Reviews of Monk (2005)
by Michael Storer

I am mystified by the other reviews of Monk. I don't smell tobacco and birch tar or incense in this fragrance at first. I get the party floral notes up front, then some softness and the darkness comes afterward. Its opposite of what most of the other reviewers smell in Monk. It is possible that there is a newer formula - my bottle is a different shape and the juice is light orange, not clear like photos I've seen so there's a clue that there may have been a formula change.

The list of notes from Michael Storer is formidable. There are florals listed of linden blossom,acacia flower and a very noticeable bulgarian rose absolute - all florals that waft out first followed by warm sweet soft notes of vanilla, tonka, benzoin, ambrette seed, sandalwood and cocoa. These softening elements quieten the florals into a soft warm musk that really does project - bam! Following these floral and vanilla notes are big masculine notes of: frankincense, tobacco, cedar and birch tar. These give it a wooded depth that moves it more masculine. There is natural tartness from the beeswax that adds a sour/sweet connection to darker notes of civet and birch tar.

I see the "partying Monk" that Vibert mentions, right from the beginning of the fragrance with its hypnotic floral musk at the top. The floral musk blended with civet and frankincense is softened by vanilla, tonka and cocoa and it reminds me greatly of Musc Ravegeur by Frederic Malle. The base transitions to dark stoney frankincense with a bit of tobacco and birch tar which slowly ebbs up from the depths. After a few hours this fragrance has a monkish darkness about it but inside this monks hood his eyes are still glowing and he is "dancing in the dark".

Monk is a hard fragrance for me to wear. It is very bold and an aggressive mixture. An occasional light spritz though adds some sun and mystery. I think of this as a night out on the town fragrance similar to Musc Ravegeur or Neil Morris's Prowl.

EDP review:

The only half-decent men's release from Storer but it still fails to fully convince or inspire me. I don’t get much incense from this at all – more of a musty smell you associate with an old decrepit building. Like Ava Luxe, there’s something amateurish and muddy about his creations that I, unfortunately, am unable to appreciate.

[Original submission date: 05 July 2008]

A green leathery musk. Kinda sweet but only just a little. I wish the musk and incense were more intense and smoky and cool but it just stumbles. Very airy in a way.

Mmmmmm ... musty like a basement or a wet old library. Not really my cup of tea, especially considering I was hoping for incense. I can see the Goth reference here, but it's like a dirty Goth's dorm room, picture heaps of unwashed clothing. It does pick up a bit after a while, but I can't imagine spraying myself with this after I've just showered. I think I might get looks if I turned up smelling like this. That said, it is interesting.

I don’t get Goth from this scent, and I don’t find much incense. It opens with a strong musty odor which disappears immediately, and then moves into mainly a smooth, slightly musty, slightly muddy bergamot / galbanum, warmed by a base of ambergris and an introverted sandalwood. It has a sweetness — a vanilla sweetness — to it, which I feel is a bit out of place. And it has a powderiness that is tenacious. What Monk offers is the smell of memory. It’s an ‘oldness’ smell somewhat in the nature of Messe de Minuit, which I also do not see as Gothic. MdM is colder and more distant without prominent sweetness and with no powder, which is to say that Monk is warm and solidly present, sweet, and uber powdery. I don’t find it nearly as interesting as MdM: With MdM I think of a sepia photographs in black-paged albums and those stiff celluloid collars men wore a century ago. With Monk I think of my mother’s face powder musical box playing “Always”: This is a lovely memory for me, but it doesn’t supply a very masculine interpretation of Monk. Is it wearable? I don’t know… a bit more wearable than MdM’s near-mildew vibe, but not as interesting and decidedly less masculine. I can see this scent as working year round. Monk is linear, and it doesn’t seem to produce a straightforward sillage. What sillage it does produce seems to shoot at oblique angles from the skin, and that strikes me as really strange. This scent gives me the unusual experience actually warming the spot on my skin when I apply it. It quickly turns into a skin scent that lasts for hours.

I was expecting something cool and murky and incensey, something like Messe de Minuit. Either that or, from the notes, a rich, resinous, animalic masculine scent. Instead, Monk is a sweet, warm, powdery/plasticky comfort scent with perhaps the slightest hint of incense. I'd categorize it as a feminine gourmand. Not too bad, but there are so many similar scents that smell less cheap so I really don't need this one.

I had to laugh (with respect) at those who think this scent evokes a gothic character or dark, ghostly stone structures. I expected a kind of earthy, woody, animalic, leathery smell. This is Chanel No. 5 if you ask me! Sweet, fruity, very feminine/ androgenous. Nice smell, but hardly masculine. I didn't want to apply the sample...if I do and I suddenly morph into a gothic knight in shining armor, then I will retract this review!