The best way I can sum up Parfums Montana Parfum de Peau (originally released as Montana) is like this: Imagine that Niki de Saint Phalle and La Nuit de Paco Rabanne had a daughter, and they amped her baby formula with steroids. Other kids at school made fun of her for her big nose, protruding eyes and exceptional height. And when she turned 19, she became a supermodel. Parfum de Peau may be the ultimate jolie laide fragrance.
Jean Guichard composed the original Montana perfume in 1986. It's not clear when the name change took place, but by 1991 it was being referred to in the press as Parfum de Peau. It was apparently reformulated later in the 1990s by Edouard Fléchier, and has no doubt been tweaked since. Its notes include peach, cassis, plum, pepper, cardamom, ginger, rose, tuberose, jasmine, ylang ylang, carnation, sandalwood, patchouli, vetiver, civet, castoreum, amber, musk and frankincense.
In Perfume, Nigel Groom describes Parfum de Peau as an “avant-garde chypre.” As its list of notes hints, Parfum de Peau is something between a symphony and raucous nightclub. In brief, it’s a fruity chypre with a shimmering marigold top, a middle loaded with flowers and sweet plums and peaches, and enough animalic base notes to rival a hippo in estrus.
Parfum de Peau opens with a burst of aldehydes carrying gingered fruit and sharp, herbal marigold. (If you don’t like the marigold in Niki de Saint Phalle, you probably won’t like Parfum de Peau, either.) Building under this strange opening is a classic ladies-who-lunch bouquet of roses, jasmine, and tuberose supplemented with delicious, juicy fruit, which the marigold does a good job of keeping in check. Clove and cardamom and a hint of powder round it out. At this point, Parfum de Peau reminds me of an edgier, more intense Paloma Picasso Mon Parfum.
From five minutes in to a good ten hours later, Parfum de Peau’s powerful base grows and then simmers along in a viscous combo of motor oil, civet, patchouli and sweet wood. This fragrance is a wild, complex mix that likely repels many people (think of all those people who want “clean” and “subtle” scents who might be tricked by the “de peau” part of the name!). Others, though, will love love love it exactly for its crazy, alluring composition.
Warning: Parfum de Peau has stealthy but vigorous sillage. In the ring with any of the Reagan-era blockbusters — Yves Saint Laurent Opium, Christian Dior Poison or Chanel Coco — the smart money is on Parfum de Peau to smother them all. I wore one miserly spritz of the Eau de Toilette to work a few weeks ago, and I thought I had it under control until a coworker at least 15 feet away said, “Nice perfume. Floral.” Not only does Parfum de Peau have good reach, it has the persistence of plutonium. Don’t spray it on unless you’re committed to a full day’s wear.
Parfum de Peau is not an easy fragrance, but it’s smart and sexy and bends to no one else’s rules. Parfum de Peau is not here to get along, so if you don’t like her, you can go back to your safe Jo Malones and rules about when to wear white. She doesn’t care.
I’m reviewing an early version of the Eau de Toilette, before the name was changed to Parfum de Peau. If you've worn later versions of Parfum de Peau, please comment.
Montana Parfum de Peau is still in production and is available online in a number of versions, none of which will break the bank.
Oh no! This was my mother’s signature scent for years, and I have to say that I did not like it. How to explain to your mother that yes you like when she comes in the morning to say goodbye before she leaves for work, but her perfume is just suffocating?!
It’s a whopper of a perfume! I bet all her clothing and coats smelled of it for a good, long time.
Yes, a whopper
And it would also stay in our (kids’ room) long after she left for work.
My mother turned seventy this year, and when, over a year ago, she visited, we went through my samples. She chose SL Fleurs d’Oranger, so this is what she wears now. She reports receiving lots of compliments on it.
Very nice! Fleur d’Oranger might be more subtle than Parfum de Peau, but it definitely still has personality. I bet your mom does, too.
Great review – Sounds wonderful to me! Have been searching for some on evilbay for months. Have serious lemming now.
I think everyone should smell this one! Whether they want to wear it or not is a different question, but I can imagine certain people pulling it off beautifully. I even think I could perhaps wear a drop or so fairly well–but not more than that!
Wow! I don’t know if I could handle an “edgier more intense” Paloma Picasso Mon Parfum; the Paloma Picasso itself is often too much for me.
Then you might want to stay away from this one. It’s worth smelling, though, I think!
This has been one of my favorite for nearly 25 years. I had a mini that I got as a gift-with- purchase when I bought Diva, (I had bought Diva as a gift but kept it for myself) and I got a 100ml FB 2 yrs ago for less that $50.
People around me have had comments ranging from “Best scent ever!” to “Why are you wearing bug spray indoors?”
It certainly is a different fragrance.
While it has changed, especially the top notes, the base is still mostly the same.
Funny enough, Diva, Montana, Nikki, Ivoire and Paloma were among my first purchases as a budding frag addict and, for a man, they were all from the “wrong side” of the perfume store. I certainly was not buying suddle scents!! Ah… The 80′!!!
The only other perfume from that era that I did not buy and regret is Creation by Ted Lapidus. I’ll have to revisit that one soon!
Oh, I can completely imagine a man rocking Parfum de Peau–and the others you mention (but I do love a man in rose). Ivoire must be devastating on you.
Forgot to add the original Armani and Fendi for women!
I remember the original Armani! I wish I could smell it now.
Oohh.. I love Niki de Saint Phalle (which reminds me.. I used up my mini and have yet to get more). The marigold opening is one of my favorite things about it. I need to try this.
Oh, this could be a winner for you, then! Let me know what you think when you get the chance to try it.
I love this one and I also love the much more subtle Montana for men (also reformulated, but as this one, pretty true to its roots)
I might get me a bottle soon.
Lovely review of what I believe is an underrated classic.
What a coincidence: this morning I was browsing the parfu-net and ended up reading about this designer and THIS perfume!
“protruding eyes” – ha-ha; that was absolutely great, Angela! Bravo.
But I have to say the bottle is really cool. I would not mind the have a mini ( or a 15 ml) of it, just for the bottle.
that was before I read the review.
What can I say… may be it was something in the air these days that made people think of those huge perfumes from the eighties. On Sunday I went to pick my Knot, I stuck with the reps. and we ended up talking about Poison, Opium, etc. LOL.
I won’t be surprised if somehow a eighties revival is in the air… huge hair, huge shoulders, huge parfums!
You could be right! Well, along with the ’80s perfume, I wouldn’t mind some color and innovative cuts a la Thierry Mugler. (I’ll take a pass on the extreme makeup and hair, though.)
I love Mugler’s early designs, so structured, very French and “le chic” :).
Once , when I was travelling in Europe I got tempted and tried a couple of his suits but even size 10 ( or was it 12?) was so miserably small of me and I’m a size 6 to 8 normally…. I was disillusioned by the experience
lol
So, that 19 years old supermodel had to be very skinny indeed….
A couple of years ago I found a classic Thierry full-length cherry red coat at a resale shop, and it is one of my prized possessions. I love it.
That is quite a coincidence! Maybe fate! Maybe you’re destined to have that mini…
This is one of the few fragrances that are eye-poppingly skanky on my skin – to the point if I wore it in public I’d be paranoid that people would think I’d not washed after sex. The other ones are MFK Cologne Pour le Soir and VK Rubj EDP.
That’s some pretty “earthy” (but wonderful) perfume company–Parfum de Peau must be a real skank bomb on you. (I love “eye-poppingly skanky”, by the way.)
Rubj is great! One of the sexiest juices around. On my list. But I wore it only at home, ha-ha!
I think juices like Rubj absolutely have to be worn with VERY-VERY VERY straight conservative attire… to create an interesting juxtaposition…. and counterbalance .
I love it, too, and I can completely see the naughty/nice juxtaposition it would make!
It’s pretty filthy on me too. Dirty leather and horse almost obscure the florals. (I had a mini of Parfum de Peau, btw.) Really well done, though.
What I’m learning is that this one is best tested–at first, at least–with just a dab.
I have a mini of this coming in the mail and now I’m even more excited. I may hate it but at least it won’t be boring.
I think I can guarantee you that!
What a fun review, thanks! I’ve been eyeing Parfum de Peau for ages and a couple of years ago, I did hit the ‘buy’ button on ebay and purchased a mini but, alas, it got lost in the mail and never arrived. I think the bottle is beautiful. And the name, just imagine, you blind buy Parfum de Peau thinking, hey, this sounds fun, inoffensive, neat, discreet and then discover you’ve been taken for a ride
oh, the 80s!
Oh, too bad about the lost mini! Yes, the name makes me chuckle, too. Parfum de Whose Peau? would be a better name for it.
I should really try this; both Paloma Picasso and Nikki de Saint Phalle were love at first sniff for me. In fact, NdSP was almost a blind buy (I’d had a whiff of the cream/lotion version through the Styrofoam seal) and quite a success! I am pretty into chypres, anyhow. When I read this article yesterday, I was wearing a dab of MDCI Chypre Palatin… such an amazing fragrance, yet such a devastatingly steep price tag. Guess I’ll be milking my sample vial of that one!
You definitely need to try Parfum de Peau, then!
I shed a tear when my minuscule sample vial of Chypre Palatin ran dry, too. I even kept the empty vial on my desk so I could smell the few molecules that remained, until they dried up, too.