Santal Royal

This is your typical rose-oud fragrance, but with a unique twist. I’ve tried quite a few rose-oud scents before like Armani Privé Rose d’Arabie, Montale Black Aoud, Tiziana Terenzi Gold Rose Oudh, Jo Malone Velvet Rose & Oud, and other similar DNA from Montale or Mancera that tend to lean more synthetic and medicinal. But this one stands out the most. Despite the name Santal Royal, you might expect a sandalwood-dominant scent, but that’s not really the case here. The three most prominent notes to my nose are rose, oud, and leather and they are beautifully balanced without one overpowering the others. The oud here leans more Western style, clean and not skanky at all. If there’s any slight animalic nuance, it comes from the leather facet not from an oud that smells barnyard or overly raw. So overall, it feels refined and well composed. In the drydown, there’s a soft touch of sandalwood that adds a slightly creamy feel, but it never goes into sweet territory. This is definitely one of my all-time favorite rose-oud fragrances if not the best. The Absolus Allegoria line in general feels quite underrated (i have never compared this to the Les Absolus d'Orient version) It suits formal settings perfectly, giving off a very royal, luxurious aura. Performance and longevity are also solid. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a rose-oud scent that doesn’t smell generic and synthetic,this one has that leathery twist and smooth sandalwood base that lasts all the way through the dry down. 10/10 one of the best rose-oud scent ive ever smelled 👌

I love this potion. I can smell some familiar Guerlain scents in here. The notes stand out and I feel it all supports the sandalwood. I'd like to think i know a thing or two about Sandalwood as it was one of my first loves. I've seen big changes in the marketplace for a casual enthusiasts like myself. It's very likey the traditional 20% sandalwood oil. Whatever that means* This stuff at discounters is a wonderful value. The beautiful ambergris churchy rosewater in balmy sweet spicy fortified sandalwood with a kick of oud. It's hard to judge for me as it's such a timeless combo that I've already stumbled upon many of. The market and my collection is saturated in this similar DNA. This one has the best texture. It transcends boundaries as it works through layers of contrast; fluffy and sparking to flat and stale, creamy balmy to dry powdery. If only I had gotten this one first. This just replaced more than one in my rotation. It performs very well with good projection for hours with 5 sprays. After 8 hours the texture is still there as the scents fade in and out with activity and environment.

Addicted to it since day 1. The days I don't wear it, I feel like something extremely important is missing and all I want is to reach out for it. Be cautious with this because a overly excited friend completely over sprayed this and when we boarded the bus a teenage boy almost fainted. The poor lad got up and tried to get as far from us as possible. He kept looking at us in disbelief. People have been asking me what it is that I am wearing but only one person, explicitly said they asked because they found it appealing. I suppose this scent can be overbearing and will probably drive some people away. Growing up there would always be a person that would wear a perfume that I quite frankly found repulsive and I would always wonder how they could actually spray themselves with such disgusting scent and then go out in public smelling like some nursing home filled with rotting flowers...I guess I am becoming that person to some now. Try this with the risk of getting addicted to a scent that will scare teenagers away and feeling absolutely god-like. 10/10

I own both d'Orient (the latest batch with semi transparent bottle) and Allegoria, and tested it side by side. To anyone who wonders about the performance on this Absolus Allegoria version, it performs better than the latest batch of d'Orient version. When my bottle just arrived, i did 1 spray to my hand, and the scent was easily noticeable for 3h without bringing my nose to my skin, beyond that it took a movement to catch the whiff. It lasted around idk maybe 7/8h on my skin before it turned to skin scent. While d'Orient version was so watered down, i couldnt detect the scent anymore after 1h, had to bring my nose to my skin to catch the scent. FYI, this has a classic French perfumery characteristic, so dont expect a beastly level projection, but its strong enough to get noticed by people around u without being overwhelming, a classy performance may i say. The longevity on this is amazing too, when i went full wear with this, i sprayed this on 8am, and at 5pm i could still catch a whiff.

My review is for the Absolus Allegoria reformulation (? - I found conflicting information). I did not know the previous scent. I got this as a free sample with my purchase of Patchouli Ardent. Wow, what a wonderful fragrance! I really loved it. In my opinion, sandalwood is a supporting note in the main choreography of which the rose is the star dancer. It opens softly but surely, revealing a flowery sweet jasmine and rose, although I did not find the peach. Its smooth as hell - finding the notes is not blaringly obvious like in other ones. The dry down is your wood and leather combo that transitions well from the flowers of before. I also agree that it is more feminine leaning. I was taken aback by the scent as expected something more aggressive. In my opinion, it is somewhat similar to Rose Amira from the same line. If i had to get a second bottle from this line, I would go for Santal Royal over the others. Especially over Cuir Intense and Epices Exquisees.