Oud Pashmina
Montale (2021)

Oud Pashmina by Montale (2021) has me saying "why pay more?" concerning the typical Western designer oud style. If you're someone who loves things like Dior Oud Ispahan (2012) or Xerjoff More Than Words (2012) and their many descendants like MFK Oud Satin Mood (2015), the short-lived Gucci Guilty Oud (2018), or Louis Vuitton Ombre Nomade (2018), keep that money in your pocket and buy this instead. Montale has always been more about an authentic taste of Dubai oud styles, even if their materials may not always be so authentic, so to see them tackle the ostensibly-designer take on the rose oud subject they've themselves dominated for years is funny.

As you might expect, Montale pretty much destroys all the overpriced competitors by delivering the spitting image of the raspberry-inflected rose and medicinal oud style, layered with subtle smoke, salty ambergris, and vanilla notes as so many western niche, luxury, and designer brands do. This is not one-to-one of anything, so not a direct clone; but moreso Oud Pashmina is pastiche (or a pash-stiche perhaps) of them all. A bit of the Morillas raspberry, a bit of the Cavallier smoke, a bit of the Freemont leather and patchouli, plus some of the Kurkdjian sharp muskiness. If you're not a fan of this highly processed take on rose oud, this won't convince you, but if you've dreamed of wearing LV or MFK ouds but can't afford it, here you go.

Personally, I'll always love things like Montale Attar (2005), Aoud Cuir d'Arabie (2006) or Black Aoud (2006) more, as they really are uncompromisingly of the culture from which they are born; and for me personally, that's why I buy into Montale, if not for their nuclear takes on designer tropes like Fougères Marines (2007). Pashmina itself is a rare and expensive form of cashmere wool which is often faked, so there is some serious tongue in cheek going on here that you just gotta love too; and for $60, you can smell like all the nouveau-riche idiots that line the pockets of LVMH or Estée Lauder for ten times that! Sold! Thumbs up

Unisex leaning femme, if this had a little more bite it would've been thumbs up. Oud, rose and ambergris - I should love this! But: nay. Aoud Musk and Ristretto Intense Cafe are masterpieces, this isn't terrible but fades far.

All i smell is Oud Ispahan. I don't know. A bit of a dirtier oud, and not all bitter. Oud Palao. Whatever. bored with this. neutral.. its fine.

Pashmina, the super-soft cashmere fabric woven from the underside of the Ladakhi Changthangi goats, is as widely faked as oud, because the real thing (in both cases) is prohibitively expensive. Such fakery is par for the course for a brand like Montale and it matters little if the result is striking – I've had a few heart-stopping moments with the likes of Black Aoud and Spicy Aoud, so that's all fair.
I was expecting something all fuzzed up with musk as a nod to the luxury fabric, but Oud Pashmina turns out to be a bit of a bruiser. What it does achieve is plenty of amber warmth radiating from its core and that, I suppose, will have to do as the pashmina reference. Otherwise, it is the usual deep, dark woods affair with some tannery leather at the start after which things get increasingly smoky and sweet. A smothering of cardamom-spiked vanilla tussles it out with the increasingly charred woody tones, the combatants evenly matched. The whole thing is bold, with plenty of thrust, but mainly good in small doses.