Crystal Aoud

Oh goodness this is just magical! It opens with a lovely burst of oud, saffron, melon and crisp-green-juicy apple. It's simultaneously warm and fresh with a little sugar on top! I especially love oud fragrances in summer heat - like today (32°C feels like 37°C), I find they truly blossom in warmer temperatures and Crystal Aoud is definitely no exception to that rule.

I dont have this with me now, but I remember thinking it smelled like all things I cannot afford ;) Like what it would smell like in the taxfree area of an airport just in between a perfume shop and a shop that sells ties, leather wallets and expensive suitcases. The mix of all notes from these two shops combined: leather, high end make-up, sparkly perfumes (when it is impossible to pick out any notes..) clean pressed very dry very new textiles and something expensively crystally fresh on top. Get a feeling of money in the bank when wearing it, and seeing as I have none I almost feel like misrepresenting myself ;)

I can not detect the oud in this. It has a woodiness but it's not oud woodiness. This is a meh fragrance in term of smell. Just wood with a hit of orange. Doesn't justify its price at all.

The green apple is very dominant when it starts evolving on your skin. Also as if the saffron was present from the very beginning? The dryness of the oud is however very much balancing out the potential sweetness of green apples. All in all, there is nothing sweet about this perfume. I would not say it smell cleanliness either other than the lemony smell. Will come back on the drydown later though.

The first time that I tried Montale Crystal Aoud, I did not detect any fruits whatsoever--just oud and musk. Today, however, as I take this perfume up once again, I find the musk to be rather sweet, so that must be the fruits kicking in. I cannot say that I recognize either melon or green apple as the contributing sweet factors, but the musk is definitely a sweet and clean one, with the oud growing stronger and stronger until, by the end, Crystal Aoud has become essentially an oud solinote with musk as the base. I have to admit that the idea of sweet oud has never really appealed to me. When I read reviews about honeyed oud perfumes, I feel my stomach turning just a bit at the thought of the combination of sweet honey and strong dark oud. This creation by Montale has persuaded me to believe that it is possible to have a wearable sweet oud perfume. I should say though that this one is not overly sweet, just more sweet than it is savory. I see that vanilla is listed among the notes, but I cannot tease it out--to me, this composition is simply somewhat sweet. Crystal Aoud is pretty nice, all in all, but I prefer flowers with my oud, above all rose, and Montale has plenty of those on offer, so I won't be pursuing this creation further. Still, it was a worthwhile olfactory experience to wear this perfume.