Santal Calling

Ahhh...my most favorite milky iris/santal fragrance, my preeeeeeee-cious🥰 Idk how this frag keeps flying “under the radar”, but I can’t say I mind...’cause I don’t. The less people know about this jewel, the more there is for me😄 I first smelled this when I ordered the sample kit from Ex Nihilo in 2023. I loved many of the sample fragrances, but as soon as I got my nose on Santal Calling, I immediately felt my pupils expand and for a few moments, time felt completely suspended. Literally true love at first sniff. With the first wearing of this, I discovered something new about myself that I never realized before— I frickin’ LOOOOOOVE the sweet complex woodiness of nutmeg in fragrances. Upon discovering Ex Nihilo, I started to recognize just how many of my favorite scents (past and present) include this beautifully fragrant spice. Santal Calling immediately became my most treasured, ride or die “🩴🪵” scent, and while I have other lovely ones, this one has yet to be dethroned by any other—that includes Serge Luten’s Santal Majuscule AND Tom Ford’s Santal Blush. I never thought I’d find a santal fragrance that could eclipse either of those, yet here she is. Santal Calling is creamy and ethereal. It’s powdery, yet silky and sheer. Sweet, almost honeyed, but buoyant, and not cloying in the slightest. And hallelujah, can I get an amen?!— not a single sour pickle note anywhere, just smooth velvety goodness (suck it, Santal 33!). Something about the sparkling floral sweetness in the opening notes reminds me of a combination of a crisp, hoppy pale ale 🍺, a very plush rose, and rich pipe tobacco, and I was initially surprised to see nothing like those notes listed. Something about the powdery iris and nutmeg blending with the deep sweetness of the bourbon vanilla maybe🤔🤷🏻 It’s for certain I don’t know, but man, I just dig it! Plenty of milky “👡🪵” type frags abound out there. I even have some of them and I adore them all...but Santal Calling is truly unique. This scent is SO beautiful. Santal Calling is a fantastic olfactory example in balance. Nothing is overdone here. Every facet works in harmony with each other. And while flip-flop wood is obviously the star, the whole composition is so well blended, the effect is of a main note that’s cushioned and softly highlighted instead of brashly spotlighted.This is the most projective and long lasting thong-log scent I currently own. The scent trail it leaves behind me is gorgeous and the longevity is great. I get about 8 solid hours of wear (something that rarely happens with my skin) before I feel any true need to refresh. All throughout the day, whenever I walk and move a hand or arm, I get delicious whiffs of this. Even when I’m able to procure a bottle at a discounted rate, it’s pricey ($245 for a 1.7oz bottle on the company website). A full or nearly full flacon can be found for a pretty decent lower price, but when you find it, you gotta nab it immediately, because this stuff gets bought up FAST. The lowest price I have paid for a nearly full 1.7oz bottle is $185 (Mercari). So yeah, it’s expensive...but with the exceptional performance, very little is required for touch up in a day’s wear, so...it’s worth it!

Mysore sandalwood is one of my favourite notes, its rich, smooth, nutty woodiness sadly relegated to vintage scents as its use has since been forbidden. I have tried many modern sandalwood scents, and find most to be quite harsh. Australian sandalwood, the modern alternative to Mysore, is thinner and harsher, and needs "massaging" in order to smell good to my nose, not to mention javanol or other lab-created alternatives. Santal Calling achieves a smooth sandalwood accord, thanks to the inclusion of lactonic and powdery notes. SC is a sandalwood-dominant scent from initial spray, bold and woody, but pleasantly smooth. It smells undeniably like Australian sandalwood to me, but without the harshness. Nutmeg adds warm, biscuit-like spice, complementing sandalwood nicely. The milk note follows, subtle but adding creamy smoothness that succeeds in tempering the sandalwood. As it develops, some powdery iris creeps in - always a welcome inclusion for me. It is relegated to the background however - sandalwood is king here. There is a soft, musky undertone too that becomes evident as SC progresses - also keeping things soft while allowing the sandalwood to shine. SC fades to a dry, woody skin scent, with powdery vanilla adding a hint of sweetness to the drydown. Sillage is moderate and longevity is long-lasting. It is unisex in my opinion, a transeasonal daytime scent. A smooth, rounded, refined sandalwood with iris and lactonic nuances, I am very impressed with SC. A versatile, high-quality scent that exudes sophistication, this was a pleasant surprise for me. The best modern sandalwood I've tried in a very long time 4.5/5.

Is the smell of this scent revolutionary? Something you've never smelled before? No. BUT it is one of the best executions of this scent profile. I see it compared to Santal 33 here, and I see in comments people are likening it to The Noir 29, and I totally get both comparisons. It straddles somewhere in the middle, but still has distinct differences from either. On a side note, I have to say I've smelled a few scents that are frequently compared to The Noir 29 - (Ourside Dusk, Abyssae from L'Artisan, etc...) and I really love all of them. I think its a scent profile I enjoy and the iterations and nuances of new releases are different enough that I don't mind it. This is another example of that. You can see where inspiration was drawn, but it's different enough. Imagine the creamy lactonic (but distinctly sandalwood feel) of something like Milky Musk (I say Milky Musk vs Santal 33 bc to me it's much creamier than Santal), mixed with that resonant and familiar The Noir-esque aroma you can discern in The Noir, Dusk, Abyssae etc. It's in here too. TL;DR - if you like I do, enjoy describing scents like movie pitches: a milky, frothy, creamy, iris-y, sandalwood-y version the noir 29. Or a more soft floral, tealike, gently spicy Milky Musk. So wearable; so stunning. It feels periwinkle.

Woah... this is one of if not my favorite sandalwood I've smelled to date. It is my first time smelling a milk accord like this one and I find it so realistic and beautifully creamy, blows my mind how well it goes with sandalwood. It leans more feminine but as a sandalwood lover I am absolutely wearing this. The slight touches of vanilla and nutmeg reminded me of sweet condensed milk, reminds me of when I made tres leches cake. Don't get me wrong it is not gourmand at all, there is absolutely no sweetness in this in fact it's more on the powdery side it just gave me that association when I was thinking about the concept of smelling milk and if that is an appealing smell at all, and in that context and in this fragrance, it easily is. It just works. It seems so simple and effortless with how luxurious that sandalwood is, the milky take on it, and the blending I just get a truly premium experience. It feels truly special to me. I love when a fragrance feels worthwhile. I love when the quality matches the marketing. I am an Ex Nihilo fan from now on.

I ordered the 7.5ml traveler of Santal Calling just to try it out. I have many Ex Nihilo bottles and a few other travelers and decants, and I figured Santal Calling was next on my list. I sprayed it once on my wrist and damn- this fragrance was projecting off my arm like crazy for hours- off a single spray! I loved it. Whenever I moved my arm, I would get a whiff and I thought I was smelling something else, something I sprayed earlier that day, but lo and behold, it was the Santal. The scent was light, sweet, woody, and wonderful. The single spray lasted hours. It reminded me of Bond No 9 Governors Island a lot (even though they don't share the same notes) sort of like an oak or chestnut cabinet, or pencil shavings in the best way possible. The sandalwood scent, which I'm normally not a fan of (I'm looking at you Santal 33) is one of the BEST sandalwood scents I've ever come across. I can't wait to give this a full wearing so I can get that scent bubble and detect more of the notes, and I really can't wait to get a full bottle of this one.