MONTALE
TROPICAL WOOD

2016

oud
Passionfruit
Pineapple
Bergamot

Bulgarian Rose
Violet

Leather
White Musk
vanilla

One of my main gripes with Montale/Mancera is the excessive number of releases that seem very similar, especially with the (fruity/floral) woody fragrances, and that’s also the case here.

On paper, Tropical Wood sounds solid to me, with pineapple and passionfruit. And sure, there’s a tinge of that fruitiness, but instantly when I sprayed this on, it smelled like your basic, rose and oud combination. And the oud, doesn’t have a lot of character, it’s more of a harsh, nondescript woody scent.

I enjoyed my wear, but I feel like I’ve had a very similar experience with several Montale’s & Mancera’s and frankly, it’s hard to even keep track of which is which. And the quality is rarely good enough to be something I’d consider getting into my collection.

The fruity scents, the vanilla scents and the woody scents, all blend into the same distinct DNA, to the point where even scents that have nothing in common on paper, seem to have that connection. So, the saving grace here are the fruits, but I wish they were more pronounced. With a name like Tropical Wood, I wanted tropical fruits to be the dominant feature, but they’re not, it’s a rose forward scent, with a woody base and the fruits are the accent.

I would prefer something like Mancera Aoud Lemon Mint over Tropical Wood for a similar purpose.