbelievable experience!
I live in the middle of nowhere, in the summer when I am driving on the long stretch of road with the windows open- I can smell a volatile stench-a thick, muggy, nasty stench in the air from the manure steaming under the hot sun, wet hay, and farm animals. I live right near a well-known chicken farm, the smell gets really bad in the summer! The people who live in the area will burn the weed, blackberry bush, old dead grass, and the occasionally odd plastic bottles. Gasoline, lighter fluid will be sprinkled all over the property. I love the smell of gasoline, it is intoxicating! When the stretches of farmland are set aflame, there’s dense smog gray, thick, billowing with smoke in the air. it adds a whole other element to the scent. This is what the opening of Cuir Arabie reminds me of.
The leather is very heavy and the oud is distinctive, heavy, pungent and smoky in Cuir Arabie. It is a showstopper! The oud becomes more rounded after a time on my skin. The sweet pipe tobacco comes through softly on my skin causing the oud to be a little sweet.
On my skin I sense rose, it is so shy. I wish to have more of it.
The leather is glorious and very strong. The tobacco is in the background. The longevity and sillage as expected by Montale is awesome-10 hours!
I appreciate and respect Aoud Cuir Arabie, it is a wonderfully thought-out and crafted fragrance. It is not something I can wear with ease as I prefer my oud to be a bit softer and well-blended. Cuir Arabie is perfect for people who enjoy wearing OUD. Try a sample first.
krasin63A – :
Update: of course I couldn’t resist. 😀 It came at a huge discount, and yes, it’s so unique that I bit the bullet, despite not needing any more perfume. That’s not the point, after all, who “needs” even the first bottle anyway? It was really worth the purchase. It does last 4-5 hours, which, while not up to Montale standards, is still not bad, and the scent is so unique and badass and powerful, overpowering yet sensual… Nothing like this. And yes, it is not nice and not easy to understand and accept. You have to work for it and open up for it. And you must have a dark streak for it to work.
mixa7733 – :
the smell of real oud (first time in montale line)makes this fragrance challenging that is why it smells like old chees or fecal i smell this same fecal oud from al haramain obsessive oud same type of oud.
HJoqeJ – :
This is one of the very darkest frags I’ve ever smelled. Sometimes I struggle to smell the leather in this, it’s so rubbery medicinal oud and birch tar, even rose, with the leather playing hide and seek while the oud is present in its full glory. Very black. Unfortunately not as strong as I wished. Based on my sample I can’t decide if I like it enough to buy because it doesn’t live long enough on my skin to unfold in its entirety. But very special. Probably the most powerful scent I’ve ever tried so far. More badass than Leather Oud. Usually I don’t mind smelling unperfumelikely but this is an acquired taste for me. It smells like strong ink and dies off before it could finish its journey. If it was stronger I would probably buy it.
evgenica – :
Number two in what was a three pack from Montale I recieved yesterday. Along with Dark Aoud and Black Aoud. I started with the Dark…amazing! And now this.
Hmm…this is…interesting to say the least. I’ve had it on for about twenty minutes and…well, it reeks! It’s not a bad smell, per se, just a very different smell. This is what it smells like to me.
My grandfather used to chew tobacco. He would sit in contentment, rocking back and forth in his leather easy chair, chewing away watching baseball or whatever. He used a glass mason jar stuffed with folded paper towels as a spitoon. Every once in awhile he would lean forward and expertly spit this brown stream of juice dead center into the jar. I used to watch, Fascinated that he never missed. Anyway, the smell that came out of that jar was a dead ringer for this. It was the first thing I thought when I dipped my nose to my wrist and inhaled. Gooey tobacco and leather. After reading some reviews here, apparently it develops into something else as it dries down. We shall see. So far I like it because it’s different. Has an unwashed, farm quality to it.
To be continued…
Ok well it’s been two hours or so and…well…I really wanted to love this. Of the three Montales I recieved, I thought (after reading reviews) that this one was going to be the best. It’s certainly different. I just can’t get past the somehow…juicy/skanky tobacco. It’s dried down a bit, but it still smells like sweet hay that’s been trampled by shitting cattle. And my grandfathers spittoon. Plus while Dark Aoud lasted ALL day and projected all over town, this is already close to the skin and I have to search for it. I really wish I liked it better.
Scent 7/10…very different and I’ve never smelled anything like it
Projection 5/10
Fortitude 7/10
P.s….it’s been around 4 hours and it’s really turned sweet…almost floral. Like meaty flowers.
slava_haker – :
wow…. this thing is lethal in the opening, civet,leather and birch… what a mess. No doubt there is great deal of art and talent invested in the composition but hard to wear. A beast masculine fragrance that believe it or not vanished in two hours leaving only a creamy animalic leather note. Now that I keep smelling my hand its quite erotic and primal. Good and there is nothing similar to compare with a crazy and interesting Montale interpretation of leather. aoud? yet but only at the opening.
Drakula))) – :
This frag selects its worthy wearers by testing the applicants’ patience with an outrageous opening note, a cross between the smell of barns and that of burning rubber. Those who get past that 20 minute stage will be rewarded by a lovely oud-leather-rose combo with a hint of tobacco, getting more powdery by the hour, drying down to a heavenly skinscent still full of character. Some of that initial nasty, fecal undertone remains, but that’s what makes it sexy as hell. It’s quite addictive, actually. But not for the faint of heart.
Shinkori – :
What a surprise! What a wonderful surprise!
After I had all but given up on the house of Montale producing anything other than bombastic bio-warfare agents passing as perfumes, I finally got around to trying their Luca Turin-endorsed masterpiece.
It is utterly unlike the other Montale’s I have tried (Black Aoud, White Aoud, Red Aoud, Blue Amber, Forest Aoud, etc. etc. etc.)–there is none of the chemical volatility (or “explosive sillage” if you prefer) and the Montale synthetic rose, while present, takes a decided back seat to the REMARKABLY AUTHENTIC leather.
And that’s the accomplishment here, at least in my book. I find leather to be the most challenging note in perfumery. Some (Knize Ten, Cuir de Russie) give up on the leather altogether and go instead for a nosehair-singeing shoe polish that is somehow uggestive of leather based on individual scent-memories. Others go right for the animal itself (Leather Oud). Aoud Cuir d’Arabie somehow gets it just right. This is the smell of a tannery or an open-air leather market. Livestock (horses, mainly) are nearby, but the finished product is front and center. Marvelous.
Two criticisms seem to pop up frequently with regard to ACdA:
1) It is linear
2) It is too raw/barnyard/animalic/fecal
Based on my test, I can’t agree with either of these. The fragrance evolves nicely, slowly, and predictably from the tanned leather opening to a surprisingly gentle and sweet floral finish. In fact, it veers dangerously close to white floral territory, which is my bete…noire (so to speak).
As for the overwrought complaints about how savage Aoud Cuir d’Arabie can be….nonsense. It is a pussycat in comparison with animalic counterparts like Leather Oud, Kouros, or Antaeus. I rather like the progression from powerful outdoor leather market to floral with a hint of oud…it mirrors the transformation of a leather jacket into something incomparably comfortable.
10/10
kirill 29 – :
People really are horribly dramatic about this frag. I got a sample today and although I wasn’t enamoured with it at first test, I think you get exactly what Montale’s notes listing claims.
The oud and leather are distinct and raw, with the sweetness of the tobacco and birch lifting the whole frag to where it needs to be.
For the first 30 minutes it smells a bit like floral bathroom cleaner, but then after dry-down it smells exactly like some guy’s leather jacket with a touch of his girlfriend’s perfume lingering around the collar.
All-day longevity and classic Montale sillage. Manly and unapologetic.
Sairus.16121987 – :
It smells like raw leather(babouche ect..) you can find in a north african bazar.
Expensive fart.
0/5
alex807 – :
Everything others say about the fecal opening is completely true. It’s merde absolue in a can. I have some Combodian oud attars and they all start out like this. BUT, the dry-down here is utterly magnificent. I love medicinal, camphoraceous ouds, and this is a full-on band-aid oud softened with smooth, creamy, dry leather. Mercifully, there are no syrupy ambers or vanillas to “warm” it up. I love this and it may be fb worthy. I despise leathers with vanilla and amber, and this “clinical” leather is a welcome addition to the genre. It’s so buttery and soft you just want to pet it (which might explain the poopy petting zoo opening). It really does go on like a bovine’s dirty diaper, but ends up the oudy, brushed suede interior of a fabulous leather briefcase. Enduring the smell of the inside of the cow for a very brief period is totally worth the reward of smelling its exquisitely tanned outside. I love the leather-oud balance. Both are clearly detectable and complement one another beautifully.
katana211 – :
If Band-aids were made of leather, they would smell like this. Heavy medicinal oud on the opening, but then dries down to a smoky, woodsy leather with the oud hiding in the background. I enjoyed my sample but not full bottle worthy.
Shot – :
Hahah! Gileshowe’s review/comments below says it all so eloquently.
I will just add that the opening of this fragrance is disgusting, really vile like a chemically supercharged roque forte!!! Really it has a putrid cheese note to my nose!
Pardon my French… it’s fucking terrible!!!
However, once that subsides you get a very rough and unrefined leather scent which is so primal it actually has a certain charm of its own.
More madness from Montale…try it once you get past the horror of the opening (if you can?) it’s an interesting raw leather fragran