Parfum de Cerise by Montagne

Intro

Cherry is one of those scents we all can probably associate immediately, whether it’s through a good topping, or a pie, or eating them by themselves, cherries have a unique scent that is easily recognizable. However, cherry is not a note we search for on our fragrances too often, perhaps because we associate it with a child’s perfume, toothpaste, or badly prepared candles that ruin the scent for us. I’ve got to be honest here, when I first read about Tom Ford’s Lost Cherry, I had zero interest in it, years of working as a bartender ruined the cherry scent for me, the extra sweet and syrupy maraschino cherries I served on hundreds of drinks (and came on a extra large glass jar) made sure I wanted to stay away from that note, for me, it was extra sweet and annoying as a note.

A couple of months ago I went to Oahu, Hawaii. At the airport, I had some free time and decided to visit the fragrance store there with my daughter, they had a huge collection of Tom Ford fragrances and Lost Cherry was there. The bottle, I’ll admit, intrigued me but I stayed clear of it….until my daughter sprayed it on a testing strip, WOW, the cherry and almond bomb captivated me immediately, I was blown away, could I really care about cherry? I tried many fragrances that day…many…yet I’m here telling you about the time I went to Hawaii and met Lost Cherry for the first time.

So, did I buy it? That’s the thing… Lost Cherry is very expensive, we are talking $335 for 50ml, that’s an expensive purchase, I was planning it on gifting it to myself in Christmas, and then… I met Parfum de Cerise from Montagne.

Opening

The opening on Parfum de Cerise is a cherry bomb, it’s maraschino cherry with an edge, the rose keeps the sweetness from getting too crazy…but, don’t let me fool you, this is like the topping of a pie you make with organic cherries, it’s beautiful and so different from other fragrances, I find myself sniffing this constantly…and more interesting, I don’t get a throwback at my bartender days when I smell this, it’s completely different, for me, this is not syrupy, it’s a bag of cherries, its a topping on a pie, it’s loud and evoking. What’s more, the opening reminds of Hawaii immediately and sharing that moment with my daughter, an added bonus.

Compared to the Original: I did many tests comparing both fragrances and Lost Cherry opens less pie topping for me, the almond is there from the beginning with Lost Cherry, honestly, I like the opening of Lost Cherry better just because it’s more complex, but, openings only last for a few minutes and for example, today, I sprayed Perfum de Cerise on my hand just so that I could get a sniff of that cherry (even though I have a decant of Lost Cherry)…so, there’s that.

Mid

Hello beautiful. I literally said those words first time I experienced the mid of this fragrance, the almond comes and plays with you and removes some of the cherry, I know it sounds crazy, but I would say the mid of this fragrance and the opening of Lost Cherry are almost the same to my nose! I know, madness! This is a great stage of the fragrance, I’m pretty sensitive to rose scents and here I can barely detect it but, I believe its what makes the fragrance less sweet and gives it a darker edge than you would expect from something that includes the word cherry on its name. The mid starts opening up the florals as well,  this is a complicated scent and it’s here where you start detecting it. My wife says that it leans feminine and I think it’s because of the florals that get added, for me it remains unisex and the florals just open up the stage for the wood notes.

Compared to the Original: Lost Cherry, to my nose, is harder to detect a mid stage on it, for me, LC goes from cherry/almond/rose to sandalwood & guaiac, perhaps, the opening is longer and it stays true to it all the way to drydown.

DryDown

Sometimes, specially with sweet fragrances, I think the drydown can end up being a letdown, I was afraid of that with Parfum de Cerise, I was wrong. The drydown still contains cherry but now, the almond, the sandalwood, the cedar and vetiver create a creamy base for the cherry, it removes the sweetness but not by losing the full DNA, 7 hours later you’ll still know what you applied in the morning, the next day…when your shirt or your jacket still smell of cherries, you’ll know. I often catch sniffs of this during the day and it always put a smile on my face, it’s such a complicated scent but it’s also so earthy and natural, it’s like a great 18 year Scotch, it knows what it is and it does it well, it’s not loud and no note is overwhelming others, they all play together and the sandalwood really comes through with the cherry, yet other times you’ll feel the vetiver more, it’s a great scent.

Compared to the Original: Lost Cherry has a more prominent guaic wood for me, it goes a little more “animalic” than Parfum de Cerise goes, now, if you spray them on my hands and ask me to tell you which one is which, I couldn’t, I could tell you they are not exactly the same but I would be hard pressed to tell you which one is which. If you’ve read my reviews before, I’ve mentioned that I can’t really say that something is 90% or 93% similar or whatever because that’s not how my nose works, I can talk about whether or not I’ll miss something from the original if I use Parfum de Cerise and the answer to that is no, I wouldn’t.

Performance

The word beast gets thrown around a lot, and for me beast means that it’s loud and the sillage and projection are very intense. I don’t think this is beast under those terms then, this is constant, it lasts at least 7 to 9 hours on my skin projecting for at least 2 hours in the beginning. It’s not a beast like a bear would be, rather, its like a panther, you can feel the presence and its captivating,

Usage

Usage is very subjective, for me, this is safe for office, works in semi-cold temperatures, fits a t-shirt and jeans the same way that it’ll fit something dressier. I’ll say this, you wear this and you are wearing something different, it’ll take some getting used to but dang it, it’s amazing.

Conclusion

Look, I don’t like bringing money into my reviews because it can lead to my readers interpreting that as “for the money, it’s good”, in this case, I want to bring money as a comparison to the original: Right now, you can go to Montagne’s website and order Parfum de Cerise for less than 10% of what it’ll cost you to get the same size of Lost Cherry from discounters! 10%! That is crazy talk and why I wanted to bring it to your attention, this fragrance is AT LEAST similar to the original, it’s not identical but it’s similar and where they are different it’s not something that you’ll notice unless you wear them both at the same time. I am grateful for Tom Ford’s mad scientists for concocting this formula, they created something that is truly espectacular, on the same way, Im thankful for Montagne for choosing to create an inspired expression that I can afford, that feels good on my skin and has the performance that it has. Good job Montagne, good job.

Hope you enjoy my review, have you tried Montagne’s Parfum de Cerise? Let me know on the comments below!

As always, wear it because it complements you, not because of the compliments.

X.

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Buy Parfum de Cerise here: https://www.montagneparfums.com/fragrance/parfum-de-cerise

Top notes: Cherry, Almond, Rose.
Middle notes: Gardenia, Jasmine, Pistachio, Griotte syrup.
Base notes: Sandalwood, cedar wood, vetiver, guaiac wood, tonka, vanilla, Peru balsam.