Montblanc Emblem Eau de Toilette

Product Information

I've actually begun to revise my opinion of Mont Blanc, a luxury manufacturer with a great reputation and their fore into fragrance has to be deemed as a success to most due to the fact they have some winning fragrances.

People saying this has no longevity are crazy, I've gotten 5-6 hours at least on my skin with fairly good projection. I haven't tested it longer but it lasts on my skin. So whatever It smells like some other common scents, such as Invictus by Paco Rabbane. But, still a very good smell and affordable for the quality it is. Highly recommend. Overall the tone is sweet and warm but the individual notes are too faint to raise above the violet leaf/sweet grapefuit accord; the kind of nondescript woody drydown and very sweet tonka beans, which here take a sweet tobacco-ish turn, only reinforce the combo without adding something interesting in the long run. I love all of the notes in this. I love clary sage and grapefruit in the top. I LOVE Violet. I like cinnamon when it is done right. I love tonka. I love woods. I liked this scent immediately, it was love at first scent. Easily.Emblem opens with inviting fresh citrus and maybe a hint of exotic fruit? The heart is another Tonka washout for me though very pleasant but all too familiar and very much the en vogue accord for bland designer fare at the moment. There's a hint of violet and spices, clary sage and cardamom, cinnamon is evident.

Today's men's popular/'generic' department store fragrance market can be generally categorised into two groups. First, we have the works-every-time fresh citrusy scents. Second, we have the new sweet spicy scents that have lately become popular - the prime examples being One Million and Spicebomb. It's unfortunate those calling this "boring" don't even realize the boring effect they are getting is a reflection of themselves and their attitude. The greatest smelling fragrance in the world is not going to excite you just by smelling it. It comes down to how you relate to yourself and the world around you. That's why sometimes the simplest scents can have the most incredible effect on people even though to others that same scent might be boring. It's true, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's the same will all forms of art from paintings and music to sculptures and literature. Mont Blanc emblem opens with a soft projection of grapefruit, spicy, woody, and floral accords. The opening is very soft, the notes are not well defined, a pleasant but unimpressive opening. In just a moment the violet leaf of mid notes enters the blend creating the fresh aroma; the cinnamon and cardamon mix together adding a soft spicy touch but nothing prominent. The tonka bean adds a sweet and aromatic touch and the woods do the same. Once Mont Blanc Emblem has reached its full dry-down, it can be summarized as a very soft projecting grapefruit and cinnamon fragrance with faint spicy, floral, and woody accords. The fragrance feels airy, inexpensive, clean, diurnal, faint, fresh, and relatively pleasant. SIMILAR: Mont Blanc is a house known for producing very poor performing pleasant fragrances. Your best chance is to stay with the three stars of this house. Mont Blanc Legend, Mont Blanc Individuel, or Mont Blanc Explorer. Longevity, even with a heavy hand on the trigger was about two hours and almost the entire time was spent as a skin scent. This fragrance only projected about a foot away for the first 15 minutes, and after that, nothing. Very low sillage, no scent trail, not even a trace of the scent on my shirt which I also sprayed when I came home three hours later from being out. At NO price point is this scent worth purchasing anymore, it seems like reformulation has killed this scent completely.Emblem was announced in March 2014 along with its Intense version (which is rare in this market as there is usually a space of, at least, one year between flanker releases). At the time, Montblanc claimed that the fragrances represented the brand's heritage and, for this reason, the bottle cut into the shape of the famous six-point star. The opening sage and grapefruit makes for a very refreshing, fresh-but-on-the-dry-side start (closer to cucumber than fruit) with some moderate projection that lasts for a good 1-2 hours on my skin - the spices start to emerge as the citrus fades, ultimately leading to the considerably sweeter base of tonka and wood notes that radiate a minimal amount for abut another 90 minutes before becoming a skin scent for another few hours. The result is pleasing and the performance is good (average projection, decent longevity). Of course it is generic, and of course it's synthetic - but that does not mean it's a bad scent. In fact, it does well in balancing the two categories. It may not be groundbreaking, but I was looking for a mass appealing designer frag that isn't very well known but still remains unique. This really fit the bill for me.

So why do I dislike it? Well, for me, with my particular skin chemistry, whatever has been used here to create the cardamom note smells synthetic and somewhat unpleasant and, worst of all, clashes with and detracts from the rest of the otherwise ordinary but nice enough notes in the composition. I have, however, smelled this fragrance on other folks, and I have come to the conclusion that this issue is a function of my skin and not the product. Professional and formal. Those two words perfectly outline this fragrance. This is not something you wear on a typical day. This is a business suit and tie accessory, or a date-night aroma. Definitely not your average deo-body spray. This is the atmosphere of someone successful and someone who knows what they want in life, and how to achieve it. I barely get the clary sage in the opening (maybe it's my skin chemistry or I'm anosmic to it?), but rather a blast of a higher note citrus which I cannot immediately identify as grapefruit, sweetened by the cardamom. Bottom line: you may well like Montblanc Emblem, and it may be a good choice for you, if you can find it heavily discounted and enjoy well presented, inoffensive warm spicy aromatic fragrances with unaccented Iso-E super type dry downs. However, be advised that for certain skin chemistries, like my own, the fragrance just won't work. Blind buy with caution. OCCASIONS: Formal events, outdoor gatherings, gym, office, business, casual. This is an office-friendly fragrance.Likable, wearable and as many have mentioned the bottle is great and a perfect way to ram home the brands logo. Emblem exudes well, but it produces olfactory fatigue very fast for those who wear it. That is, you may think you are no longer exuding, but you are. The durability is very good, exceeding eight hours on my skin. Emblem also started a new pillar of fragrances inside the Montblanc, which had the first feminine scent of this line launched in 2015. It features notes of clary sage, cardamom and grapefruit as start. The body of the fragrance features notes of violet leaves and cinnamon. The base was made with tonka beans and woody accord.

I think the most important thing to note is that they've never made a bad fragrance and there's not one I wouldn't wear so despite all the naysaying I do rate Mont Blanc. They choose good perfumers and solid concepts that sell. On the skin, Emblem is pleasant and can walk between appointments, from day to night, with ease. The output is slightly fruity and sweet and the evolution shows an oriental body, which gains woody and creamy facets. But it is not an innovative cologne today, nor when it was released. Its fragrance presents a proposal similar to that of 212 VIP Men (2010) and, if worn side by side, it is possible to notice similarities. The biggest difference is due to the creaminess of Emblem, which results from the sage and fava tonka notes, against the alcoholic and salty aspect of the other, due to the notes of vodka, caviar lime and salty amber. Emblem takes these two most popular categories and merges them into one. This bottle is essentially Legend meets One Million. After the fresh citrusy top, it dries down into a fresher and less obnoxious version of the cinnamon-centric One Million. Simple and fairly linear after the top. RECOMMENDATION: Mont Blanc Emblem has one of the worst fragrance performances, the opening is very weak and it only gets weaker by the minute, not even by the hour. Its performance is disappointing. Not worth buying it. I'm all for modern or new scents with those companies tryinf different stuff but gray colognes and musk scents should have died off. In fact I like to use axe as an example. I'd prefer axe gold over this junk. I'll take Lacoste, Paco Rabanne, polo (how original) or davidoff over this in a heart beat how boring that one was. I like my theirry muggler angel (probably spelled the designer wrong) way more than this and I use that about once a month. If I was a millionaire it would be my bathroom spray.The violet is an icy smelling violet that mixes with the cinnamon to create a floral-sweetness. The drydown is the mixture of the vanilla-like tonka, whatever woods there are, and that floral cinnamon vibe remains prominent. The violet really is the star throughout at stays with you. It's not a fragrance that many would dislike, but if you are not a violet fan then I would not recommend it. Emblem (as well as Legend) is indeed unexceptional but it has distinct elements of masculinity, freshness and sweetness that makes it so easy to wear and understand - it doesn't provoke any thoughts and isn't very surprising but that is EXACTLY what I want. Now don't be mistaken there are bad mainstream fragrances too but my point here is that mediocrity isn't a synonym of garbage. Emblem is nicely blended, has quality ingredients and the signature metallic accord that's in many of Montblancs. Also, It's so wearable it's almost ridiculous - I reach for Jaipur maybe once every 3 weeks but Emblem can be worn from monday to the end of the week with such ease I sometimes forget I'm even wearing anything. This scent takes you on a far more interesting journey than the moderate price would imply. I know I have an undeniable bias to wood aromatic and/or spicy blends, but I feel like as long as you have a fondness for this family of scents, this would be a very safe blind buy if you know to expect a good woody scent with a fresh dry touch and more sweetness in the drydown than the opening would suggest. Very interesting. Montblanc Emblem is a mediocre fragrance from a generally well regarded house, the notes in which are adequately described by the note pyramid above. On the plus side, it is presented in a great bottle. The fragrance gives off decidedly masculine associated scent queues and is usually available at quite reasonable prices from the on-line discounters. It is: not very strong unless ruthlessly oversprayed; safe for most workplaces; composed of bland notes which project at most moderately; and unlikely to offend anyone smelling or wearing it.