Montana Parfum de Peau (1986)
by Montana

Parfum de Peau’s assertive aldehydic rose top notes smell “perfumey,” but the rose is rounded enough that they fall a few yards short of crass. As its elements consolidate, Parfum de Peau takes shape as a powerful, opulent rose chypre, a genre that also counts Beautiful, Knowing, and Paris among its members.

Parfum de Peau shares with this clan its dense rose, patchouli, and mossy-woody base notes, but where the others cling tenaciously to their gargantuan rose accords, the Montana turns more resinous and animalic with wear. What begins as an aldehydic floral pupates as a rose chypre, to emerge in the end as an ambery leather chypre.

The wearing experience that results is at once more stimulating and less potentially tiresome than its more steadfastly consistent sisters. It helps too that Parfum de Peau, while tenacious, is marginally less loud than many of the other grand 1980s rose scents. It’s good and it’s cheap. What more could you ask for?

17th December, 2011.

90’s edt version (I think- I don’t have the original box but my bottle is old and labeled made in France.)
+1 for Tott’s review, which is precise to my experience.

If you garden, you’ll recognize the tagete variety as “Orange Gem”.

Warning: For serious chypre lovers only, Parfum de Peau is a jolie laide.

20th May, 2011.

I have a hard time reviewing a perfume I can't pronounce, but since my SO is one foot away I insisted he say this for me(he's French). The conversation went like this: (me) Pew? (him) Peau. (me) Pew. (him) Peau! (me) Peeuuuw (him) PEAU!

Whatever. Here is what I think of parfum de Pew. It opens harsh, so wait it out a bit. The top notes fade away after 20 minutes, and at this point the fragrance smells 'wet' to me. So, soggy, heavy florals with a hint of incense.

During the middle phase the incense becomes more prominent and the wetness fades away. I like this phase best; the florals and basenotes are really rich. It creates a wonderful halo that is perfect for a cold night. I can't comment on sillage because i can never guess that, but this seems average- not too strong, not too weak.

Despite the name I wouldn't call this a stinker. Like other reviewers, I wouldn't call this a leather either; to me it is more of a floral oriental. For it's price range it is certainly one of the better fragrances.

1st December, 2010.

Parfum de Peau is a perfume with plenty of personality, or maybe plenty of personalities; I've seen it classified as a leather, floriental or fruity chypre. In any case, it's filled to the brim with fruit, berries, spices, flowers, oakmoss, sandalwood and animalics and is a classic 80's powerhouse with plenty of sillage and longevity.

It opens with black currant, plum and peach, spices like pepper and cardamom and some greenery, followed by the main floral impression which is that of tagetes. Tagetes is a flower with a distinctly sharp, fresh, slightly spicy and pungent smell that keeps everything in check so that it never gets sweet or cloying. The base contains generous amounts of animalics like castoreum, musk, civet and amber along with incense and patchouli.

This is an unusual tangy leathery fragrance that has been referred to as an avant-garde chypre, and I can only agree. It's definitely not anonymous or boring.

Parfum de Peau has been produced in three major formulations and packages that I know of. The original 80's formulation was packed in a blue box with the Montana name and text printed in a darker blue. This was reformulated with synthetic castoreum during the mid 90's and packed in a similar box with the printed name in black, edged in silver, and smaller text in silver. This was later discontinued. Parfume de Peau is now owned by an Italian company which has re-issued a weaker reformulated Italian version that is a shadow of its former self. This is packaged in a blue box with a depiction of the helix bottle in orange, and my simple advice is to avoid this version. Some online retailers pass this off as the discontinued French original, despite being aware of the fact that it is an Italian re-issue. Beware.

In the hands of its new owners, Parfum de Peau has also spawned a few flankers such as Montana Mood Sensual, Montana Mood Sexy and Montana Mood Soft. They share the distinctive helix bottle and a "Parfum de Peau" print on the box. I assume that the Parfum de Peau designation is the only similarity to the original.

5th October, 2010.

Parfum de Peau, also known as Montana de Montana, is usually described as sexy, assertive, dirty, and sultry.

what a great way to describe such a complex fragrance....

I found it on my 1st trip to PARIS ..way back in 1989...at his Boutique facing Galerie Vivienne

I bought Parfum de Peau ,The Savon de Bain,and mens leather gloves in his trademark Cobalt BLUE...

All these years ...I never used the Savon the Bain ...I kept the Cobalt Blue Gloves wrapped gently around the soap box still in its original boutique bag.
His Fragrance, as well as the Savon de bain is so amazingly
well constructed and expertly made ..... that the Cobalt Gloves are now infused with the fragrance...
and I wear them with great pride of rare special occasions....

I bought Parfum de Peau on Ebay ..as a treat to myself for my Birthday .. and
yes, it remains the same formulation ...and if your lucky you might get a great deal on it ..like I just did ..

19th June, 2010.

I am also a product of the 80s and loved Claude Montana. I still have a few jackets and suits and will never stop wearing them or get rid of them. I met him at Bloomingdale's in Chicago when he came for the fragrance launch. His was the first fragrance marketed to women that I ever dared to wear. Man did I get compliments on it! Truly, it's worth buying even if you've never smelled it because the flacon is like a Lalique sculpture. It remains my favourite packaging of all time. BTW I think this would probably be considered a chypre fragrance by most people.

25th August, 2009.