Dry Wood
Ramon Monegal (2012)

This perfume is like the Death Star aimed at the homeworld of every self-important hipster niche guy that drones on pedantically about the superiority of vintage designer perfumes to current niche and praising the use of all-natural materials in artisanal brands, defending how they break down months or years after ownership to "improvement via maceration". Once this fully-operational battle station hits their perfume cabinet, millions of snobs cry out in pain and are suddenly silenced. Whether or not you find my lack of faith in the force that is the perfume community disturbing, there is one thing we can agree upon: this is a very daring perfume. Ramon Monegal flagrantly brags about the use of woody aromachemicals and "amber molecules" (aka ambrocenide) in Dry Wood (2012), and you'd have to be some kind of idiot to not know what you're in for after reading even the small blurb on the carded sample or his web site about the stuff. That said, I am very much aware I'm in the minority with liking it, because this is harsh, but intentionally and in my opinion not unpleasantly so. Like so many things of this ilk, this can nose blind you if you're not judicious with application, so be warned when you try it not to get it all over your face or under your nose when testing. Dry Wood is meant to be detected in wisps and wafts, not held in thrall directly under your breathways unless they're assisted by bionic implants that look like a coffee strainer.

The subject of Dry Wood is norlimbanol, the scratchy and sharp, cutting woody aromachemical material that powers many modern masculine perfumes, but most notably scents like Dior Sauvage (2015) and Parfum de Marly Kalan (2019). In both of those examples, other ingredients like ambroxan or pink pepper try to round, lift, and smooth the norlimbanol, to which it readily resists such blending due to potency, creating a friction that you either see as terribly uncomfortable, or part of the magic. Most niche guys hate this friction, and I admit it isn't something I yearn for regularly in a fragrance, but I like the aforementioned in spite of it. With Dry Wood, Monegal dispenses with any attempt to make norlimbanol work as a base material and instead gives it top-billing as the star. Out of the gate this perfume shoots you with sichuan pepper and bay leaf, some green herb mixtures like savory, sage, and Herbs de Provence, then lets the aromachemcal wood do it's thing. There isn't much heart here, just the opening and the base, which finishes with some cashmeran and clearwood, since they seem to play nice with the norlimbanol. Wear time is pretty much all day and do we really need to mention projection? Best use is pretty much year round and preferrably outdoors, as the verdant sharpness of the wood accord on display here lends itself well to day running but not so much in an indoor climate-controlled setting where you may be sitting still. I also think this reads quite masculine.

Dry Wood is as it says to be, a very dry woody experience, made a bit more piquant by pepper and aromatic through the use of culinary herbs. You can almost see this is as the modern-day answer to the bone-dry green woody masculines of the early to mid 20th-century, with stuff like Acqua di Selva by Victor (1949) or Arden for Men Sandalwood (1957) not being too far removed. Other folks may call this pure cynical trash, but if you sample others from the house of Monegal, you'll know that Ramon doesn't do anything with cynicism or satire in mind, he just doesn't like following the "rules" laid down by both the industry and perfume hobbyist community over what is or isn't "proper" perfume. Read an interview or two if you don't believe me, and if anything, this is just Ramon Monegal having a bit of fun seeing if he can make a "notorious" material work as a subject. Besides, Comme des Carçons has done far worse and gets praised for it right? Dry Wood is admittedly a bit more proof of concept than a practically-minded perfume, in the same sense so many niche perfumes offer a statement or experience rather than something to be passively enjoyed in the background, so I won't say anyone would likely reach for this daily. This is pure cybernetic force of will in perfume form, black like the cap on the bottle. Dry Wood: the official signature perfume of Darth Vader. Thumbs Up.

It is dry and woody, as the name suggests. It's also very sharp and after the initial sniff, I am only thinking how synthetic (in a bad way) this feels. I was intrigued by its name and I thought this will be to my liking, but it smells like many of the newer screeching woody generic designers that I dislike. Cedar and pepper with lemon, all synthetic and cheaply blended.

Ramon Monegal's Dry Wood is a dry scent, but the wood it references is in fact quite green, wood not long from feeling the axe and saw. The green wood is accompanied by pepper and a slightly bitter herbal note (Oregano? Marjoram? Marijuana?) that gives it a savory food note not unlike the celery note in Yatagan. Perhaps it is the Bay note that gives it the savory gourmand note. Finally, the green moss note furthers the green feeling to this scent, giving it the slightly retro feel of bracing green herbals from the past like Alliage, Private Collection and Yatagan. The Norlimbanol, however, which is so widely used in modern masculines, keeps this firmly in the present. Like Yatagan, there is a complete lack of floral notes, which makes this masculine-leaning, but in line with the green goddesses of the past.

UPDATE: I have finally figured out what is 'dry' about Dry Wood. Unlike other compositions that rely on a note or accord to convey dry-ness, this jus somehow presents dryness as a nasal sensation. Not the smell of dry-ness but the feeling of "gross lack of humidity" as communicated by your nose. GENIUS.

It takes a well honed nose to appreciate this one.

THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO SMELL LIKE FOREVER.

Loud? Yes, so go easy on the trigger. I wore 2 sprays without attracting any undue attention.

Strong and very un-apologetically masculine, there is nothing feminine about it however a female can certainly enjoy this.

The 'dry' in the name is somewhat of a misnomer as this takes your nose on a journey from a complete, luscious full blossom tree (leaves, fruit/berry/nut, flower, pollen, bark, sap, wood) to dried aged wood by to time you get to the dry down...3 days later!!!

What I adore about this is the instantaneous complexity present in every whif. You can smell the entirety of the composition from the get go if, that is, your nose is well developed.

As it dries, a layer disappears from the top, allowing the next layer to own center stage until the next act.

This is artistry, complete without perfumer pretense. How many perfumers are honest about the aroma chemicals in their composition?

You could recreate this with Varvatos Artisan Acqua on top of Miyake L'Eau D'Issey Intense with a hint of Azzaro Visit sitting on top of a very nice gentle but firm oud.

Or you could just buy Ramon Monegal Dry Wood.

Overpriced niche fragrance with a designer smell. Not a bad smelling fragrance at all but for the price, it should smell better than this. A Norlimbanol monster. I would still wear this one, just not for the price. Don't really get the wood aspect until 30 minutes after applying. Before then it has a soapy chrome metallic vibe. 6.5/10

In my opinion, this is a basic niche-by-numbers iso e super/woody/pepper scent. I generally like these and quite enjoyed the first couple of hours of Dry Woods, though it's impossible to ignore the basic fact that this is a crowded category (just about every niche house has to have one of these) and a few of them are masterpieces (CDG's incense series is the obvious reference point), so it's quite hard to join the pack at this point and expect to come out a winner. Dry Woods is perfectly competent but does little to stand out from the competition.

Also, I just don't care for the base. Instead of creamy sandalwood or smoky incense, it opts for that designer "woody amber" smell, that weird rubbing alcohol odor that so many low quality aquatics die down to. It cleverly pairs this smell with a catchy burnt pine tar smell, but the end result is something that mostly smells like the fumes of a permanent ink marker.

The topnotes deserve a thumbs up, uninspired or not, but the lame base bumps it down to a neutral.