Holy Neroli Montale 2023

It’s a village in summery Southern Italy. I woke up late and it’s already getting quite hot outside.
I’m standing at the open window in the kitchen of the old stone house, looking directly at an orange tree that is in full bloom, being pampered by the summer sun right outside the window.
In the kitchen, various ingredients are chaotically spread out, used for making pastries and sweets. In the oven, several trays of something sweet are baking. The aromas from the oven mix with the scents of the blooming orange trees, the garden, and the heated grass that are flowing in through the window. "My God...", I think to myself, "how good I have it..."

Last Saturday, I stood in the Montale boutique in Paris in front of the shelf with the 2023 releases.
I think there were five (?) last year. I sniffed three of them - all three are good: Infinity, Holy Neroli, and Lucky Candy. I actually wanted to get something completely different, but in the end, I bought Holy Neroli (+ Infinity Travel Spray). Holy Neroli is exactly what I was looking for. A not too complicated, strong, Mediterranean, sweet summer/summer evening fragrance.

Love Don't Be Shy Perfume

Regarding the similarity to Love Don't Be Shy by Kilian:
I’m holding the bottle with the last drops of the old Love Don't Be Shy and the new bottle of Holy Neroli in my hands. There is the initial similarity of sweet orange blossoms. After that, LDBS goes towards fluffy toffee/marshmallow, while Holy Neroli heads towards spicy petitgrain honey.
One could say that while there is this similar idea of orange blossoms on sweets, it is more robust and perhaps "masculine" in Holy Neroli. This means that Holy Neroli is not a replacement for LDBS, but ladies and gentlemen who like Love Don't Be Shy but find it too "feminine" should definitely give Holy Neroli a try!

P.P.S. with all understanding for different tastes - giving the fragrance a 0.5 is trolling.

It is a warm summer day around 1987. I can still see it as if it were yesterday. I am about 7 years old and standing with my grandma in a pilgrimage church that she visited once a year. She rummages through her old black handbag and pulls out small single-use packets, each containing a refreshment wipe, among tissues and other odds and ends. She opens one of the small blue packets, and even as a child, I wondered what exactly she was refreshing with this not-so-cool and slightly damp paper towel. In any case: Holy Neroli is exactly the scent of that little wipe from back then. And just now while writing, I get goosebumps at the coincidence, due to the name Holy and the connection to the pilgrimage church. Can such coincidences exist?

Sometimes a fragrance wants more than it can actually deliver, and Holy Neroli is such a candidate. The opening? Clearly, neroli takes the lead here. Fresh, floral, almost a bit soapy - like a sunny morning, but one where the alarm clock has pulled you out of sleep too early. Somehow, this neroli lacks the depth that makes the heart race. Instead, it feels flat, almost sterile, as if someone tried to tame something wild and lost its soul in the process.

As the fragrance develops, white musk and a hint of spices come into play. But to be honest: The spices could have also gotten lost somewhere along the way, so inconspicuous are they. The musk is clean and pleasant, no question, but it doesn't bring any excitement. Everything remains polite and predictable, like a song that has no climax.

Patchouli and vanilla in the base might be able to turn things around, but here too, the enthusiasm is lacking. The patchouli is soft and somehow lost, while the vanilla plays hardly any role. Instead of creamy warmth or sweet depth, there’s only a pale echo left - like an echo that doesn’t know what it actually wants to say.

Holy Neroli is not a disaster, that’s for sure. But it lacks character, personality, that certain something that catapults a fragrance from “okay” to “wow.” Instead, it feels like a perfume trying to please everyone and, in the end, convincing no one really.

For those looking for something subtle and uncomplicatedly fresh, Holy Neroli may suffice. But if you’re searching for a story, for a fragrance that pulls you into a world, you will likely be left disappointed here. Perhaps holiness is just not that easy to achieve after all.

The name promises exactly what it says.
The scent smells completely of Neroli, and I really like that.
Fresh scents always appeal to me, and even though it’s not a citrus fragrance, I am still very positively surprised by this scent.
I received it as a sample after ordering it with my Arabians from Montale, and since then I’ve been considering buying it.

The fragrance is so fresh and simply extremely floral. I really feel like I’m lying in a flower meadow and just feeling happy.

About the bottle: The "tin cans" from Montale often receive a lot of hate, but I actually like them very much, especially this one. The pattern on the front is also very appealing.

In my review of the Arabians from Montale, I already mentioned that sometimes I feel there’s a lack of diversity among the scents from Montale, but here it’s exactly the opposite; it’s an incredibly unique and good fragrance.

As I said, I’ve been considering getting this scent for a while now, and I think that all in all, the fragrance is really excellent and the price-performance ratio is too. I can only recommend it.

Can we please talk about this beautiful bottle? Wow, orange and gold represent elegance but also playfulness and zest. That's how I would describe the scent as well. Are you looking for Neroli!? With this fragrance, you get it in charged power! I experienced this spicy-sweet Neroli note on my skin for about 6 hours. Just as it greets me in the opening, it stays quite consistent with me. Only a bit of freshness adds itself, which I found very pleasant, as it was already quite captivatingly sweet in its Neroli-spice cloud. After 6 hours, I still detected sweet-soft vanilla paired with musk. It surely lasts even longer on clothing.
I would advise against a blind buy here, as it is quite specific. I like Neroli-vanilla scents, but this one has perhaps too special a touch for me due to the included spices. Sillage is very good. Even after showering, you can still perceive it.