Best Red Aoud by Montale Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

The colors of the day are melting. In the shadows, feelings take surprising shapes. The night is calling. Softness is in the air. Silent connections form. The alchemy is real. Two shadows. One.

Sombra is a dirty shadow of tough rose and oud, spiced with saffron and nutmeg. Tolu balsam bathes the composition in a twilight effect of almost-sweet tobacco and leather, for an animalic result that purrs.

This extrait is named for the archipelagic country in the South Pacific Ocean, source of the sandalwood in the base. Vanuatu is a lively, confident blend of spices (black pepper, cardamom, cumin) dappled across characterful woody materials (sandalwood, patchouli, cedar and papyrus). Putting meat on the bones is fig milk, with violet leaves adding sharp sparkle. A fragrance for unexpected adventures.

Raíces, Spanish for roots, is a perfume that summons the force of the earth with a botanical bounce. The rain-soaked smokiness of vetiver twins with the glacial green of peppermint for a bright-eyed, vibrant persona. The persona shifts with unexpected sparks: black and pink pepper, orange blossom and ginger, rose and saffron.

Perfumer: Paul Guerlain

“Hey Bitch! You smell fucking good.” In Perfume World, that’s what we call a result. Hey Bitch! raises eyebrows with its dissonance between buttery, blowsy orange blossom and tough, bitter leather. Tangy rhubarb at the top snaps its fingers in your face, before dissolving into a blur of suedey iris and milky sandalwood. The dance between bitter and sweet keeps you on your toes throughout, conjuring hints of…what? Photocopier ink? Coffee? For sure it conjures ambered black leather, Bitch!

This magic potion could only be made by crushing armfuls of roses, bleeding roses, candy roses, puffed-up fantasies trembling with sweet impatience and desire. It sets off a warning and an invitation, a promise and a threat. This scent is a refuge on the battlefield of love.

Santal takes its inspiration from a Sandalwood fragrance originally created in the 1800s which has then been given a distinctive contemporary edge.

Perfumer: Tomoo Inaba

Rich and gothic Moth starts with a heavy dose of dark spices to jolt your senses before settling into a dusting of honey-sweet rose and powdery florals. Slowly, it tests its wings, taking flight on an exotic journey of nagarmotha, guaiac wood and patchouli. Beneath it all lingers a smoky undertone that serves as a constant reminder to fluttering creatures of the danger in the tantalizing flame.

In his Descriptio Montis Fracti sive Montis Pilati from 1555, the famous Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner chronicles his journey into the caves of the Alps. “At night, the moon shines into the cave so brightly the light itself seems to take form, like a mist. It gathers in the ceiling and makes the limestone stalactites glitter and gleam, dripping tears of white liquid into puddles on the rock floor that never dries. Moonmilk.”

This EdP lives up to that sublime description with a dance between conflicting textures that titillates the nose. The black tea and lime opening establishes an expectation for further crispness to come. The switcheroo comes with the appearance of Mysore sandalwood, its milky incense soft like a lover’s touch on the skin. All the elements resolve in a fresh and tender leather.

January 1618 A Japanese Galleon, the Pacific Ocean

Following a diplomatic mission to the West, a galleon carrying a delegation of samurai charges through dark ocean currents. Loaded with a rare and precious cargo, the ship’s hull is redolent of sweet-smelling tropical woods, heady Spanish leather, frankincense, fine black pepper and other exotic ground spices—the intoxicating spirit of a singular, extraordinary voyage of discovery.

A good perfume to visit if your are in a search for perfect true sandalwood,  smoky and a touch dirty. Arquiste carefully selected the companions for its sandal in this formula: tea and osmanthus, coffee, myrrh and stryrax and others to give it a dark, sensual depth.

***

GQ US on Nanban:

"This is my signature scent. I wear it all the time. And let me tell you: I’ve never worn something that has gotten so many compliments—no sunglasses, no sneakers, no full-body rubber suit. People actually turn their heads and ask me what I'm wearing. And then they jot down the product name. Arquiste’s masterpiece introduces itself with Malabar black pepper and Persian saffron, gives way to coffee, sandalwood, myrrh, and Spanish leather, and embraces you all day with a blanket of frankincense, balsam, and cade juniper."

Read full review

***

Financial Times' resident perfume writer Victoria Frolova on Nanban:

"... approach coffee notes creatively. Instead of mimicking nature, a perfumer instead might fashion a blend that hints at coffee’s pleasing bitterness and heady richness. Such is Arquiste’s Nanban (£160 for 100ml EDP). The composition uses a plush backdrop of woods to frame the smoky, spicy notes of myrrh and incense, with an accent of coffee to lend the composition a dark, delicious twist. It teases with its smoky, nutty warmth, but keeps its presence mellow behind layers of sandalwood and leather."

Read more

Olive fruit absolute is an unusual material for an amber perfume, and a surprisingly appealing one. It gives a salty, animalic nuance to this sheer blend of cypress and sandalwood, rubbing up nicely against the cinnamon character of Tasmanian mountain pepper.