Aoud Cuir d’Arabie

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.

Montale is a joy. What they dare to do is completely outside of the domain of the Black Afghanos, Reins, Liquides Imaginaires and etceteras of the perfume industry that are hell bent on finding such an obscure niche within the market that they're willing to rely on ad copy and design for a certain cool factor related to marijuana or existentialism or gothicism yaddayada to carve out their Instagramming clientele. Montale, on the other hand, does one thing and only one thing well: orientalism. Aoud Cuir d'Arabie is the pinnacle of Montale's fantasy, that is if we exclude their more straightforwardly named Arabians, of course... Also pertinent is the fact that Montale, here, has not sacrificed or compromised an iota of their identity, even if they've done a few things differently: Somehow, Montale's managed to avoid making yet another nuclear perfume. Aoud Cuir d'Arabie, after its initial blast of car interior, cheese, and dung, works through a gorgeous rose and leather that approximates the smell of skin more and more as time passes and notes change. Whereas perfumes such as Montale's Black Aoud divide and conquer, staking a claim to more and more space as you self-consciously decide to limit the movement of your histrionic aura in order to avoid causing a scene, Aoud Cuir d'Arabie might actually cause some unsuspecting strangers to second guess—and only when they get close enough—"Is he (or she or they or it) gorgeously sweating?" Although this fragrance smells nothing like sweat, there is something utterly human and sebaceous about it, as if we all–or at least the sexiest of us–exude a faint smell of tobacco ripeness as the day goes on. I first bought a bottle of this wonderful juice 3 years ago, before I knew what was good for me. I sold it because I wanted to go out into the world and try new things, because I fell in love with Dior's Leather Oud (another masterpiece, albeit one that smells much more perfumey despite its animalic features), because I didn't know my own tastes. I now find myself with a new 10ml decant of Montale's fragrance and with the desire to maybe pull the trigger on a full bottle. In the heat of summer, this leather fragrance smells wonderful: natural and hot. The heat of New York melds it to my skin. Gone are the worries that I smell like a fool who's buzzing with a sandalwood synth bomb; or wearing an unfathomably dense, resin-based oriental that's crystallizing on my body like honey; or am washed by an aquatic, citrus-obssessed splash that is trying too hard to scream "I'm not sweating, I'm fresh." Instead, Montale's Aoud Cuir d'Arabie accentuates all the smells that accompany our bodies in this life, throughout the seasons, irrespective of place, and there's nothing oriental about that.

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

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.

Wonderful. I have no other words to describe this scent. One of the most courageous perfumes that I've ever tried. You need a lot of courage to wear it, and if you will be successful to wear it, then Aoud Cuir D'Arabie will become a drug. At the top notes it's pure oud. Simply. Initially, the smell is like a "stable" and hay, a stink, very hard to smell! But after a few minutes this flavor fades and oud became more aromatic: powerful, but beautiful. After many minutes starts to emerge a smoky, wet, fat leather and tobacco notes with oud always present in the background. Leather and burned woods with power of oud makes the (very savage) middle/hearts notes. In the dry down the the scent becomes less wild and more gentle and fine. The leather is a leather more delicate and elegant. I've never tried a leather reproduced in the purest way as in this perfume. I think that this is the fragrance closest to the pure and precious oud and the fragrance that reproduces in the most perfect way the real smell of leather. Surely it is the wildest fragrance I've ever worn: savage, smell of tannery. It transports me into an arabic market full of leather clothes for sale. Either you hate or you love it. No middle. And I love it. But remember: it's stuff for "die hard men". Sillage is very good (more discreet than Black Aoud). Lasting power/longevity: excellent. Masterpiece. Vincenzo F.