Condorpilot1

By now, I often have the feeling with Montale that the fragrances are "decoys." Why? Because time and again, what you expect or what the name promises is not actually there. I feel the same way about Montale Aoud Forest. Without letting myself be influenced by previous comments, I tested Aoud Forest and expected a fresh, green, and woody summer scent. Since not everything that is called Aoud at Montale is actually Oud, I also did not expect to distinctly smell an Oud note here.

Aoud Forest starts off very fresh and green in the first 30 seconds, so my first thought gave me hope that this is a composition I would associate with forests. But appearances can be deceiving, as the zesty grapefruit increasingly takes center stage. Sea water? Not a trace. I wouldn't know what sea water is doing in the forest, at most a hint of fresh morning dew. A few minutes later, the scent drifts through the amber into a significantly sweeter direction, which then increasingly transforms into shower gel. The scent becomes much more synthetic and unnatural. Still no forest in sight.

In the drydown, it is a mix of sweetness and shower gel; interestingly, I perceive honey - perhaps the forest honey that is supposed to make it all authentic? ;-)

Be that as it may, for a fresh scent, longevity and sillage are good, but it ends on my skin after about 7-8 hours. The fragrance is definitely more masculine than unisex. Due to its character, I might describe it as a niche version of "Yves Saint Laurent Y." However, I don't understand why I would spend a lot of money on a shower gel scent from a niche house. They don't match my personal taste anyway.

Parfums Vintage has become known primarily as a clone house with dozens of variations of Creed Aventus, which seems to represent a science of its own in perfumery. I discovered Rush of Unicorns as an absolute hype nearly two years ago as perhaps the most popular new summer fragrance within the Parfums Vintage product line. That the scent is supposed to be inspired by Creed Millesime Imperial was not initially clear to me and probably didn’t matter. A few weeks later, I got a decant from Parfums Vintage. I had never smelled this salty marine accord in a perfume before and found it immediately appealing! My thought: The hype is real.

Still, I waited until a few weeks ago to purchase a 50ml bottle of this fragrance, even though it had been on my wish list since my first testing back then. Now, however, I was able to test it extensively and must say right away that I regret spending around 80 dollars on it. Why? Well, this salt accord is original, summery, and invigorating, but it is simply too dominant throughout the entire scent progression. Top note: Lemon - where? Melon - with a bit of imagination. Heart note: Blackcurrant - flashes briefly for 30 seconds. Lavender - yes, you can sense it a bit and it gives the otherwise marine and salty tone at least a slightly floral character. Base note: to be honest, I don’t know. I smell salt and light aquatic notes from beginning to end, with a little lavender in between. The same game really from start to finish. Longevity and sillage are, as one hears about Millesime Imperial, quite poor. With luck, Rush of Unicorns lasts just over three hours on my skin. Perhaps Parfums Vintage copied a bit too much from Creed here, as clone houses usually boast better longevity...

I must admit that until about two weeks ago, I had no direct comparison with Millesime Imperial and therefore could not assess how much Rush of Unicorns is actually related to Creed. Since I had the luck to test MI, it became clear to me that while Rush of Unicorns is inspired by it, it somehow acts independently. With MI, you already have these beautiful fruity nuances of melons, etc., in the top note. The salt accord subtly embraces this and gives the fragrance a unisex character. The fruitiness remains for a while in MI, while I desperately search for it in Rush of Unicorns. In terms of scent character, I prefer MI significantly, but it is not worth the money to me for the performance.

In a YouTube review, I learned that Rush of Unicorns is supposed to be more akin to older Millesime Imperial batches. I don’t have that comparison, only the comparison with what I recently got to know. Perhaps the older batches were saltier? Well, ultimately, Rush of Unicorns does not have a cheerful, creative "unicorn scent character" that comes across as versatile and light. It is far too linear for my taste. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it.

I would like to skip a lengthy introduction to Montale Tropical Wood and get straight to the fragrance description. Packed in a typical Montale bottle, one expects a fruity, summery scent with woody undertones in this blue-gold flacon. Montale is not among the most expensive niche brands (115€ for 100ml, 65€ for 50ml for Tropical Wood). The fragrance pyramid piqued my curiosity, so I got a sample.

The opening is very fruity with immediate spicy-woody undertones reminiscent of oud. The combination gives off a truly tropical, summery, and cheerful vibe, which unfortunately fades disappointingly after a short time. Whether the fruit in the opening is supposed to smell like passion fruit is debatable, as I have no comparisons. I can't really perceive pineapple. In the following minutes, Tropical Wood becomes more floral, subtly rosy, and sweeter. As the oud nuances slowly disappear, my nose detects unpleasant secondary scents that remind me of rubber. Really unpleasant and should not be in this fragrance.

After about 2.5 hours, the woody oud tones have completely vanished. In the base, sweet vanilla pushes more to the forefront and merges with the fully synthetic fruit mix, whose individual components are indistinguishable. The further development of the scent remains linear, sweet, and fruity.

For my taste, the fragrance leans more towards a feminine direction. The idea behind the scent, to combine tropical fruits with tropical woods from the agarwood tree (which primarily grows in Southeast Asia), from which oud is derived, is fundamentally interesting. In fact, Montale has succeeded well with the tropical opening. However, the woody note simply falls short for me; I would have preferred woody base notes instead of vanilla. This could have potentially countered the synthetic fruit better. Montale has by no means missed the theme, but the "Wood" has been neglected.

The longevity of TW is good at around 8 hours, with sillage on my skin being moderate. Nevertheless, I will not be purchasing a bottle; I had something better in mind, and in the end, it feels too feminine for me. It seems to me that the perfumer did not take the time to perfect this fragrance and released it prematurely.

I now perceive coffee scents among gourmands as the almost coziest fragrances. I personally own only a decant of Mancera Aoud Cafe. A coffee scent that I truly appreciate and also own is Montale Ristretto Intense Cafe, for which I have already written a comment. I referred to Ristretto Intense Cafe as a "top note blender," because the top note, with its strong roasted coffee aromas, is really wonderful but dissipates after a short time into a much too sweet vanilla-sugar-honey mixture with a hint of cappuccino. My conclusion was that Ristretto does not live up to what the name promises.

With Mancera Aoud Cafe, I naturally had hopes that it would be a perfume that delivers the coffee notes significantly more persistently. Upon the first spray, it immediately becomes clear that it is primarily about coffee. To me, it smells as if a coffee machine is just freshly roasting the beans and processing them into a (not too strong) black coffee. Those who love coffee will surely enjoy the opening. It is said in the top notes that one encounters bergamot, peach, and blackcurrant. However, my nose cannot perceive any of these three components. Instead, I smell a plum that might be soaked in a bit of rum, along with a hint of fig. The slight fruity sweetness harmonizes beautifully in the background of the top note but is by no means dominant. Coffee comes to the forefront more strongly in the next few minutes, along with woody nuances, creating the impression that Mancera presents the coffee notes significantly more pronounced and longer than Montale Ristretto. Personally, I quite like that. I cannot perceive much Oud, at least it is not an "aggressive" stinky Oud, but rather very soft woods.

After about 45 minutes, however, disillusionment begins to set in. The so-called "gourmand notes" from the base start to break through. To my nose, these gourmand notes are an alternating combination of vanilla, roasted nuts (perhaps walnut), and - unfortunately again - too much sugar. It feels as if Montale and Mancera have both started a co-production and copied from each other. Once again, this honey note breaks through for a few minutes, completely sweetening the coffee and almost entirely overshadowing it. This remains the case for the rest of the fragrance's development. What a shame. While I cannot classify Aoud Cafe as a "top note blender," as at least coffee is perceptible throughout, it is relatively weak in the base note.

The longevity on my skin is quite decent at around 8 hours, with the sillage not being too strong. I can well imagine Aoud Cafe as a date fragrance. Compared to Ristretto Intense Cafe, I prefer Mancera Aoud Cafe, though not by much. If Mancera had made these "gourmand notes" less pronounced and simply darkened the base note, I would likely find it really good. Mancera could have taken a different path here and brought a significantly more original coffee scent to the market. However, since Aoud Cafe is somewhat too similar to Ristretto in certain aspects, they are somewhat interchangeable. So, my search for an even better coffee scent continues. Therefore, I cannot give a purchase recommendation and would first suggest trying a decant. Small samples can be ordered on the Mancera website.

Actually, it’s not so "absolutely" when you consider whether the combination of chocolate and violet works in a perfume. After all, chocolate initially suggests that Mancera Choco Violette would be a gourmand, underlined by the powdery and floral accords of violet.

Thanks to the sample kits from Mancera, I now have a whole range of fragrances from the French house to try out. Choco Violette was a mystery to me at first before purchasing, but this combination piqued my curiosity. Without looking at the fragrance pyramid, it becomes immediately clear upon spraying that it’s not just about chocolate here. The hazelnut is very dominant and immediately gives the impression of a bar of milk chocolate with hazelnuts, which I actually like the most! For me, it really is initially milk chocolate and not dark chocolate. Chocolate and hazelnut are quite present for a long time, leaving little room for other notes. I can also perceive nougat for a while. To be honest, I don’t smell bergamot and orange in the top notes, or only with a bit of imagination.

With this gourmand bomb at the beginning, one wonders for a while where the violet is. In fact, it only timidly waves after about 30 minutes and then shows itself more strongly. The milk chocolate gradually transforms into dark chocolate, and powdery/soapy nuances hint at violet. Somehow, Mancera has even managed to make chocolate and violet harmonize well together, perhaps precisely because the violet doesn’t come across as particularly aggressive. I compare this to crème de violette (violet liqueur), which can occasionally (though rarely) be mixed into cocktails. Usually, 2 teaspoons of it are enough for the soapy liqueur to find harmony; a third teaspoon and it’s already too much. So, it’s a fine balancing act. Mancera has also achieved this balancing act here and done it excellently. Not too much and not too little.

In the further drydown, the violet fades and the hazelnut picks up again. Vanilla and cocoa form a delicate, pleasant base that lasts fantastically for more than 15 hours. The sillage is very pronounced in the first 4-5 hours. There’s definitely no need to spray twice, as I can say from my test with a single careful spray from the 2ml tester that the fragrance has power.

Overall, I liked Choco Violette so much that I immediately added it to my wish list. Perhaps it will find its way into my collection someday. I definitely recommend trying it!