Reviews of Royal Aoud
by Montale

One of the more subtle releases from Montale’s aoud line. As previous reviewers have stated, after applying to the skin, it takes a while for it to kick into action. Royal Aoud is a more understated and gentlemanly scent, as opposed to Black Aoud’s full-on offensive. It’s nice but too apologetic for me. Average sillage and longevity.

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[Original submission date: 14 April 2008]

I'm working my way slowly through the Montale "Auod" line, having decided in the end that I actually liked their Black Aoud after my tepid review.

Of the Montales I've tried so far (Aoud Ambre, Attar, Royal Aoud, Black Aoud, Aoud Lime, and Steam Aoud) Royal Aoud is the only one that goes on positively understated. In fact, it makes the others seem downright histrionic in their entrances. It also strikes me as both the most complex and the least direct of the lot.

This scent has a powdery-sweet foundation that tempers the medicinal and astringent aspects of the oud. The listed fruit and citrus notes are very coy at first, but surface more completely during the development, where they serve to round out the heady note of rose. Eventually, a vanilla/tonka bean note slides in to add a bit of extra sweetness.

The oudh and the rose retreat during the drydown, leaving a pleasant, but not all that distinguished powdery-woody accord. On my skin, Royal Aoud does not have the stupendous (24 hr) tenacity of Black Aoud, but its development is not so glacially slow, either. (Black Aoud's drydown is so slow and extended that I didn't even realize it was happening the first few times I wore the stuff.)

Among the Montale's I see Royal Aoud, Black Aoud, and Attar as quite closely related, though differing in general character. Black Aoud, which is my current favorite, is bold, brash, maybe even brutal, in its directness and simplicity. (Imagine that! A "brutal" rose. Now there's a good name for a scent.)

Attar seems the sweetest of the three, with some mysterious accords and a drydown that goes in its own direction. I find Royal Aoud the easiest to wear of the three, as well as the "prettiest". Funny though: it's relative sophistication blunts it in comparison with its siblings, leaving it the most conventional of the three, and because of that, the least distinguished. I prefer the olfactory challenge of Black Aoud.

High-end insect repellant(L'Off Deep Woods). I wonder if there’s any Deet in there? It's not really that bad but I guess I'm just not an oud fan. It does have good silliage and longevity.

I'm not sure how to review this one! It's kind of an oddity in my mind because it mixes some notes that I am having a hard time understanding together. It's got a fruity quality, which is listed as kumquat. (I've never eaten a kumquat, so I can't comment directly on how much it actually smells like one.) Mixed with that fresh fruitiness, almost in equal parts, is the oud. At times the medicinal quality of the oud contradicts the sweetness of the fruit, and at other times the two seem to complement each other nicely, with the oud providing some warmth, depth, and body. Each time I put it on, I am not so sure I like it, then the longer it is on, the more I start to like it. I had my gf smell it multiple times, and each time she liked it very much. I am still trying to decide what I think about it, but do think it's worth a sample, since it is pretty interesting.