Bergdorf Goodman now has five discovery sets from the (prolific!) brand Montale, each with seven 2 ml samples plus a booklet. Shown is the Women's Discovery Collection, other sets include one for Men, plus Roses & Flowers, Aoud, and Fruits & Vanillas. $22 each.
As I write, it’s 95 degrees Fahrenheit/35 degrees Celsius in Seattle. On scorchers, I usually opt for colognes they make me feel refreshed and clean. Apparently, most of my citrus scents are too hot to work today (even 10 sprays result in only minutes of refreshment). I don’t want any “sugar” in my perfume on hot days, and cumin and grapefruit are risky (“That man needs a shower!”) And I’m not interested at all in the army of white musk-infused citrus scents on the market that remain on skin till Kingdom Come; the last thing I want today is to be reminded of a steamy laundromat.
My hot-weather choice? I often opt for a vetiver-focused perfume; vetiver makes me feel clean and “cool.” Too bad my latest vetiver purchase (Etro Vetiver) is a failure in this oven-like heat; it disappears from my skin in under 10 minutes. So, thinking of that old phrase — “fight fire with fire” — I turned to a new vetiver fragrance: Montale Red Vetiver…
Over the years, I’ve been told I smell like 1.) a Christmas tree, 2.) an ashtray, 3.) a sacristy, and 4.) an “ethnic” gift shop. On each of those “occasions” I was wearing an incense fragrance.
I’ve never reached the saturation point with incense-centered colognes. I love incense (and incense perfume) in all seasons. The aromas of frankincense, sandalwood, halmaddi, agarwood, kyphi, and copal can take me on a sensory journey from chilly European cathedrals to steamy Southeast Asian temples, from ancient North African and Mesoamerican pyramids to the high and dry deserts of the American Southwest. For me, incense evokes rites, festivals and magical landscapes.
Montale Full Incense includes notes of cedar, labdanum, patchouli, elemi, and frankincense…
I love the richness and unabashed potency of Middle Eastern and Indian fragrances. One of my first ‘exotic’ fragrance purchases was a tiny jar of waxy sandalwood-amber paste from India; a few dabs of that dense perfume paste on my collar bone scented me all day long. The perfume paste also came in the scents of orange blossom, rose, lotus and jasmine, and the entire line was advertised using the image of a turbaned man applying the perfume paste to his throat. Slowly and, unfortunately, turban-less, I ventured into floral territory with my fragrance purchases. The simple, inexpensive Indian perfumes opened up a new world to me: I started reading about the history of perfumery, I created “to-smell lists” of individual plant and animal perfume notes, and I started burning incense and wearing fragrances from India, Nepal, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Both Montale Red Aoud and Agallocha Tedallal Homme were inspired by Middle Eastern perfumery…
I’ve been called a fruitcake and I’ve been called a fruit — but not because I smell fruity. Men’s and unisex fragrances rarely feature a sustained stream of natural-smelling (non-citrus) fruit aromas, so my perfume cabinet has always had an empty space where I could lodge a FRUIT FRAGRANCE or two — but that situation may soon change.
Last weekend, there was an unseasonably hot (over 75 degrees Fahrenheit!) day here in the Northwest and I stayed outside to feel the warm sun, to smell the saucer magnolias, wallflowers, hyacinths and clematis that are in bloom, and to enjoy the fragrant sea breeze blowing in from the west. The beautiful day made me think of the coming summer and I felt ‘summery’ myself; I reached for an untried perfume sample that sounded perfect for such a glorious day: Montale’s Fruits of the Musk…