This is a special fragrance! Opens with a mystical chime of fresh cedar and cypress...then Bam!!! It's spiced beautifully with incense and has a slightly earthy quality from the woods and vetiver. This is great but you have to be brave to wear any incense scent and this is no exception. I'm tempted to add this to my collection because it's so unlike anything I've smelled before (in a perfume anyway) it would be interesting to try the Tom Ford which is listed as being similar on here.

Great scent this one...reminds me of lots of things but I still can't quite place what? It's a spicy and oriental, right out of the gate the cardamom and dry pepper are there with a clean pure incense which feels somehow cleansing. Something slightly tiger balmy in the opening but settles to a very subtle scent. 2 down 3 to go and the series is a total hit with me so far let's hope one of the next ones I try is an absolute knockout!

Wow!!! Them Catholics certainly know a thing or two about incense. This is great...yet again it's not smoky and dark enough for my liking! I like a balance between fresh and burning incense flavours and this is just short of the mark. Still very nice and I can see the comparisons with Montale full incense but right away this has slightly more depth and to me is a little more refined. At the end of the day I'm splitting hairs here and being super critical because I'm searching for the holy grail of incense perfumes...in truth this is amazing, resinous, spicy, smooth a must for incense fans.

Hahah! Gileshowe's review/comments below says it all so eloquently. I will just add that the opening of this fragrance is disgusting, really vile like a chemically supercharged roque forte!!! Really it has a putrid cheese note to my nose! Pardon my French... it's fucking terrible!!! However, once that subsides you get a very rough and unrefined leather scent which is so primal it actually has a certain charm of its own. More madness from Montale...try it once you get past the horror of the opening (if you can?) it's an interesting raw leather fragrance.

Rose and patchouli are massive in this and not too my taste at all. It's very intense in the opening and smells almost fizzy if that makes sense? I couldn't wear this it's really not good, you'd think with Montale's calibre and a name like Black aoud this juice would be great...sadly the word I'd use to describe it is 'industrial' or 'aggressive' in the extreme. With so many Rose/Oud combos out there why would you get this? Yuck!

This was a straight forward one for me...found it cheaply online as I'd come across it numerous times on my fragrance discussions/adventures and decided to blind buy. A brave decision and something I almost never do but I couldn't find samples or even anywhere that sold this near me. I'm so glad I did though, it's wonderful, dark, complex, bitter, sweet composition is perfect. It's masculine, almost gourmand, soft but strong it's quite the conundrum. Right out of the gate I got a slight minty wave that fades almost as instantly as it appears out of the bottle. Then comes a lovely, thick liquorice note (bare in mind if you don't like liquorice, there's no way you will like this fragrance!) and behind that a base of dense woodiness and vanilla and a little almond which softens the whole thing. Speaking of almond! I categorized Au Masculin with another fragrance in my collection, Cerruti 1881 Black which is similar but a little sweeter and the almond is the dominant note.

The reviews on here are confusing! I'm going to add further confusion by stating...I don't know what to make of Full Incense? For me it might just be too 'Full' meaning pure incense, a little linear and simple, lacking complexity...could that be right? It smells beautiful...Kinda tame though and not smoky enough for my liking. I do detect a hint of cedar and labdanum but the main question I ask myself is would I wear it/buy it?? I'm still not sure as somebody who is drawn to incense and loves the stuff, Full incense is undeniably pleasant to my nose. I'm hoping the Comme de Garcon Avignon is more complex than this as I have a sample at home which I've not opened yet.

Okay so this is the first Montale review I've posted on Fragrantica and despite having tried many of them I decided to start with this one. My initial reaction to this fragrance having no prior knowledge about notes was maybe a coffee vibe due to the name? I think many people assumed this and were maybe disappointed by the lack of coffee. Anyway my initial thoughts were... Intense floral opening...ROSE!!!...maybe something calming too ...like jasmine? oh then a little touch of the soft background vanilla... then after a few minutes musky/amber. When this settles I do get a very faint coffee note and I'm not just imagining it....it's there! At first it was a little tiny bit like cacao or chocolate (more specifically white chocolate.) but as it dries down it's like very milky, vanillary coffee. The drydown is really very nice and the vanilla comes to the forefront as the rose calms down, when you get a faint waft of it there's barely any rose at all. However, go in close and sniff your skin and the rose remains, a nice little trick it plays with my chemistry. The deep dry down is a really nice Vanilla & Amber. Do you know what? I chose this fragrance to talk about first as it really interested me I couldn't stop sniffing my arm and trying to make up my mind on it. I'm not mad on rose centric fragrances for men despite having a few myself and seemingly recent reviews have been full of roses! This is a great fragrance for delivering on depth and putting interesting notes together that can be easily deciphered. I'm not normally a fan of what I would consider a light(as apposed to dark) rose/vanilla/musk/amber scent but I feel inclined to give this one the benefit of the doubt as I like the smell. This being said I won't be adding it to my collection.

Just to revise my review below....I love this and will be adding it to my collection. Intense cafe takes a few wears but it definitely grows in stature. It taps into my gurgling inner child that loves the sweet and comforting, gourmand softness of this scent. The Oud is really nice and increasingly evident. This is one of ten Montale's I've tried and only four I've reviewed and I have to say I wasn't that impressed with the house to begin with, Pierre Montale has a reputation which proceeds him and I'm starting to think it's fully justified. When I actually think about it the four I've worn extensively have all been excellent if not a little crazy like Oud cuir d'arabie and Black aoud. Intense cafe is a smooth rose/Oud scent which is very cosy and which I'm totally in love with now...I'm wearing it today and I couldn't be happier.

Lovely, bright citrus and clean vetiver...this does have some character created by other notes but my nose can't really detect what they are? Not much else to say. It's in the vein of Jo Malone for me which is only a good thing, As I've mentioned in other Diptyque reviews I really like everything from this house and vetyverio is no exception... it's just not exceptional.

Okay so...If you've read any of my reviews you maybe aware that I'm not a huge fan of overly boozy scents. However, this effort from By Kilian is amazing and was instantly a favourite among the ones I've tried. (which is the vast majority now) Straight to Heaven has all the suave, sophistication of a fine brandy/cognac hardly surprising given Kilian's pedigree. I instantly liked it and bought it there and then...a rash decision perhaps?...but I can definitely see myself wearing this quite regularly. It's bold but it doesn't announce itself and make the big statement that incense or amber Oud do. It has that gorgeous quality of dry fruit and wood with warm amber and quite a pronounced patchouli which ordinarily I wouldn't like but it works in this. What I mean is if I read the notes before trying I'd have wagered a bet on me not liking this. I think this is a case of everything being pretty 'full on' and as such creates a kind of harmony...not so much a delicate touch with a dash here n there but a overflowing, bubbling cauldron of indulgent juice. I can understand the comparisons with Amouage jubilation 25 as this has a very fruity feel throughout and a tiny bit of smoke too. The sweet, dried fruit vibe also reminds me of Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille a little. This juice is unisex and could definitely be worn by many women but for me this leans slightly more toward the masculine in comparison with some of the other unisex offerings from By Kilian. Bare this in mind if you don't want to shell out the full amount... I bought the 50ml refill version for £70 as the full bottled price was too much for me. The little funnel and atomiser you get are real quality.