Montale Intense Tiare

Notes: tiare, ylang-ylang, vanilla, coconut milk, jasmine, roses

Tiare, or Tahitian gardenia, is one of the notes in my beloved Azurée Soleil, along with coconut and jasmine.  Unfortunately the resemblance stops there: Montale's Intense Tiare smells nothing like that fragrance.  It opens with an odd note, sweet and plasticky, reminding me not a little of those solid cakes in wire racks that one suspends in their toilet bowl for "deodorizing" purposes.  Coconut eventually comes to the rescue, but not soon enough.  The damage has been done.  I am disgusted.  As Intense Tiare drys down, it retains a faint aura of toilet deodorizer, transporting me to a Dollar Store, not a tropical isle.

The first time I dabbed this one on, I used the lightest touch, and fell in love.  The tiare was just right, the coconut was subtle, and the drydown was magic.  Today, in order to get a better impression of the scent, I dabbed more forcefully, using the entire wand rather than just the tip to apply the scent to my forearm.  Ach!  How horrible is this when it's sprayed on?  Why was it pleasant when applied so sparingly?  Was it that the Benadryl I had taken in order to stop an allergic reaction clouded my olfactory sense as it cleared my ability to breathe? 

After a thorough scrubbing under running water, the scent transformed into what it should be - a lovely soft scent redolent of a vanillaic tiare with a dash of coconut.  So there's the secret - put Intense Tiare on before your shower, and you will smell great.