From The Diary of a Scent Addict…

By Kelley Wednesday, September 19, 2007 Okay, so here is the scoop. I read about this great deal at the Montale-Paris website based in Switzerland. It is supposed to be so fantastic that they are practically giving the stuff away. Well, maybe not giving it away but it sure is supposed to be great. For example, the 100ml bottle of Aoud Lime is going for roughly $76! The bottle of Blue Amber that I looked at (same size) is about $47. These are my kind of prices! (Sad note: as of this date, Black Oud was sold out…sorry) I found the website: Montale-Paris with virtually no problems. However, the site is in French and the translation button doesn’t really translate the site into 100% English. Before the order completes, you must sign up with the website. Here is where I had my first big glitch. I couldn’t get the stupid sign-up page to process. I tried and tried. I was getting frantic. Luckily, I remembered something like this happening before and I switched from using my Firefox web browser to Internet Explorer and finally I was able to sign up. You know how this goes, you are then sent to a secure site to process your charge card and then you wait. Finally, you are returned to the Swiss site and nothing happens. There isn’t a receipt page or so much as a thank you very much for your order page either. I did get an email eventually and after translating I think I am either getting my two 100ml bottles of Montale fragrances for under $125 (plus postage) OR they are sending someone over to re-roof my house. It was all very confusing. I will report back when I know more. Wednesday night the same day The credit card charge went through and the postage turns out to be around $20. That’s not too bad considering it’s coming from Switzerland. The story (maybe fictional?) on Basenotes is that the Swiss store often has these sales especially when trying to get rid of returned merchandise or when Mr. Montale starts cranking out a whole new set of scents and needs to get rid of the old. Thursday, September 20, 2007 I just received a charming confirmation email in French stating that my order has been shipped. I will be counting the days! I have reviewed Aoud Lime before and just recently Blue Amber. Oh, and by the way, this is marketed as a woman’s fragrance but many of the reviews say that it is more masculine in nature. Personally, I find this very unisex in approach. Wednesday, September 26, 2007 I just got an email from Montale warning that there will only be a few days left of the sale. I don’t know whether to believe them or not. Maybe this is just good advertising. Saturday, September 30, 2007 The shipment has arrived. It has my Aoud Lime and Blue Amber and as a free gift, they included a 50ml bottle of Orient Extreme. My grand total spent was $142 (that includes postage) and the value of the three bottles would have normally been $510 plus postage! Yep, I just double checked a couple of my favorite online fragrance shops and I have to admit that I totally scored! There is a thread on Basenotes featuring the free gifts and believe me, mine was pretty skimpy compared to some. Monday, October 1, 2007 They weren’t lying. The Montale site is down and has been replaced by a Nejma site (by Pascal Morabito)! Oh, sadness! Oh, depression! There was more I wanted to order! I wrote to the new Nejma site but no response. I asked a friend on Basenotes if he still had the old email address for Montale, which he did. I am begging for another chance at the sale. Thursday, October 4, 2007 Even though it was a long wait, I finally got a response from Florence at Montale (info@parfums-montale.com) and they still have Black Aoud! I placed another small order through PayPal. Wow, that was close. Because they are 7 hours ahead, I haven’t had any account activity yet. I hope this goes through! I was going to wait to post this until this next shipment comes in but why wait? Time is fleeting and if you still want to cash in on the sale, write to them. Now! Remember, her name is Florence.