Amber & Spices (2009)
by Montale

It reminds me a bit the new Dark Aoud with its tarry, postindustrial, metallurgical, resinous  sharpness, the dry woods, the pungency of spices and the slight hint of final amber. The Dark Aoud is certainly, starker, sharper, more autoritative and dreadful despite this one is not a tamed beast. The almost gassy barely perceivable starting is produced by the effect of the listed cumin, an hint of mildness is made of spices and amber while the rose is just soft and taming. The aoud is the dominant note and all the rest is surrounding. One of the harder Montale in my opinion. The longevity is ostensibly less powerful than usual for this kind of fragrances.

16th October, 2011.

Really, I do not understand why Montale called this fragrance "Amber & Spices", as it clearly seems to be rather an aoud one, as it stands as the main note in it.
Though, I can say that the usual medicamental scent of oud has been "rounded off" by precious woods and delicately heated by spices and an additional softening has been probably due to the amber presence, even if it is not clearly defined.
Anyway, I like it as a further example of Montale's aoud interpretation.

13rd September, 2011.

Manspice. Aoud.

Sometimes I like a fragrance as much for its intrigue as its scent profile. That's clearly the case here. It began as unbalanced as a fragrance can be: there was something clearly heavy and spicy and there was something sweet, but the two were so separate it was as if I had applied two different fragrances in two different places; they were not even remotely coming together. And then they did. And then I couldn't stop sniffing myself for quite some time after applying it. I just wanted to smell it again. And again and again and again. Frighteningly addictive, this stuff.

It's called Amber & Spices, but that may be classic Montale falsity in advertising. I don't get even a whiff of amber in this. Spices galore, let there be no doubt, but no amber. Amber & Spices is a whole truckload of aoud burning in the middle of Djemaa el Fna. There is something vaguely sweet lurking somewhere in the background in an effort to complement the heavily wooded spice, but I can't in good conscience identify it as amber so I'm not ready to concede that Montale named it correctly just yet :-)

4th March, 2011. (Last Edited: 14th April, 2011.)

My nose tells me that Amber and Spices is primarily an aoud fragrance. I don’t determine either the amber or the spices… I get Montale-aoud. This fragrance seems to be inspired by ennui, It is “Montale-generic” and the naming for what-it-is-not or its more obscure elements is another Montale habit, unfortunately. So… if you like the other Montale aoud scents, there’s a good chance you’ll like this one. If you didn’t like the other Montale aoud scents, you probably won’t like this one. I doubt that I’ll be going out of my way to test very many more Montales…

7th June, 2010.

I do not know what an amber and spice perfume is supposed to smell like. But this scent is a remarkably change from the usual rose/aoud combos that Montale offers.

Despite its name, it is definately a heavy aoud fragrance. It has a somewhat "industrial" quality, smelling a lot like rubber and tar, or maybe burning brown coal. With only a slight hint of rose, this is a dry, masculine scent. The composition of different woods in it is excellent. It reminds me a bit of the topnote of Bulgari Black or maybe the long discontinued Anthracite.

It developes quite linear, which in this case is good. I can understand that many Montale fans might find it difficult to come to terms with this scent, but I like it. In my opinion, it can stand up against Black Aoud, the Montale reference aoud scent.

27th November, 2009.

I too am disappointed with this one. Lots of spice (cumin especially in the opening), some sourness, but amber? I really don't get it here. I find it to be rather uninteresting.

Also, I subsequently read that this has aoud. To me, it has none of the vitality that other Montale aoud offerings have.

17th September, 2009.