MONTALE Intense Café Eau de Parfum 100 ml

Product Information

By Strong I mean here not the intensity of coffee note, but the taste of the espresso, if I should drink it. Ristretto on the other hand loses an aspect of that evolution by starting already somewhat darker, then evolving to even darker, during which some of that more opulent gourmand experience IC has is lost in Ristretto. The scent profile is ok but surprisingly enough this one sits very close my skin and 2 hours into wearing it I'm struggling to pick it up.

Intense Cafe is a coffee, amber, floral and vanilla fragrance that I find quite appealing, although it does reflect some other fragrances, namely Tom Ford Noir de Noir but more in a more lactonic way. It may seem insignificant, however Montale is known for prejudicing very strong fragrances and a lot of people prefer applying those scents by ‘stepping through the cloud’ rather than spraying directly on their skin, so imo a brand that strives to produce strong fragrances, should pay extra attention to the atomiser. I enjoy sweet gourmand fragrances but this one is a bit too much, to the point where it’s making me nauseous (sometimes rose fragrances will do that to me). Evokes feelings of walking through an artisan coffee aisle of a local market, or relaxing in a high end corner cafe with friends or a good book.Most of the fragrances I've wanted to try from the house are rarely on display or even available in stand alone samples - they have way too many, haha. I feel like the house of Montale have played some kind of practical joke on fragrance wearers, by naming this fragrance Intense Cafe. I've reached for it only twice as that boozy coffee note was the most prominent all the way to dry down.

The gentle sweetness of vanilla envelopes this aromatic combination, while amber and musk lend warmth to the base and create a long-lasting and seductive fragrance. It was a fairly warm day today and i did not get any weird, putrid like smell others have complained about in warmer temperatures. They all had that "Montale" synthetic accord to them, but I remembered Intense Cafe smelling like a creamy version of Roses Musk. I have an old decant of Intense cafe (another one that didn't go bad even after almost 8 years) and one spray fills the room.Please read the full reviews and consider your own needs and preferences before making a purchasing decision. Overall I prefer intense cafe to RIT because I prefer something more feminine with a stronger vanilla dry down. It's unfortunate for me because this smells like a rose jam hookah, and the hookah smell makes me gag, I wanted this because of coffee and i don't even smell a little bit of it on my skin. The fragrance is linear, all featured notes come up as soon as the fragrance is applied and continue into the dry down.