To begin with, this fragrance has an appealingly dense and voluminous, already a little dull and very slightly dusty, very delicate woody layer perceptible, which also brings with it very fine sour touches and here I thought of tobacco, but also oud, whose fragrance impression leaves an entertaining impression, which will be different for everyone. Montale WOOD & SPICES definitely tests my wish to believe that all fragrances are potentially unisex. The opening, in particular, verily screams out "Cologne Guy!" Maybe this is the Montale for Cologne Guy? I mused over this possibility for several minutes while waiting for the huge cloud of fumes to dissipate.

The Sillage is in the first hour very well room-filling and then oscillates 4 hours on a very clear arm length, before it minimizes itself in calm steps, until the smell finally completely fades out

My Account

Whether incorporating florals or musk, Montale perfumes fuse carefully sourced ingredients from the far reaches of the globe, allowing the individuality and exoticism of each element to stand out. You'll find notes of roasted coffee, rose and oakmoss as well as amber, lemon and bergamot. In its fragrances, Montale explores creative groupings of natural and exotic scents. High concentrations mean a couple of spritzes will last the course of the day. A little bit later you notice something that in my opinion is not so often to be found in fragrances anymore:

What remains is the engaging voluminousness that the fragrance also knows how to demand and that in a very pleasant, but also dominantly attention-grabbing way, as I find. First you can perceive a very intense fresh tingling lemony - fruity note, which brings very soft, very discreetly powdery traits with it and I first typed on mandarin and mint, orange blossom and pepper also came to my mind but when I smell a little "more", it is almost silky traits in already sweet beer-like and I finally arrived at juniper berry, which is not entirely unlike the smell of pimento. In the course of time, Wood & Spices becomes substantially spicy, so that the fragrance gets something strong and fine and comes from the sandalwood.Silky - fresh - powdery allspice is fine, but strongly creamy - aromatic - sweet - spicy to leave a short attention-grabbing oudigen impression, which ends brightly resinous. It took a while, but eventually the ebony drydown arrives, and it is quite nice. Here I find that WOOD & SPICES is truly unisex. But getting there is another story. I have no idea what accounts for the Cologne Guy opening, but I'm not sure that it's worth waiting out, since I know of a couple of good ebony perfumes which do not require any sort of endurance training: Tokyomilk DEAD SEXY and Love & Toast POMME POIVRE. Both were created by Margot Elena.