Montsouris

This is a lovely offering with good performance. Totally unisex in my opinion. It is both fresh and sweet. For a gourmandish offering, it is not heavy or cloying. I think there is vetiver in the base that kind of keeps it grounded and sharp moving toward the drydown. You definitely get the vanilla and either peachy or lemony brightness on top.

Ok, so yes, in the first initial blast, you get Baccarat Rouge 540, or rather, evernyl. But it is no where near as sweet and sugary berry bubble gummy. Instead there is a beautiful lemony citrus that presents like pastries. It settles to RL's Romance Silver and Purple Label (both a pre-cursors of sorts to Aventus). This to me is ZARA's best.

I had it and can’t find it anywhere now. Best scent from the house. Always be a reminiscence.

a bentley infinity rush clone...

Reminds me of a blend between forest fruits and multiple kinds of leaves. Fresh, sweet and youthful. As others have said, the grapefruit accord is very present throughout its longevity. Out of the bunch in the collection it is the one that has lasted most on my skin, but very close to it after the first hour. It smells nice, but it doesn't blow mind mind or made me curious about it. I don't really feel it is meant for people older than 25. Smells very young, like something a freshman would wear. It's not bad, but it's not great either. 6.5/10.

Some of the notes are grapefruit, bergamot, lavender, jasmine, amber & cedarwood. Stories of Paris includes 4 EDP fragrances. A very pleasant relaxing scent that is light, airy, light citrus, floral and some sweetness. Unisex. This is universally appealing, well constructed and unlike a typical designer. This is a feel good, mood lifting daytime fragrance with acceptable performance.

Great scent! Although a freshie, better suited to cooler summer/warmer fall days than the high heat. I have smelled a similar scent in other Zara offerings (Destination Mars), but this is richer and more intense. Easy on the trigger, this can be overwhelming if over sprayed. Good Sillage and longevity. Punches way outside its price point. Nicely done Zara!

Sugary sweet lavender with Bcrt backbone. Have you ever smelled Lavender Macarons?

At the opening I percieve a green citrus note, like bergamot or green lemon, which I think is what gives a unisex touch to a fragrance, which, from what it says, should be sweet. Lavender appears immediately and stays most of the life of the perfume on the skin. At the dry down, that sweet and musky smell appears, which reminded me a lot of Burberry Her. It doesn't say to have any red fruit notes, but after an hour, I can smell something like berries or strawberries. I guess Montsouris has that same DNA as BR540, sothat's why it's often compared to Ariana Grande's Cloud, but I think it dries down like Burberry Her. I agree that smells like Instant Crush plus a lavender note. In general, it is a very interesting and totally unisex perfume. I bought it because lavender is one of my favorite notes and in combination with the macaroon and praline I thought that I would really like it. And yes I like it, but the longevity is not that good: 4 hours at the most. And it's also possible to over-spray this perfume, especially because in the first hour the projection is great, despite the fact that it almost completely disappears 3 hours later. Even so, I like this perfume a lot even though I don't like the projection, and because I quite like that BR540 DNA.

From the back of the factory sample set from Zara: "A delightful memory from Paris, the French must-see macaron from pastry shop in the 6th district, my 'peché-mignon'. Deliciously filled with praline and flooded with lavender, odeon recalls a vintage feel enhanced with moss tonalities." ??? (I think this might have been copy pasted to Google translate from French, maybe?) While, this description does match Fragrantica's notes, what I smell definitely lines up more with BrianBorous's description. I get lavender and moss and very, very light. Straight up fougère, not a trace of gourmand notes on me.

This is very synthetic though arguably in a nice way. There is no overwheling iso e super or ambroxan like in two others of this series. It does get compared to Baccarat Rouge or Cloud, and I can see why, there is this synthetic-foamy-fruityness to it but with scents this synthetic is all ends up being subjective anyway. Supposedly has a lavender note. I can not tell. It has a definite strong note of that fake grapefruit note, and just a lot of general sweetness. It might be giving me a headache. Very very synthetic.

Over the years I have been trying some Zara fragrances only to be left disappointed by their performance and/or smell. When I knew about this Paris Stories Collection I got curious. So knowing that the company was offering in its array of products a discovery set of 4 samples vials was splendid news to me as I enjoy testing fragrances a few times before making up my mind. Mountsouris has been said to be similar in smell to super hyped Baccarat Rouge 540 which I haven't tried. Cloud by Ariana Grande has also been commented to be close to BR 540. In comparison to Cloud, Montsouris is fresher, lighter and less sweet. I was actually surprised given its composition that it isn't a sickly saccharine scent. On my skin the lavander overpowers the other notes. So much so that it is the only note I can truly distinguish. The rest is just sweet background. Bearing in mind that I tested them through glass vials my appraisal is limited. That being said to my nose it didn't project much staying close to the skin right from the beginning and lasting only a few hours. However considering the price asked I find it an alright proposal.

Well well Zara... i've got to say that this right here is a step up! This smells AMAZING to say the least, performance is solid on me, 4+ hours while it's somewhat close to the skin. People at my workplace commented on it even after i couldn't notice anything of it. Tbh this one smells like a refined more rounded and YOUTHFULL version of Terre D'Hermes and man does it work well. Got a few compliments with it already and been using it for 3 weeks now. THIS is one of the Zara gems that you don't need to be shy of, get it it's worth it!

I just found a bottle of this perfume and I must say it is really good and it does remind me of something that I’ve smelled before from Zara but can’t put my nose in it right now but happy me to have scored a bottle of this perfume as it’s quite rare to find ( so it seems )

A more aromatic take on the BR540 DNA, as if BR540 had a child with Bvlgari Aqva Amara, hence probably why someone compared it to Kalan. Very nice for the price, could be signature worthy for those who are into these kind of things.

I tried to guess by the notes what this would smell like. I was totally wrong. But I loved wearing it anyway. It was very masculine and musky herbal on me. No macaron or praline detected. I felt like a sassy bro.

Mancera Instant Crush vibe + lavender note. Really interesting one.