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.

The continuous judo between oud and leather, with mediation of tobacco above and birch between. With the hint of tobacco, the opening is raw and animalic, which reminds me of the tannery (though, well, I suppose I've never been to any). Like a judge, birch comes to mediate once the one is dominant; but when the other comes back, birch again stands by. Thus, the battle gradually comes to a tie. (That's why I suppose it's more like judo than wrestling.) Remember to try this on skin. It is a little bit different on paper: the characters of the notes are not fully present and thus the balance feels to be broken. I love to wear this when I am in a violent and arrogant mood. Like a polite refusal and/or a decent revenge to whatever is annoying around you. (Therefore, I don't think this is only masculine: whoever can be aggressive and perform such a perfect revenge, cannot they? ;P) Also tried this in a somehow hot weather (like in late April or early May in Shanghai, if you know what I mean). Unfortunately, once I sweat, the contest seems to be dismissed with a muggy tedium, like the wet cling film messily wrapping on your skin. Guess it's only for cool weather and the air-conditioning. Such a pity. (BTW., like other Montale's, the packaging is just lovely~ With a small pocket in the box and a tiny clip between the vaporiser. And the aluminium bottle is much lighter.)

My honest take on this fragrance is this: out of my entire collection of fragrances, this one’s initial opening may be the most challenging and potentially offputting to wear in a politically correct setting. I would personally avoid wearing this around normal folks for at least 15 minutes after application due to the notes some describe as fecal. This fragrance opens with a sexually deviant note, and dries down to one only truly appreciated by men and women who have hungrily buried their face in an ass before. Once the initial opening fades, it becomes a sexy animalic leather, the type you can only experience if have smelled a skin tanning precure. The Agarwood adds a dark sophistication, and the tobacco note smooths it out. I’m unsure if it is the birch, but there is another element present that adds a smoky and subtle almost imperceptible musky sweetness when you lean in and inhale the scent. This is a dark fantasy in a bottle. The dry down and skin scent are much more subtle and comfortable, not challenging at all. In fact, the dirtiness of it almost magically goes away and this becomes a pleasant masculine leather with a strange sweetness and very subtle astringent cleanliness to it. It’s worth adding just for the story it tells on skin throughout the day.

What I am looking for: A harsh leather fragrance that is dark. I want a leather that is as harsh as the one in Tom Ford’s Ombré leather. Initial impression (Fragrance sprayed on card) Very good this is what I was looking for a nice harsh leather that almost makes your mouth water. There is a little underlying sweetness to the fragrance, maybe a little rose or white florals (even though the notes aren’t listed). It is very good. It’s also gets points for being kinda cheap for a Montale, it’s $80 on FragranceX. On skin impression: On skin it is much stronger initially it almost smells like paint...in a good way. After a little bit (a minute or so) the leather comes out and the fragrance starts to become more dark. You can smell some tobacco and the white florals are nonexistent on my skin. No little hints of sweetness like on the card. Final thoughts: This fragrance is amazing. I wanted to get Tom Ford’s Ombré Leather but I think I’ll save $100 and buy this instead. This is truly one of my new favorite fragrances, it’s been 17 minutes since I put it on and I am in love with it. I am shocked no one is talking about this fragrance. Thank you for reading my extremely long review of this fragrance.

This is a lovely stinker: a leather-oud, one-two punch that conjures an image of ruggedness and virility. You’re in a wide open landscape, skin and jacket and boots all thoroughly sweat soaked and sun baked. Mad Max meets Yellowstone. But don’t let this vibe fool you (or scare you), because it’s actually quite wearable and more polite than you’d expect from Montale (it’s the only one of theirs that I own). In fact, I’d love to smell this on my lady sometime. The bite from the opening (which does make a statement) is rounded out nicely after a few minutes by a smooth tobacco leaf note. Think: freshly rolled Havana cigar in a tannery... or a stable (though it really isn’t barnyardy). Think: rawhides. The funk of the agarwood is present but muted throughout, more medicinal than fecal, a facet that is emphasized by a well judged birch tar (or oil) accord. There isn’t really much more to this fragrance. It settles and continues to hum (or, rather, purr) for many hours without ever becoming cloying. No spiky woods or annoying aromachems here: only high quality materials in a straightforward —if provocatively bold— composition. Great for this time of year.

WHOAH. Ok, 1: comparisons to tanneries, camels wearing jockstraps, cow dung, etc. etc. are not wrong. But. 2. This is a work of genius. It's beautiful. I ordered a small sample, because how could I not be curious about something so polarising? I tried it on paper first, and was struck by how three-dimensional this scent is: it is absolutely a tannery in the blazing sun, or a dusty corner of a market in Morocco. The animal dung is there, yes, in the distance... to me it's a safe distance, a comfortable distance, but I can understand how it's too much for some people. I tried it on skin as well, and- well, I'm a tiny, very shy blonde, and I don't think I could pull this off. For me this is a profoundly beautiful concept fragrance, to be sniffed in private, to be transported to very real, distant places or moments. I think it could be extremely sexy on the right man, but as another reviewer pointed out, you'd probably literally have to be Indiana Jones. Nevertheless, it's not *that* scary on skin, and settles into something very warm, sweet and enveloping after a few hours. For heaven's sake though, go easy with this one. A single drop on skin will do.

One of the tamer ouds in the Montale line and in general for "real" ouds, and, like most Montale perfumes, it is exactly what it says on the bottle: an Arabian style oud and leather. The opening certainly makes you think it's going to be quite a stinker, leaning fully into the medicinal, fecal, rotting qualities of oud, but that calms down relatively quickly. The heart is the actual woody side of oud, a bit smokey and actually a touch floral, and a good dose of leather. The final drown at the skin scent is an earthy, animalic leather. There is something humorous about this perfume. On the one hand it lasts forever, but stays quite close to the skin - again, being on the more tame side of oud presentations - but with the "heaviness" of these materials and accords there is also a feeling of aloofness. It's taking its time, and it's not taking itself too seriously. That, in itself, for the genre is a rarity. Additionally, it proves that oud leather perfumes can be cheap but still high quality. It won't go down in history, but I also can't find a fault with it either. It's just a darn good perfume, and one of my standard go-tos for an oud leather.

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

Just buy it. Great value if you get at discounter. You will be a member of that special cabal of fragrance enthusiasts who genuinely appreciate an unrestrained rich Middle Eastern Oud fragrance. Recall that small cubed building that Muslims circumambulate around in Mecca during pilgrimage.. well this is approximately the smell that will greet you if you ever get close enough to touch the perfumed black robe that enclothes that mosque. This smells like a very traditional Middle Eastern Gulf ‘khaleeji’ perfume (old school for gulf standards... think Aramis for Saudi) repackaged for Western buyers (or perhaps as I suspect this was always targeted at the Middle East market). I agree similar ballpark to FM The Night which is wildly overpriced. Similar fragrance to Arabian Oud’s ‘Majestic Special Oud’ or ‘khas/ special Oud’ or ‘Blue oud’ for £120-£175 which are rose Oud or musk combos. If you want a super cheap version of this type of frag with the same style (at least for the first 10 minutes) then just buy Rasasi Faqat al Rijal online for £25. Enjoy with unrestrained uninhibited abandon - this fragrance is for you.

Back in the late 1970s and mid-1980s I was living in a small town in the West African Savannah. Off and on, I'd smell an extraordinary fragrance in and around the market. I visited all the little shops and stalls looking for perfume or incense, but I never found its source. Thirty-five years later I rediscovered the scent completely by accident, when Aoud Cuir d'Arabie showed up in a sample pack of "smoky" scents from the Perfumed Court. I now can only guess that some folks in the town's Housa trader community were picking up oud based perfumes while on Hajj. My perfume vocabulary is not developed enough to really talk about this, but ACd'A is so close to that smell that it seems the same thing. I've since sampled many other oud based scents, but this is the one that brings it all home for me. I am puzzled though why many people talk of this as a cold weather perfume. To me it should be worn sitting under a kapok tree at a sorghum beer seller's stall in 40C/105F heat while listening to the village drummers and watching the girls go to market.

Really not sure why so many people get freaked out by this one......focusing on things like it has a fecal quality, or only smells like manure and barnyard etc. Those notes are there, but they are so far in the background that you really have to be looking for them IMO. On the opening I get intense black leather and more leather, with a slightly medicinal edge. Very quickly on the dry down a gorgeous gentle spiciness arrives (kind of reminds me of a famous virginia perique pipe tobacco called Escudo), and a bit of that new leather sweetness. Good longevity with moderate projection which suits this kind of fragrance perfectly. I would say it’s more masculine, however I could totally see a femme fatale rock this when she wants to be dark and mysterious. Suits cold wet winter nights dashing between bars tucked away in Melbourne’s dimly lit bluestone laneways. Don’t be afraid of giving it a try. I think it is one of the best leather forward fragrances out there, and well worth having in your collection when you want something different and moody.

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.

Just astounding! I've experienced Ouds, but this...this renders me speechless. It's truly a magnificent experience! I'm so glad that I ordered a sample of this to understand just why Montale's fragrances have become as close to a "de facto standard" for Ouds, and this is such a rich, luxurious fragrance that I'm really at a loss to provide a description that does it justice. I've seen it described as somewhat linear, but for me this opened with a strong note of leather, Oud just beneath the surface. Over the course of wearing, it dried down to a much more subtle note that revealed a deep rose-like scent that softened the overall composition. Tobacco -- a very deep tobacco -- was present through the first several hours until the base was reached, and it seemed to transform itself to Oud, tobacco, and rose. Depth is stunning, sillage and longevity are both very good. Love it! Absolutely love it! This could easily become my favorite or signature scent -- I must get this!

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.

I really love this fragrance from the very beginning to the end. The oud in the opening is very close to the real oud I remember from numerous trips to South Asia. Love the leather but oud is more prominent to me. It was a blind buy and I was afraid it may not be wearable, but it's not as strong or offensive as I imagined. It's very masculine, dark, mysterious, bit floral, bit delicious somehow...but surprizingly pleasant. My partner who doesn't know anything about fragrances or wears any, told me it reminds him of this ancient cathedral we visited in Glasgow in the winter time, rows of very old wooden pews with blood red velvet cushions, and this very muscular older gentleman with beautiful beard we ran into in the lower level of this cathedral who smelled like testosterone. He says it's unlike anything he's ever smelled on me before, and it's much nicer when I don't overspray it.

Besides Oud and Leather, Montale's webpage declares the following notes: Bergamot, Saffron, Ylang-Ylang, Rose, Clove, Vetiver, Sandalwood, Musk, Cistus and Amber. This EDP does not smell good on a paper strip, so the best way to test it is directly on skin. It opens with a cheesy Oud that lasts for about 30 minutes. After that, it becomes a woody and floral composition with a Leather accord that seems to include some Leather Oil nuances. It has the most realistic Oud note I've experienced from either Montale or Mancera and, once it settles down, it's not as aggresive as other releases from both houses. Still, it performs very well. As the popular saying goes: "don't judge a book by its cover". The opening kept me on the fence for some time, but after I properly tested it, I took a bottle home.