Mancera Aoud Vanille · Brotherhood Of Scent

Mancera Aoud Vanille

Mancera, circa 2015. Oud all the things, use all the florals. Aoud Vanille is another off-kilter Montale creation anchored in a synthetic oud and anonymous florals. The vanilla is somewhat dry, the base is vaguely woody. I'm sure there's some cardamom and saffron hidden in here. I tried to figure out what "florals" meant and got a list of 400 compounds that basically meant *Rose* so good luck pinning it down.

This is not really an oud, or a particularly strong vanilla. I believe this was Montale trying to make a classy male vanilla that didn't smell like Ultra Male or Pi. The effect is an oddly sharp vanilla with a bouquet thrown in. It's wearable but unorthodox. Performance is good of course, but the strength is more in the 8 hours of sillage.

I was willing to try it, because most of the old Manceras have stayed in production. King Vanilla was another one I tried to wear. I think the newer vanilla releases will fall in line with what people expect. Xplicit Vanilla is a good example. If you want both oud and vanilla in a digestible form, I enjoy Vertus Vanilla Oud. I haven't worn a real oud vanilla fragrance but I'm sure houses like Amouage have something available. This will not be a full bottle for me. Despite this being flowers and vanilla I couldn't get my girlfriend to tolerate it for more than 15 minutes.

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