Azonto by Montagne

Bal D’Afrique , from the Stockholm based niche perfume house Byredo was introduced in 2009, nosed by Jerome Epinettee,  inspired by Paris in the late 1920’s and its infatuation with African culture, art, music, and dance. Well, that won’t invoke any memories for me so I decided to comprehend the feeling further, Bal translates to bale, bale from Africa, ok, this perhaps makes more sense as the grass notes and floral undertones would convey, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Today I explore Azonto, an inspired expression from NY based house Montagne.

Opening

Red & White Florals sprinkled with lemon, kissed by grass, enveloped in beach grapes. I know that sounds complicated…and I’m glad it does because that is what Azonto’s opening is like, complicated and fresh. Trying to peel out individual notes is very hard, lemon and vetiver are definitively there with a hint of neroli to my nose, neroli usually takes over fragrances, not this time. It’s a little powdery for me, perhaps from the violet but the fragrance itself does not feel as dry as other powder scents tend to be. The first few sniffs will definitively feel like a bale with vetiver grass surrounding a bunch of florals in the middle, picture it, a big bale with hay and vetiver intertwined on the outside, hiding a big bouquet of flowers in the middle, you open it on a humid day…that’s what this opening is like. I have many fragrances and have tested hundreds, the opening of this fragrance is on shelf of it’s own.

Heart & DryDown

Look, I’m not disappointed by the drydown, that would be too harsh of a word to use, it’s just that the opening is so perfect that I wished it stayed for a long time, I wish those notes lingered for hours, but alas, they don’t. The drydown is all about the amber, musk, vetiver with (what I think) is jasmine, basically, a woody base with a floral over-tone. It’s good, it’s just not this complicated fascinating fragrance the opening provided us, I love smelling this during the day, finding it on my skin and let it complement my day, it’s very fresh without being green, it’s floral enough without being floral.

Performance & Usage

Sadly, for me, this becomes a skin scent really fast, within 2 hours or so. I can find it on my skin for 6 to 8 hours easily, but, it does not project at all after the initial hour. This is 100% unisex, but, if you’ve read my review before you know I don’t believe in assigning gender to scent. This is a summer fragrance or perhaps a warmer spring day as well.

NOTE: I live in Seattle and the temperatures are on the cold side still, I will wear this when it gets warmer and will adjust my review if the performance changes due to weather changes.

Conclusion

I don’t own Bal D’ Afrique and to be honest, I’ve never even tried it before, I know it is a hyped fragrance but I never did pursue it. I tried Azonto thinking I wouldn’t like it, I was proved wrong so fast, I love the opening and how well mixed this fragrance is. Should you buy it? If you like fresh fragrances, I would say yes, the price to value proposition is amazing for what you get, there are ZERO designer fragrances I’ve tried that have this level of complexity, heck, even niche ones fall short.  However, if you are a big fan of beast-mode fragrance or those that last 2 days on your skin, I would consider the performance implications with this fragrance before pulling the trigger and getting it, me, I’ll spray this twice during the day…because I get to experience that amazing opening twice :) 

Thanks for reading,

X.

Top notes: Neroli, lemon, African marigold, bergamot, buchu.

Middle notes: Violet, jasmine, cyclamen.

Base notes: Musk, vetiver, cedarwood, ambery. 

Links:

Azonto @ Montagne's Website

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