Cocoa Sandalwood

This is like a 100% natural version of Coco edt, one of my all-time favorite perfumes, with just a hint of bitter cocoa. They are certainly different enough for me to own a bottle of each. This is not a Chanel copycat, it stands on it's own. Smells wonderful for a natural perfume!! I've been sampling a lot from House of Matriarch lately, and those outrageously pricy perfumes can't hold a candle to the natural work of Laurie Erickson. This is a warm, cozy, glowing, spiced peach fragrance. Could even remind one of Mitsouko, just not so green. This and her new Spiced Citrus Vetiver are the perfect natural additions to her incredible repertoire of olfactory art. Bravissimo!

This is interesting fragrance. I made a large order from Sonoma Scent Studio because I was so impressed w/ their perfumes, and I was gifted 8 samples. This is a creamy blend of peach, sandalwood, vanilla, coffee and woods. I've never been big on using coffee in perfume. If you have read my reviews of Black Opium and Extreme you will know I hate those 2 perfumes and think they are unnecessary and reductive. This perfume is a coffee fragrance done right, the coffee is there but it smells real and not synthetic, plus the coffee is not overdone and just adds a darker and richer depth to the overall composition of the fragrance. This is a very musky perfume, probably from the peach and the ambrette musk. I love musky fragrances, so this perfume is right up my ally. If you are looking for a creamy, musky perfume w/ richness and depth give Cocoa Sandalwood from Sonoma Scent Studio a try.

Cocoa—> sandalwood—> peach —> even more peach —> endless peach. The cocoa powder is sprinkled with another salty peppery spice, sort of like hot chocolate with sea salt. These two ride on the white horse of cool tone sandalwood, which has a rosy edge. It gradually becomes a delicious creamy peach, adding a dash of fresh ginger. Then the peach lost the creamy sheen, become a slightly “rusty” canned peach, perhaps tinted with clove. Eventually, the peach lost every companions, we’re only left with a long lasting, abstract peach-apricot flavor, goes on and on and on and on....(I can continue, so can the perfume). Not bad for an all-natural perfume, bordering on boring in general.

This was, unfortunately, a scrubber for me. It smelled like rancid butter on my skin. I got it as a sample from a kind fellow perfume lover, so I guess it's always possible that the perfume had turned, but I think it's likely that I just don't get on with the way this line does sandalwood, as I got something a little similar in Champagne de Bois too.

Great dry smooth opening, then devolves into sickly sweet peachplumapricot on my skin. Coco by Chanel is also one of my all-time favorite perfumes, but I do not at all get its spices and rich sweetness from this fragrance.

At first sniff, this seems like a no-frills composition that strikes a nice harmony between creamy sandalwood and cocoa without going too far into nightmarish uber-sweet territories. The two main players of the title are the most prominent facets, but there are a host of other notes lurking around to add to the mood and to keep the scent from lapsing into predictable hi-calorie / low-IQ drivel. The most identifiable of these “other notes” is the peach, which you’d have to strain your nose to identify as such. Here, it adds a slight buttery effect that shades the cocoa rather than flavoring it. A cedar note helps to define the sandalwood amongst the lactonic components, and there are some spices (nutmeg, I’m thinking) that add drama to the overall mix. This scent is essentially an exercise in subtlety and acuity. For fans of saccharine bag-of-donuts-type scents, this might veer too far from sugar-land as it holds balsamic similarities to Slumberhouse’s Ore (but its less vegetal / unusual than that one) and it has some of the musky characteristics of the early Parfumerie Generale gourmands (Aomassai and Coze). In other words, it’s a good gourmand—far more of a composed and briany perfume than one that’s just trying to replicate gateaux. The closest this gets to something genuinely edible might be an exotic drink of some kind. In sum, this is a less fussy Ore merged with Tam Dao EdP. This one’s all natural (do with that what you will), and therefore it’ll wear a bit differently to some of the others in the line, sitting close to the skin as well as thinning out faster than the more structured SSS scents. What that means is that you get a richness and full-depth that lends itself well to these ingredients, but you’re not going to be able to foghorn a room with it. While I’m not a huge fan of gourmands in general (okay, I *hate* gourmands if that wasn’t clear already), I appreciate the ones that attempt to inject something novel or can at least say something that sounds intelligent. Here, it’s the peach and the excellent balance between the two central players that offers something worthwhile. The coffee is subtle, and, for me, that works as I find too much coffee in perfume to be as problematic as perfumes with diabetic aspirations. For fans of scents that smell like a bag of donuts—or screechy Mugler type chemico-chocolate patchouli bombs—this will probably feel too subtle and reserved. But for those of you who crave a gourmand without having to resort to the kind of scents mentioned above, this does a great job of bringing soft, woody notes together with a tasteful dusting of sweetness that won’t require a trip to the dentist.

Sandalwood is one of my favorite notes and I can't get enough of it. However, I've always been dubious re chocolate in a fragrance. I've no desire to smell like chocolate mousse. The marriage of SSS's sandalwood to cocoa is a pleasant and welcome surprise. The sandalwood here is just how I like it, oh so smooth and light and it blends seamlessly with a dry bitter cocoa that is no sugar bomb, much to my relief. It reminds me of a chunk of unsweetened Mexican chocolate that is used specifically for cooking in such delectables as mole sauce. Thanks to a generous swap with leathermountain, I got to sample this before buying. I wore it for a day and knew I had to have it. Cocoa Sandalwood reminds me of Memo Quartier Latin, an exquisite beauty of a sandalwood fragrance minus the cocoa note. I can't afford Memo's $200+ price tag though, so this is lovely to have in its stead. The sandalwood used here is near identical to that used in MQL. Just a warm, cozy fragrance that is subtly sexy and projects well for about an hour, then becomes a skin scent which I love. The scent does not evolve much on my skin, smells the same in drydown as when first applied. Sonoma Scent Studio offers a variety of bottle sizes; I bought a 17ml for $74. Still a bit steep but it's worth it!

51st I thought this was a very mild dusty cocoa and stronger on the dry sandalwood. It’s very powdery as expected; too powdery for me. I don’t get cloves, cinnamon, peach or rose; I wish I did, because it sounds lovely. Wish the cocoa and the other notes were stronger and then it might be interesting. I would remake this one with the other notes pumped up because it has interesting potential...6/10

To my surprise, I get a slightly vague aromatic (coffee) fruity (peach) floral (rose) creamy woody (sandalwood+vanilla) musk (ambrette) concussion with a hint of earthiness (cloves+cedar), but where is the cocoa?? I can only assume it seamlessly contributed to the creamy and earthy vibe... Quite a nice scent, but disappointingly misleading :/

Cedar, chocolate and sandalwood BEAUTY unfortunately ruined by the sticky moist peach note. If we could remove the peach element I would absolutely LOVE this. But the peach! The peach! It doesn't belong at ALL!!!