Aoud Leather

Montale Aoud Leather EDP opens with a strong projection of leather and woody notes. The opening is elegant, sophisticated, and intense. The leather and oud are opening prominent notes. The leather found in this fragrance is very polished, dry, natural-smelling, and projecting; similarly, the oud, although noticeable, it is very refined, evocative of fine wood, as opposed to animalic or dark pungent oud. A step behind the leather and oud is the saffron and cardamom. The saffron is a leathery, earthy, and spice note, it blends well with the leather. A little more towards the back is the cardamom, sweet, resinous, spicy, bitter, but not prominent. The ambergris and pepper are support notes, just a whiff. The fragrance is linear, all feature notes come up as soon as the fragrance is applied and continue into the dry down. Once Montale Aoud Leather EDP has reached its full dry down, it can be summarized as a strong projection, leather, wood, and spicy saffron fragrance. The fragrance feels bold, dense, dry, earthy, elegant, exotic, expensive, heavy, high-quality, intense, leathery, masculine, mature, modern, natural, nicely-blended, polished, refined, warm, woody, and very pleasant. BATCH REVIEWED: 2020 (#E0846). WOW RATING: 10/10. A very pleasant natural leather fragrance. DISLIKE RATING: 2/10. The leather is noticeable, polished, but it is a featured note. UNIQUENESS: 8/10. Leather fragrances are relatively common, yet, this one has a unique touch. MASS APPEAL: 6/10. Leather fragrances are not among the most mass-appealing fragrances. PROJECTION: 4/10. Moderate, about 4 feet around the wearer. SILLAGE: 6/10. Very good, about 6 feet behind the wearer. APPLICATION: 4 atomizations. LONGEVITY: 8/10. Impressive, about 8 hours, it projects well for over 5 hours. SEASONS: Fall, spring, winter, colder nights, and climate-controlled environments. OCCASIONS: Formal events, outdoor gatherings, office, business, casual. This is an office-friendly fragrance. VERSATILITY: 7/10. A versatile leather fragrance ideal for casual, formal, and workwear. GENDER: Masculine, leather is a masculine accord. AGES: 30 and above. RECOMMENDATION: Montale Aoud Leather EDP can be found for about $80. It is a natural, very appealing, high-quality leather fragrance. This is a great buy. BLIND-BUY: Yes, but only if you are familiar with its main notes. SIMILAR: These are examples of fragrances in the same genre. Acqua Di Parma Oud EDP Men is a challenging, intense, animalic, oud, leather, spicy coriander, resinous Amyris, and musky fragrance; Al Haramain Opulent Saffron EDP is a fantastic, sweet tonka, suede, almond, heliotrope, and amber fragrance; Azzaro Pour Homme EDT is a great, strong, mature, leather, very spicy, woody, and green fragrance; Carolina Herrera 212 Sexy EDT Men is a very good sweet vanilla, amber, sandalwood, leathery guaiac wood, and spicy fragrance; Carolina Herrera CH EDT Men is a great, mild, sweet, leather, suede, woody, and ozonic fragrance; Guerlain L’Homme Ideal EDP features leather, almond, bergamot, and vanilla fragrance; Mancera Gold Prestigium EDP is a superb, sweet, vanilla, orange blossom, leather, and oud fragrance; Paco Rabanne 1 Million EDT Men is a good, sweet ambery, leather, and spicy cinnamon fragrance; Tom Ford F Fabulous is a very good, intense, sweet, vanilla, tonka, bitter almond, leather, and woody fragrance; Tom Ford Ombre Leather is a fantastic, intense, leather, white floral, spicy, and ambery fragrance; Tom Ford Tuscan Leather EDP is a very good, intense, leather, fruity, and spicy fragrance; Valentino Uomo Intense EDP is a great, mild, leather, sweet tonka, vanilla, and powdery iris fragrance; Xerjoff More Than Words is a very good, oud, sweet, fruity, floral, and ambergris fragrance; Montale Aoud Leather EDP is a great, intense, leather, wood, and spicy saffron fragrance. SUMMARY: A strong projection, leather, wood, and spicy saffron fragrance. The fragrance feels bold, dense, dry, earthy, elegant, exotic, expensive, heavy, high-quality, intense, leathery, masculine, mature, modern, natural, nicely-blended, polished, refined, warm, woody, and very pleasant.

I used it for about a year before writing this review. I couldn't bring myself to write a superficial review. When I first put it on, I thought it smelled like a new basketball, like Louis Vuitton leather, with a dominant scent of bergamot and light, fresh leather. It is a fairly linear scent and the combo of saffron and bergamot lasts for several hours. I wore aoud leather for a few months thinking it was much fresher, but as the weather turned colder, I noticed the smokeiness of the oud thickening in the middle. It even feels warmer as it changes with the temperature. This is a smooth blend, so you may not feel the oud at first impression, but the clean oud is there, and as soon as you perceive it, you know it is spreading well behind you. After a few hours to a day of dry-down, the bergamot and saffron notes mysteriously transform into a smooth roundness and acidity, like the aroma of berries, and at this stage it is clear to see why it is compared to Tuscan leather. It is a masterpiece that can be worn all year round, with freshness prevailing in summer and the thickness of the leather prevailing in winter. To tell the truth, I was disappointed when I first purchased it, as it seemed to me to be a straight new leather scent without much depth. Still, it was somewhat addictive, and the experience of noticing the depth and artistry as I wore it was wonderful. The performance is great and lasts 12 hours on the skin and more than 2 days on the clothes.10/10

Tuscan Leather "Aqua". This is only slightly similar to Tuscan Leather, it's absolutely its own scent. This is the same leather and saffron notes, but no suede or raspberry, replaced instead by sharp, citrusy bergamot and oud. Although it's strong, this is not as heavy as Tuscan Leather. The added citrus causes the scent to be brighter and the leather to be a bit more rubbery, but not so much so as Fahrenheit, or anything. Tom Ford could have released this scent himself as "Tuscan Leather Aqua" and not a single soul would have questioned it, but I actually rather respect that this is NOT a clone! It smells great and stands on its own merits. Did I mention this is strong?! Wow! Update: After purchasing a full bottle at a price I just couldn't refuse ($76) I will also add that I've received NUMEROUS compliments on this one! Personally, I usually prefer Tuscan Leather to this, however it seems that others tend to prefer the smell of Aoud Leather on me. It's a crowd pleaser! Everyone who's compared this to Tuscan Leather has told me that this one fits my personality better. But, everyone is different and I still love Tuscan Leather equally. Also - When you buy a bottle, don't be surprised if it feels like it's half empty. It took comparing the bottle to every other bottle in my collection before I realized that as small as the bottle is, the bottle itself would probably hold more than 5 ounces, so yes, it isn't completely full, but it is 3.4oz of liquid inside.

This is an incredibly nice spicy-leather scent with a generous helping of saffron and ambergris. Very potent opening. The initial citrus accord is very bitterish-spicy but very short lived so it's just fine. Black Pepper and Saffron are the two notes that dominate the life of this scent, in incredible depth. It doesn't smell exactly the same all the way. Different shades emerge as time goes by. The cardamom, something I'm not usually fond of, brings great depth here to the other spices ( I get traces of cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf) and the saffron accord. The leather here is very soft and smooth. Very polished and subtle (atleast on my skin). There's also a boozy vibe to the whole thing that, together with saffron, pepper, & leather kinda reminds me of Bentley Intense. (It is quite similar in terms of the overall vibe.) And beneath all this is, what, to me, feels like, really good quality Ambergris. It's salty, slightly sweet, with some ambery-floral nuances. And finally, the Oud. It's extremely subtle here. Not at all the dominant note. Just something like a catalyst of sorts, added to bring out certain facets in the other elements. It's there - slightly medicinal and dark - but more like a filter added in post-production. It just adds a certain vibe to the main theme. Projection, sillage, and longevity are all on the higher side. All in all, beautiful. An incredibly nice spicy-leather scent with great depth and a classy vibe.

To start off, this is actually not quite what I was expecting but ended up still liking what it is more than what I expected. This fragrance is what you would imagine an incredibly clean leather car seat would smell like, or almost like the leather equivalent of white chocolate, it's clean, slightly sweet, very fresh spicy and is absolutely quite versatile. The performance is also really good, I get at least 10 hours of longevity, the projection is moderate to strong too. Even though I was actually expecting a darker, more warm spicy almost dirty scent with hints of a little bit of baccarat-esque DNA in the base, this still satisfied me quite decently, and the oud also isn't very noticeable, at least on my skin. Also, I don't know if it's like this anywhere else but the price of Montale fragrances for their quality and performance is genuinely really good value, I got my bottle of this for £45!! For 100ml too! For those curious, I use perfumeoasis, they're legit and have really good prices. Anyway, this fragrance is really good, it's mass appealing, quite sexy, and versatile for every day use, enough to be a signature scent even. I do love this. To me, this frag is a 8.5/10, I would have personally liked a slightly higher dose of saffron or cardamom, but this is still fantastic.