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odb243Bessinepome – :
Guerlain l’heure bleu is one of my classic favourites. I have to say I don’t see that much similarity with this classic beauty but I get where folk are coming from.
The no 1 note here is iris but with a nice bit of incense, wood and vanilla. Iris is queen here. There is not much sweetness or vanilla for that matter. I detect a touch of vetiver, amber, and tonka at the back.
The lack of much sweetness keeps this a unisex scent.
I actually really like it as a cool iris scent. Reasonable longevity and sillage.
yuringo – :
Let me preface my review by stating that I am huge fan of Montale/Mancera and collectively own 25 of their fragrances; most I love, some I like, but Chypre Vanille is the only dud in the collection. However, I will not my love for this fragrance house affect my dislike of this fragrance in any form or fashion.
So what does Chypre Vanille smell like? It smells just like wrinkled old-lady ass! Well, at least that’s how I imagine it would smell…not that I wanna ever find out. Very sad, but very true!
Prominent notes of vanilla, incense, sandalwood and vetiver piqued my interest in this scent, but the screaming iris had me a bit worried…and with good reason. A good friend send this to me after having purchased a bottle for something like $60 on the discount market, and not like it. Not I hate him with a passion (just kidding – LOL!). Trust me, they should pay customers to take this one off their hands.
On a positive note, this fragrance performs well; lasts a solid 10-12 hours and projects above average for several hours. Moreover, it settles down and becomes a much more wearing women’s powdery amber-vanilla scent after a couple hours and so it’s really not too bad at that point. However, dealing with 2-hours of wrinkled old-lady ass is more than enough to warrant my strong dislike from a dude who oozes testosterone from the pours of his skin.
If you appreciate honest well-written reviews like I do (even when they’re negative) then give this one a like. However, any snowflake disliking my review simply because you cannot handle anyone posting negative opinions about your precious scent (do you realize how pathetic that is?)…well, may you be given a wicked case of genital herpes that you so richly deserve.
Cheers!
bolshoyb – :
Montale Chypre Vanille is predictably a chypre with a bit of vanille—sweet, feminine, and probably best built for winter day use, if I had to guess. As expected, the fragrance entails the brand’s typical exceptional performance, with a strong projection that lasts hours, and on overall quite impressive longevity.
I get a very herbal powdery mix of jasmine and tonka with the dominance of the vanilla, create something churchily feminine, especially when it settles down into a dry down of incense.
Overall, one I’m fairly neutral toward it. Not bad, but not something I’d lean toward much even if I were given a bottle for free.
6 out of 10
ukrainov – :
My first Montale and I love, love, love it!! Very strong, A little goes A long way! I work at A bookshop and there once was A woman who sniffed down the whole store to find out what it was that smels so very delicious, turned out it was me, waring the Chypre Vanille. She loved it also and thought this perfume was spot on and A very good match with me! Thanks and compliments to Lianne Tio in Rotterdam, who pointed this one out for me! I also love the bottles, they keep the perfumes good forever!
lenivec – :
Esprit de Oscar on steroids. Very synthetic and harsh. Needs to be applied very lightly otherwise suffocating. Longevity as a Montale is good.
Hoorryhed – :
I have a bottle in a blue velvet pouch with the old Montale address. I also have a recent sample from EuroParfums. Both are good. The bottle in the blue velvet pouch has a dusty character, mimicking old iris, vanilla and sandalwood, that reminds me of the dry down of very old vintage perfumes – specifically a bottle of 1960s extrait of L’Heure Bleue. It’s pretty much a vintage dry down in a bottle. It’s really an extraordinary impression, and it has an austere darkness that makes me think there is real oakmoss in it. It’s as if the perfumer wanted to capture the impression of a female relative, remote yet sophisticated and desirable, as she offered her cheek up for a kiss. This scent is inextricably linked for me with a juxtaposition of childhood and sexual maturity, innocence and worldliness.
The newer version is a shockingly long lasting luminous pale pink powdery rose over a similar vintage impressionistic base, but it is smoother and more and static. It’s like a black light version of the first bottle that I have.
There are a few bottles of the vintage left on Amazon.com.
sadistica – :
This is a lovely fragrance. The sharpness of the chypre is perfectly balanced by the vanilla. I am usually not a fan of vanilla perfumes, but this one is hardly noticeable. It’s just enough to soften the sharp edges of the other notes. It is smooth, and warm.
It smells feminine, sexy and expensive. This isn’t a fragrance for a very young woman, but rather for women who are a bit more mature, and a lot more self-confident and stylish. I can’t imagine this on a man.
An excellent fragrance for the winter.
vitassik – :
Most Montale fragrances are supposed to be unisex and yet not all of them are.
I find this scent more on the feminine side maybe because of the rose in it.
On me this is quite powdery thanks to iris and sweet due to vanilla and amber.
Not bad but nothing outstanding either I can think of so many other good scents for the price.
hvm917Negeltzex – :
At first I wasn’t sure that I really liked Montale Chypré Vanille. For one thing, it’s not a chypre, according to any definition of that term, whether classic or modern. No patchouli, no oak moss, no galbanum, nothing coming close to any chypre I’ve encountered. I also don’t find this composition to be much of a vanilla perfume. The opening just seems like a sweet benzoin scent, similar in some ways to Léonard Léonara and maybe one of the neighbors of Rocha Absolu. Which is interesting, since benzoin is not listed among the notes! It must be the ambergris along with the vanilla and tonka which together produce this benzoin illusion to my nose.
As Chypré Vanille dries down and begins to meld with the skin, it radiates more and more (I hesitate to use that word, because “radiance” has come to mean “iso-E-super” which, happily, is nowhere to be sniffed in this composition) and ends up smelling simply gorgeous. Yes, that’s the word other reviewers have selected to describe this perfume, and I highly concur!!!! By the drydown, the ambergris cannot be denied and is indeed gloriously present, mingling enticingly with the other oriental and floral elements. Anyone who loves ambergris should give this creation a sniff–but be patient and wait for the drydown, because it just gets better and better.
This is by far my favorite “vanilla” perfume from the Montale line-up, but to me it’s a gleaming, golden oriental. To reiterate: GORGEOUS!!!!!
SPooNSer – :
This is a beautiful powdery lipstick smell. When i wear it i always feel myself in relaxing and comfortable mood. I love it, but i’m very sad because it doesn’t available in my country. I have a 100ml bottle so i have to preserve for years.
anertilla – :
I like this one, will I buy it? No I won’t! This to me starts of old lady like and develops into something tolerable and nice actually but not nice enough for me to buy maybe that’ll change one day? I get small hints of vanilla, nothing hardcore and you’d think with vanilla in the name that it would be the star playa playa but it’s not…..I get more rose than anything else and that’s not a bad thing but I’m wishing there was something there to add more depth to the rose like um……MORE VANILLA!
drink33 – :
This was a horror show called “Everything You Fear About Chypres”. I happen to love chypres, but this was a combination of all the sharp, toxic, perfumey greeness that people steer away from, all here in this perfume taking center stage. It was just…acrid. And no vanilla at all.
Denmeerce – :
Unfortunately there is nothing “chypre”, nor “vanille” on my skin whatsoever. This has been one of the most disappointing sample testings in a long time as I did really expect something beautiful.
“Chypre Vanille” on me is a full forward sandalwood and tonka bean combo with a slight hint of cold rose hidden under the huge cloying mess the dominant notes are doing.
Reading from other reviews I could swear I am testing something else, as this is not light, nor feminine, just an overly cloying mess.
Not a safe blind buy for sure.
torech – :
The iris note with a slight herbal edge (mix of incense and vetiver?) gives this perfume a soft and timeless air. It is definitely a retro vanilla, and a chypre in the sense that vanilla is not immediately recognizable but exists in a more abstract form. Not quite as pungent as some other Montales (and easy on the rose),I can imagine wearing it on a regular basis. (cannot imagine it on a man though.) The drydown on a paper strip curiously reminds me of the famous L’Heure Bleue…
axa – :
It smells like Jil Sanders #4.I was quite disappointed because its powdery like when it dries down. However, I will chose Blue Amber and chypre fruite.
szupzsolti – :
I think the vetiver and rose overpower all the other notes. I’m a die hard tonka bean fan, but I never smelled it here. To me it smelled like coca-cola and loud florals.
otheteHet – :
For those who are at odds with the clammy candy-sweet vanillas. This beautifully composed scent is not one ot those smothery, plethoric “goodies”. It is unambiguously VANILLA, but vetiver and iris provide the scent against the cloying sweetness, rose freshens it, and incense give a spiritual deepness. Wow!!!!
belivery – :
Bautiful, beautiful oriental vanilla! Deeply feminine and almost sexual in the opening, for some reason could be worn by a man too. As soon as sprayed it reminded me a lot of L’Heure Bleue. No anise is listed, but I think that similarities are in the use of iris, incense, and feve tonka.
It would be a perfect scent for autumn/winter, very conforting yet sensual in a very elegant and exotic way. Totally out of mainstream and well, maybe not so fashionable these days.
Only the drydown is a little bit weak and flat, but the whole composition is truly beautiful.
navy – :
Alright, I can’t believe I’m about to say this about a Montale, but this is:
Weak.
Yep, weak. I applied earlier this afternoon, changed shirts and used a heavier hand to apply again. I just can’t smell it. (only when i stick my nose up against my shirt can i tell something is there)
This also opens, at least to my nose, with a burst of saffron, i.e, a tweed-like, raspy floral that should not be coming from any of the notes listed, so i’m baffled.
I do suspect that Montals break down easily from heat and travel; and on more than one occasion i’ve smelled the same labeled fragrance and gotten two different experiences. This could be what is happening here.
But from this sample, no love. There are better vanillas, better incenses, and better chypres out there.
desi12 – :
This is just gorgeous. I got a sample from Luckyscent and am very glad I did. It is very complex, and the incense, and sandlewood bring out a lucious vanilla scent that is unique. It lasts well on me and smells divine from first spray to dry down and for hours afterwards. It developes so beautifully. It is definitely worth buying a full size bottle.
Meodd493Negeltzex – :
Gorgeous gorgeous – complex and simply beautiful. It smells exactly like my favefave mellow-out incense, used for years (got it from Pyramid Collection and they don’t carry it anymore.) What I loved about that incese is that it didn’t smell like traditional incense! And this does not smell like traditional perfume. Also reminds me just a touch of Rapture by Victoria Secret (amber-vanilla), but that does not have the gorgeous dusty-powdery notes. This goes on slightly medicinal, but a beautiful, light powdery dustiness comes out a couple of minutes after application; it stayed fairly linear on me throughout wear (did not change that much with wear.)
Let me say that this has “Vanille” in the name, and although you can detect some in it, this is by far NOT the main note. This isn’t gourmand! If you like vanilla gourmands, this will disappoint. It’s a fantastically well-blended mix of rose, light and powdery sandalwood, and a hint of smoky incense on the surface, with a sweet, warm amber, vanilla and a little bit of iris giving it grounding so it does not float away! The individual notes are a team here, no one upstages the other.
This fragrance is so classy, it’s an excellent “event” perfume, but light ehough so it could be worn daily without complaint. Very feminine, ethereal and earthy at the same time. Well-made, love it.
Satslayethy – :
Now THIS is one of the most beautiful vanillas that I have ever tried. The rose and incense keep this from oozing “gourmand” and the vetiver gives this a slight green edge. I can’t see anyone disliking this and it doesn’t resemble any vanilla that I’ve ever encountered. Longevity and sillage mean nothing to me with this fragrance – that’s how beautiful this is.. All of this from a sample… Needless to say, this is definitely a 100ml purchase waiting to happen.