Life in Kate-Land

I’ve had a complicated past with Montale fragrances. There’s something about them in the ones that I’ve tried that is very abrasive – almost caustic to my nose. And it sucks, because the fragrances behind that wall of offense are so nice, but I don’t want to have to fight to like something.

I had basically written off all Montale fragrances as no-gos for me, but I recently Mercari-ed myself a niche perfume sample bundle, as we hyperfocused fragheads are wont to do, and it came with a couple of Montales in it: Woods and Spices and Day Dreams.

I sprayed everything in the bundle on test strips, gave them five minutes, and when I came back to sniff, I was completely surprised by the Montales.

I have yet to try Woods and Spices on my skin, so that’ll be a different review.

The one that I want to talk about today is Day Dream. I smelled this completely blind – I didn’t look up any notes or ahead of time.

On first spray, I get freshness and strong citrus with a sweet, floral undertone. This is not the dark, sticky, kind of vibe that I’ve gotten from Montales I’ve sampled in the past couple of years.

An hour or so in, it dries down to a citrus vanilla, still with that laundry note, but not in a bad way. This just really feels like a summer fragrance – fresh linens, sunshine and citrus that shows up rather brightly and hangs around.

It’s surprising that it stays so true to the first spray, especially with the volatility of a lot of citrus that tends to make it fleeting. Looking at the notes, I see that there is both neroli and orange blossom, as well as mandarin. So it does make sense that the citrus is strong with this one. Middle notes are listed as neroli, tiare and sandalwood, with coconut and vanilla in the base. I don’t get the coconut, personally, but that’s a good things for me.

The result is a very pleasant, fresh, clean scent—very bright and summery. And given my past experiences with Montale, if you would have asked me before what was the one word I would not have used to describe the house, it would be a tie between bright and summery…but here we are.

As I write this, I’ve had it on for several hours while doing things around the house, and man, I really like it. The scent is still going strong without pieces of it wearing off. The dry-down is as pleasant as the first spray, just a little mellower and sweeter. And the sillage is still super impressive.

Is this a full bottle purchase? I don’t know. But it’s officially the first Montale ever to be on my short list.