Beauty Care: Montale Ristretto Cafe Intense Perfume

Montale Ristretto Cafe Intense Extrait de Parfum begins with a sweet, jammy rose that sits on top of a frothy, caramel macchiato; the rose dominates for the first two hours before the coffee and its accoutrements started to strengthen as the drydown was creamy coffee with toffee syrup and amber.

top notes: Italian black coffee, Turkish rose water
heart notes: rose buds, roasted coffee beans, dry woods
base notes: vanilla, white musk, toffee, amber

It opened with a burst of a tangy rose liqueur, then a rich, espresso wafted upward after two minutes of wear. It bloomed with sweeter, jammy rose with milkier espresso, now nutty and slightly bitter, behind it. The coffee aspect felt more like a caramel macchiato–milky, caramelized, and darkly sweet; initially, it was not so noticeably caramel, just lightly so, but it thickened and sweetened over time. The rose remained at the forefront with the macchiato warm and fluid underneath.

After two hours, roasted coffee came through the rose with a chewy, toffee-like syrup, a bit of spice, and further creaminess as the macchiato thickened as the caramel melted through it, and the fragrance shifted from rose-dominated to the rose being a subtle force in the background of the coffee. Spiced, resinous amber joined the milky, caramel coffee, which made the caramel more like toffee, thicker, chewier, and denser. The drydown was warm, milky coffee with toffee drizzle and ambery undertones.

Application

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 1ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.

Longevity

It lasted for six hours until it was a skin-scent and about 12 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were high with the sillage dropping faster than the projection within four hours.

Personal Thoughts

The rose was jammier than I’d like and stronger compared to the coffee, which wasn’t wholly unexpected based on what I read on the fragrance prior to sampling. I really loved the drydown of coffee, toffee, and creamy vanilla with amber peaking through–the amber and the coffee mixing together was heavenly.