With all the chatter around Montblanc Explorer, I want to lay some ground rules before the actual review. In doing so, I’m going to make one thing clear now, and this is going to be the only time I talk about it in a review. I personally will not review anything from the house of Creed, and especially Aventus, for personal reasons. Why am I saying this? Because a certain segment of the fragrance community believe Montblanc Explorer is a designer clone of Creed Aventus and there are inevitable comparison reviews for these fragrances. If we do have an Aventus review on the site, it will not be from me, and I will not be comparing Explorer to Aventus in this review. Got it? Good.
Montblanc Explorer (EDP) was released in February 2019, developed by the noses of Jordi Fernandez, Antoine Maisondieu, Olivier Pescheux. Almost immediately, the fragrance took off and by the end of the year was one of the bigger fragrance world success stories as far as sales and popularity go. And with good reason. This is a very wearable scent appropriate for almost any location. I was shopping with my father last summer at a Dillard’s when one of the salespersons showed this to us. We both loved and each got a bottle.
Now, let’s take a look at the notes and break the fragrance down a bit:
Montblanc Explorer Notes
Top: Bergamot, pink pepper, clary sage
Heart: Leather, vetiver
Base: Patchouli, cacao pod, akigalawood, ambroxan
Right away two of the biggest notes you’re going to experience are the bergamot and ambroxan, giving you a very clean and bright opening. That said, the woody, peppery, leathery notes come into play not too long after, as does the vetiver. Overall you’ve got a nice little zinger of a scent that’s very crowd-friendly.
Personally, I have a lot of good scent memories attached to Explorer. The day when I bought my own bottle with my parents back when I was visiting them for the summer, wearing it on day-long Disneyland outings, to the beach, and going to see some favorite movies. While you can wear it all year long, I really enjoy it as a spring and summer scent, and the longevity is good too. I can spray it on before I go out and still catch little whiffs of it by evening, even if I’ve been outside and in the sun all day.
Montblanc Explorer primarily comes in two sizes, a 2 oz bottle, and a larger 3.4 oz bottle. Due to airplane restrictions, I originally purchased the smaller bottle but once I run through that you can bet I’ll go back for a larger one. Now, we paid full retail price in the Dillard’s store, and I want to make clear that you can absolutely find this for cheaper online. FragranceX has a variety of sizes to choose from, including a sample vial if you’d like to try it out.
If you’re looking for a great unisex scent that’s crowd-pleasing and safe to wear pretty much anywhere, Montblanc Explorer is definitely a good candidate to try out, and it’s way over on the affordable end of designer fragrances to boot.
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