Sandflowers
by Montale

Smells like warm, clean beach sand. It's certainly interesting because there aren't the usual cocunuts and ozonic notes in Sandflowers ( but i was hoping for sandalwood). It's not something I'd actually wear as a perfume though...

4th December, 2010.

Sandflowers is a very light aquatic / supposedly woody fragrance that opens with quite a pleasant aquatic note and then dissolves into nearly nothing. I was expecting the calone and I was expecting the sandalwood: The aquatic calone came through quite well, and a very nice note it is. I didn’t get any sandalwood, although there was a pleasant oakmoss background to the miscellaneous texture of the fragrance. Like so many of the Montale non-aouds, Sandflowers comes across as vague but pleasant. It is too nebulous, indistinct, and recessive for me. I guess this, as many of the other non-aouds, was not designed for me…

7th August, 2009.

Although I am guilty of it myself, I normally scoff when a reviewer (or multiple reviewers) claims that a certain fragrance smells "exactly like" something else (e.g., GIT and CW). Take my word for it, though - this is virtually indistinguishable from CSP's Aqua Motu. Even though I like Aqua Motu, I would never agree to pay a 400% markup to experience the same scent rebottled by a more "prestigious" house. What's more, I am under the impression that Aqua Motu preceded Sandflowers, thus making Sandflowers not only laughably expensive but also (*gasp*) unoriginal.

Thumbs down.

7th July, 2009. (Last Edited: 1st November, 2009.)

Much like Fougeres Marine, I perceive Sandflowers as more minty than obviously marine, though it has a dry, mineralic saltiness combined with herbal notes reminding me of Miller Harris' Fleurs de Sel. To my mind, Sandflowers is pretty much an inferior Fleurs de Sel, with an added cool, campherous mint note that I'm not particularly fond of. If you're a fan of mint and prefer fragrances with a sort of transparent "fresh air" feeling to the sunny, earthy warmth of Fleurs de Sel, you might very well appreciate it more than I do.

1st May, 2009.

Montale Sandflowers is wonderful... Sunny, sandy sea air in a bottle, with just the slightest hint of floral sweetness... The sand elements remind me of the sandy/sweet notes in Guerlain's "Rose Barbare" and also of a lighter version of the sand notes in Neil Morris Fragrances "Quest."

I imagine Sandflowers will be wonderful in warm weather, though when I first tried it, it was the height of winter, and I felt like I was taking an olafactory vacation!

Montale Sandflowers notes: Sea notes from the ocean, juniper berries, sandalwood and oakmoss.

4th January, 2009.

SandFlowers: Nothing to write home about. smells very dry yet has some life..maybe the smell cactus or some flower that im not familiar of. all that associations with Sand is true and it does evoke an image of shrubs in between sand on a very hot sunny day. there is something about the sillage though...it makes you come back to this one, somethign mesmerising in there...although i dont find it spectacular enuff to warrant a full bottle...20ml? yes, definitely.

i would give it a nuetral for now...maybe this one would grow on me in time...

7th October, 2008.