Santal

Love love love it. Natural, soft, dry, creamy, slightly smoky sandalwood with hints of citrus and musk. Very versatile, very classy. Not loud or synthetic, just a perfect understated woody scent but with surprisingly decent projection and longevity given the soft feel of it. Not spicy like GFT Sandalwood, much more ethereal and dry. Similar sandalwood to Santal 33 but without the overdone hipster vibes and quirks of that frag...not similar but a similar sandalwood vibe. Love it. Scent: 9 / Sillage: 7 / Longevity: 7 ================================= UPDATE (8/3/2022): Comparing the Tam Dao EDT to Fragonard Santal, 2 dry, pure, woody, all season Sandalwood scents. Tam Dao EDT feels more like I've got my nose right up against a freshly cut chips of sandalwood. It's got that fresh fresh cut sandalwood I get when I'm chopping wood. Super high quality. The Fragonard Santal EDT is similarly dry and realistic sandalwood but doesn't have that fresh cut wood vibe. It's more of a fragrance than actual fresh sandalwood chip vibes that Tam Dao has...but that's only in direct comparison. Compared to most other sandalwood scents, it is much more of the real thing, rather than a perfume composition which is obvious in Egoiste, GFT Sandalwood, etc. Both are lovely and probably my favorites Sandalwood scents. Fragonard might be better for summers (which it's perfectly suited for), Tam Dao a bit better for fall. Really hard to choose between the two. Based on price, I'd more liberally spray Fragonard Santal ($75 for 200ml), but I'd definitely want both in my collection.

I bought this fragrance at the Fragonard factory shop in Grasse, France, some 4 years ago. What a wonderful eau de toilette this is. I loved it at first smell in the very nice perfume shop where the Fragonard fragrances floated thickly through the air. What a great experience this was at the Fragonard headquarters in the worldcapital of perfumes. Now a few years later I have a quarter bottle left. The fragrance developed well and it still smells great. The opening is a lovely woody citrus. Not to sweet but very attractive and calming. The dry down is woody and musky and the herbs from the Provence (I smell Rosemary and Thyme), gives this fragrance that typical comforting Southern French character. It's just lovely and completely unisex. The performance is more than I expected from an eau de toilette. The price is descent, a steal for this kind of quality. When this bottle is empty I would love to return to Grasse. Or I buy one on the internet. Fragonard is an affordable beaken of quality in the huge world of perfumery.

Extremely pleasant, soft, and unisex. A few years ago, I found a white, silk blend, Dior mens button down for a steal in a thrift shop - to me, this is the scent version of wearing that shirt. It’s linear, but for some reason the trail is very herbal, while sniffing closer to the skin is warm and creamy. Maybe it’s just that my nose is picking up the rosemary as a separate, familiar note? The sandalwood is incredible, and there’s also an undertone of clean soapy musk that I adore. It leaves a wonderful day-after smell on clothes! I got this to wear to work events, and it’s perfect. It’s definitely a safe blind buy if you like the notes. Edit to say that on me (a woman) I don’t find it to be sexy at all - more of a clean, warm, work-safe scent. On my male partner however, it’s super sexy. Totally drool-worthy. Not sure if it’s a chemistry thing or what, but he’s allowed to spray my bottle as much as he wants!

I had about 40 different samples and decants shipped to me a few months ago, and this one didn’t win me over instantly. I split the samples into absolutely disgusting ones, and ones I would like to revisit, and Santal made the cut into the second list. About a month ago, I reached for the sample again, and lo and behold. I couldn’t stop sniffing at it! It’s woody, fresh and creamy, unisex and leans just a little bit sweet on my skin. It lingers on but isn’t obnoxious. After finishing my sample, I ordered the full bottle. I can’t get enough of it. Edit: After using it for months every other day, it still manages to make me smile. It's worth getting your hands on.

I LOVE this. Apart for the first minute or so right after spraying, where it smells like gin&tonic (that I love but don't want to smell like) the fresh spicy vibes aren't my thing but luckily this fades very quickly. Perfectly unisex. The vibe it gives is: you are the only person in the room that is wearing a white t-shirt and jeans (both good quality and well fitted), everybody else is wearing colorful trendy sweatpant-y gucci-esque outfits. Apart from the first few minutes, it seems quite linear from then onwards, which I personally have no issues with at all.