Dark Aoud Montale 2011

Only few words can describe Dark Aoud: heavy, dense, linear, raw.

It's a very unidimensional scent: sandal, oud and musk from the beginning to the end.

Also there's a tiny note of incense (maybe frankincense due to the small sweetness that appears after some hours).

There's no comparision with other sandalwood bases fragrances: this is totally different.

If i could compare, i would say Bois des Iles is a little small bird and this is a hungry hyena.

Sillage, lasting power and projection are hazardous.

One of the best Montale releases so far.

Dark Aoud is one of my favorite fragrances.

Obviously, the scent is woody and Sandalwood seems to stand out the most. As far as woods and Aoud, this one doesn't seem to be very harsh and leaves a very nice trail.

Sillage and Longevity are outstanding. Don't overspray this one or you'll clear a room out.

A rather linear (not a negative thing), yet beautiful blend of truly dark, somewhat medicinal aoud and sandalwood. Aoud lovers will almost certainly like this. I like it myself. I can imagine waring this in colder months of the year, and maybe at night, which in my opinion goes well with the dark mood the scent creates. I do not think Dark Aoud is feminine at all, but that does not mean ladies should not try... Longevity is great, projection is very good. Very interesting!

When a piece of metal is cooled to well below freezing, say by dipping it in liquid nitrogen, it becomes capable of burning the skin, paradoxically enough. It's not really a burn but a freeze, but it has the same damaging effect and the pain is probably very similar as well.

Upon donning Montale DARK AOUD, I was struck by the unbelievable density of this composition. It's so black that it could easily induce the olfactory equivalent of white spot afterimages. For a brief period, I was even struck by what seemed to be a dark shoe polish-like scent. This is incredibly woody, including oudy, but it is also very dense and thick, as though the wood has been compressed to one-tenth its starting volume.

I initially thought that I was smelling the base of so many recent launches, and I do continue to believe that there is significant overlap with, for example, Le Labo ANOTHER 13 and Balmain CARBONE, but DARK AOUD pulls out all of the stops in its quest for absolute blackness, and the result is somehow better not worse.

I suppose that I can tolerate this woodishness in an exaggerated dose because it's not clobbering everything else around. Why? Because there *is* nothing else around: no flowers, no fruits, no citrus, no sweetness or light--nothing mitigating at all. This is deep, dark wood in every form, from fresh hewn to petrified.

To me, this is obviously a masculine perfume, and I'm not surprised to see that although it is classified as unisex, three times more gents than ladies own this prince of darkness.

I may be anosmic to some components (I am very skeptical about “selective anosmy”, though) but I don’t get anything “dark” here, not even by mistake. And no oud either, but that’s no surprise with Montale offerings. Dark Aoud seems to me a very inoffensive, quite pleasant, slightly boring and extremely artificial cedar-sandalwood scent with a polite, understated, mannered dry look – almost minimalistic, in some way. It feels very clean, slightly earthy-herbal too, with a mild touch of spices to add a delicately sparkling edge to the core woody galore. That’s it. No oud, not even a synthetic hint of that, and no darkness for me, at all. Quite the opposite, actually (you know what scent Dark Aoud reminds me of, if any? A Quiet Morning by Miller et Bertaux).

Despite the criminally misleading name and a certain feel of flatness it’s a decent scent though, almost nice - a very clean and discreet everlasting woody blend with no particular sparks of interest, but effortlessly enjoyable. A very safe and versatile workhorse, I guess. One of those clean, generic “IKEA-like” woody scents, just with some spices and an eau de parfum strength and longevity. Not exactly the catchiest scent around and definitely overpriced, but there’s worse than this.

5,5-6/10