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Wood & Spices Montale

7.1 / 10 331 Ratings

A perfume by Montale for men. The release year is unknown. The scent is spicy-woody. The longevity is above-average. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Spicy

Woody

Fresh

Sweet

Oriental

Fragrance Notes

Cardamom

Sandalwood Pimento

Pimento

Vetiver

Ebony

Frankincense

Ratings

Scent

7.1331 Ratings

Longevity

8.1288 Ratings

Sillage

7.7284 Ratings

Bottle

6.7287 Ratings

Value for money

7.3180 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 11/09/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Sculpture Homme Eau de Toilette

Uden

Lafayette Street

Kite in Crystal Reef

Private Garden

Sculpture Parfum

Reviews

17 in-depth fragrance descriptions

03/03/2015

ColinM
516 Reviews

ColinM

2

Sorry, but...

There is something in Montale that fascinates me. It’s amazing how they ruthlessly bottle the worst “cheap-designer-in-disguise” scents in a niche dress, and manage to actually sell them. Some are actually decent, but most of them are just tacky cheap stuff. Still, they’re there, and they’re niche. However... Wood and Spices, friends, is their masterpiece – their “IgNobel” winning scent so far for me. Basically it smells exactly (I mean it: exactly) like those modern “aromatic fougères” cheapos, the woody-ozonic-spicy-fresh colognes like Ferrari scents, or Police. Completely, nauseatingly synthetic, flashy and tacky, despicably stuffed with metallic stuff and artificial “roundness”. Trust me, I am not being too grave or severe: it’s utter supermarket rubbish. Many niche fans want to smell expensive: Wood and Spices smells terribly *inexpensive*, instead. In perspective, I should raise my ratings of all other Montale’s, as this one is really the worst of them all. One of the worst scents I’ve ever tested.

2/10

03/17/2024

7Scent 10Longevity 10Sillage

Dmbfaninmass
34 Reviews

Dmbfaninmass

2

1990s Redux

I have 2 Montale selections and they both serve one very specific purpose - nostalgia for the 1990s and that is it. When I was on the cusp of turning 40, I bought several 1990s to early 2000s era frags for the magic of olfactive scent memory and feel nostalgia for younger, more care free, and quite plainly for my life experience, more fun times.

Did they do the trick? I suppose, albeit in a lesser fashion than I’d imagined they would. My nose felt they were less than they had been - be it the quality of oils used, IFRA changes that occured and necessitated altered formulations, or simply watered down offerings due to the frags being selections that had gone through multiple reformulations in the years since they’ve fallen out of fashion en masse. Tommy, Hugo, The Dreamer, Dunhill Desire Blue were all standbys in my teen years rotation. Sculpture was one I didn’t personally own, but I knew several that had it and would “borrow” some sprays from time to time.

Enter Montale’s Fougeres Marines and Wood & Spices. Off the top Fougeres just hits my nose like a 90s one two pinch of Tommy and Hugo. At opening much more Tommy and into dry down sort of an equal mix of the two. I’d heard / seen several compare Wood & Spices to Sculpture, The Dreamer, and Desire Blue and to my nose I get equal parts of all of those.

I don’t wear either of them often and while I’ve got several fbs from the sister company, Mancera, and enjoy those quite a bit, I have not, and don’t plan on delving deeper into Montale. They hit their sweet spot for me and there they shall remain within my fragrance wardrobe, no more, no less.

If you, too, are looking for that 90s nostalgia but from a brand that offers options that project and last as long as I would imagine one could desire, and don’t want thinner or watered down versions, while being willing to pay a tad more in line with what those 90s frags went for back in those days, this may hit that sweet spot.

I enjoy the heck out of some of my more refined niche frags, but I can also appreciate these for what they are. I say that because I know Pierre Montale’s works can spark “controversy” within the fragrance community. To some they’re just a synthetic mess, to some they’re an affordable gateway to niche, to some they’re absolutely outstanding. I appreciate them for what they are. Some of my Manceras I can’t imagine parting with. Are they going to hit my nose like Roja, Royal Crown, Stéphane Humbert Lucas, Francesca Bianchi, among others - no, certainly not. However, they do, at times and situationally hit my nose as simply perfecto for what my nose craves. These 2 fit the perfecto bill when I want that 90s feel and for that reason, I couldn’t imagine wanting to ever sell or trade them away. Sillage, Projection, and Longevity, like all Montale and Mancera I’ve experienced is about as potent as I could want. Refinement and quality of ingredients is lower spectrum of niche - they’re synthetic and not “natural ingredient” smelling, but they’re as good as it gets for doing what they do and what my expectations could be for their doing so.

08/23/2015

2Scent 5Longevity 5Sillage

WRoth
154 Reviews

WRoth

Wood & Spices

This fragrance opens with a spice and wood blend that is cleverly done to smell sweet and fruity. I associate this accord with the smell of hot, honeyed fruit infusion. The fragrance is velvety smooth, warm, fruity and slightly spicy. It is a perfect comfort scent for cold winter days; it is also very powerful and has great sillage. It is a nice fragrance no doubt, but I find it rather uninspired.

11/18/2012

5Scent 10Longevity 10Sillage

Sherapop
1240 Reviews

Sherapop

Cologne-Guy Opening, Dark Ebony Drydown

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.

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.

I do very much appreciate the drydown of WOOD & SPICES, but I would not acquire a bottle because the Cologne Guy opening is simply too annoying, not only for others, but also for me. This is not a case of enjoying a guilty pleasure in the privacy of one's own home and them journeying out once the drydown has arrived. No, the opening is not a guilty pleasure. Just guilty of smelling like Cologne Guy.

02/17/2018

8Scent 7Longevity 6Sillage

FvSpee
323 Reviews

Translated · Show original

FvSpee

Top Review 19

Huh? Why Sculpture?

First of all, I ask for your understanding. This will not be an ordinary comment, as I don’t feel sufficiently inspired for that, even though I like the scent. It’s just an extended statement because I need a few more characters. So please don’t think that the Spee is falling short in literary quality.

This is the first "Montale" fragrance I’ve tested; I was curious and reached into the range. "Wood&Spices" sounds like it could be appealing, so I tried it (by the way, I find the bottles rather silly, but that’s beside the point), and - good! What you read is what you get! Nicely woody-spicy, the woodiness is not too dry and extremely pleasant, fine stuff! Classic, masculine, agreeable, prim! The oud is not too stinky, and the incense is not too extreme. Later on, it turns into a slightly sweeter, but still pleasantly spicy direction - by no means sticky. Anyone who thinks the keywords "woody-spicy, slightly gourmand" might fit their taste should definitely give it a try.

The main reason I’m even writing a comment is that so far, all reviewers have highlighted a similarity to "Nikos Sculpture." That knocks me off my chair! I remember Ni.Sc. as a dreadful, horrendously bad piece of work (and I very, very rarely say such things about fragrances!), and also as going in a completely different scent direction. Now I was quite surprised because apparently, I stand very alone in my assessment that these are two completely different fragrance directions. I critically asked myself whether it might have to do with the fact that I tested Nikos in an airport perfumery (or something similar) and this one here in a rather elegant, stylish, yet highly pleasant fragrance shop, where I was surrounded by a beautiful and highly competent consultant (and both were extremely friendly and accommodating)... So looking at the ingredient list: practically not a single ingredient matches! So I stand by my opinion, sorry, all you previous reviewers, nothing like Nikos!

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