Steam Aoud (Aoud Hoggar Mota)

Montale love is strength - to - strength! The opening of Steam Aoud is a moist and chill manicured path lined with bright, sensibly camphoric, green cypress. They are only hints at the sought after status of evergreen, with no actual smell so much as the sight of breathtaking green pires woven between fog. Hanging mosses and giant palm leaves without much emission unmoved over millenia rustle slightly, nudged by groundlings of sweet tobacco leaf wilting beneath a jungle humidor canopy. As time passes, the waxy green cypress foliage remains elusive over an eternal dry down of very sweet taif rose and amber.

Interesting scent for sure! Opening is a bit rough, mostly due to the caraway, but it gets so much better with time. It reminds me of Aoud Purple Rose but with much less rose (I can smell a bit of rose here in the background). It's sophisticated and alluring but not for everyone since it's middle eastern through and through. Smells like a night time scent to me and lasts a heck of a long time with a lingering scent bubble. Love it. P.S. a much cheaper alternative would be Oud Al Mubakhar by Rasasi

After sampling a lot of the line, I finally settled on making Steam Aoud my first full bottle Montale purchase. Truthfully it came as a surprise that I'd love it so much given that this perfume seems to get almost no attention. I suspect that this is named Steam Aoud due to the oud being steam distilled rather than hydro distilled, which is probably the reason that there are no smokey or barnyard aspects to this oud. I don't smell caraway, tobacco or anything identifiabley herbaceous that I might be able to attribute to the Indonesian herb melange "Hoggar Mota". For the first 20 minutes, this smells exactly like india ink. Then, out of nowhere, it switches to a luscious honeyed, rose oud scent. It stays that way for the next 12 hours on my skin. Its gorgeous and almost velvety.

Oud, very clean and bright amber resins and hint of cumin, blending seamlessly together. The composition is bright and shimmering, dry and woody. Squeaky clean without being soapy. Easy to wear, bit regal, slightly formal - and definitely not my cup of tea. Would make a great office perfume for a friend of dry, woody scents. For professionals, for people who want to make the impression of accomplishment. Excellent lasting time and relatively polite - but not humble - projection.

Black Aoud re-packed. Same rosey, woody sharp oud that's typical of Montale's. Although, here the rose is a bit less, allowing more of the "aoud" to show. You'd have to smell them side by side to detect any significant difference, if any. I still like the smell a lot. I like Black Aoud to begin with. Like the for the smell, dislike for the marketing ploy.