Greyland
Montale (2006)

Greyland was an oddball for me.
And indeed a lot of Montales come across that way.

There is wood, plenty of wood, but it is not woodsy. There is smoke, but not cigar smoke or a dirty fire smoke, but rather a clean resinous smoke. Then there is pepper, synthetic white pepper.

overall, this presents a scent most noses have ever smelled in combination and as such presents something totally new.

Signature scent for sure. Worth a sniff.

Well, there is a lot of smoke here, and woods - but not the kind of smoke you get from burning logs, with those pleasant ashy and resinous smells. This is rather like burning twigs. Very dry, a touch of spice in the late dry-down. Impressive accords for what it is, but not a great success in terms of personal perfumery for me. Perhaps something to spray on the audience for your school's home production of The Lorax.

Montale's 'Greyland' is for the masculine man, unshaven, muscular, well-educated with a take-charge attitude and rugged persona. Pure leather, cedarwood, patchouli, smoke and greens.

This scent literally smells like a wood shop or an old library with vintage leather everywhere and wood paneling with massive dusty old books on shelves. Picture well dressed men sitting in leather loungers smoking cigars and drinking whiskey. That's what this smells like. Women seem to really like it (to my surprise).

Good performance, lasts about six to nine hours depending on weather. Good projection and sillage. This works best and lasts longer in cold weather and winter months though. If tall, rustic, bearded and mysterious had a scent, this would be it.

This is my first Montale purchase. If this scent is any indication of their other offerings, I'm done for...

This, was a blind buy. And blinded, I was. More like blind-sided. My first impression nearly made me fall down, to bawl like a baby. A free ride on an Oriental express train to nirvana-land. I got a natural high on this combination of pepper, cedar, vetiver, sandalwood, guaiac wood, ginger, and musk. Oh, the rose it found itself cradled amongst its spicy cousins! Thank God, I detected no leather. THAT, would have ruined it for me.

I would write that this an offering for Autumn days. Or an evening secret. No such restrictions, for this old girl. I shall wear this whenever I damn well please.

A burst of bright shiny cedar, then cumin. LOTS of cumin. It is somewhat metallic, but mostly smells like I didn't use deodorant or shower for 4 days, then ate some chili, and tried to spray cedar on to cover it up.

Comme des Garcons by way of Montale, and absolutely worth a sniff whether you're a fan of both or either houses. Even when compared to some of the CDG scents this immediately brings to mind (The oft-mentioned Monocle #2, Wonderwood), Greyland has a clarity of purpose and a laser-like focus that I find wonderfully appealing.

This is brutish austerity. Especially at the opening which asserts Greyland at its most cold and calculating. Though soon enough, the cumin speaks up for itself and the strident austerity of the opening gives way to something just slightly warmer, maybe approaching an impolite indifference.

About the time you realize a cumin bomb is about to reach critical mass and detonate, right there on your arm, a mix of creamy precious woods gessoes over the spaces, diffusing the threat.

Finally, the whole thing begins its slow descent into a methodically-fading and devastatingly lovely ennui. The last gasps are all discontented malaise, a graceful yet bittersweet (emphasis on the bitter) disappearing act.

Greyland has an arresting opening of lavender, sharp cedar, leather, and spices, including cardamom, black pepper, and cumin. It's aggressively masculine, but also civilized and remarkably well balanced. The heart is still leather, cedar, and spice, joined by labdanum and dark incense. There's nothing floral and nothing sweet about it. In this it reminds me of Yatagan, but without the astringency of artemisia or the animal reek of castoreum. The much-discussed cumin is not intrusive to my nose. It just lends a warm, toasty aspect to what might otherwise have been a very severe scent.

Greyland dries down very quickly to a crisp woody base, then disappears after two or three hours. I think I might like it if it hung around a little longer. As it is, it's just OK. and just OK is not enough at these prices.

Great creamy sandalwood scent that I truly love. However, as mentioned by alfarom, it has poor longevity. What a shame. Would have easily been bottle worthy.

What a lovely blend of spices and incense................. and then.........

BANG!

Cumin and sweaty armpits

No thanks

Sort of half-way between Sycomore (the lush green) and Dark Aoud (sandalwood). It's pleasant enough, and lasts a long time on me, but I won't be buying a big bottle. I'd prefer to wear either of the aforementioned juices in lieu.

****
The names of Montale perfumes are typically functional in that they list the ingredients as in, e.g. ‘Aoud-plus-something', or an adjective is added as prefix to evoke a mood such as, ‘Dark' or ‘Royal', all of which direct one's mind towards the seductive history associated with perfume; its mythology, and the Arabic tradition.

By way of clever suggestion, however, and in a black flacon, the enigmatically modernistic 'Greyland' allows one to relocate, perhaps to a kind of uninhabited Scandinavian landscape found on an ECM album cover: an esoteric bleak space paradoxically densely full of ‘elements': the ‘outdoors' in which existential Bergmanesque journeys towards some form of primal telos are made possible.

The title aside, 'Greyland' delivers one of the most sumptuous leather-musk masculines I have ever had the pleasure to wear. Together with a subtle flourish of dark rose and spices, Greyland impresses as a dense, full-bodied smoky, beguiling incense-type composition that resonates with all the majesty of Jan Garbarek's rich, haunting and spacious tenor saxophone: at once man-made and somehow metallic in tone, yet exquisitely organic and comfortable: a warm carpet of velvet within Nature's playground.

One of the most gorgeous creations from this magnificent House and, for me, a seeming ability to discard time somehow given its longevity.

(For 'G' to whom I remain indebted for my introduction to Montale perfumes and Life. x)