Completely Santal

Pencil shavings stale dusty sandalwood due to the pepper overload mainly which gives a Crystal Noir pencil shavings impression at first due to the coconut, black pepper present in both and the intense sandalwood of the latter, a common note. Even tho Crystal Noir has the cardamom peppery spice, this one comes off more spicy. Then it becomes more aromatic lemony, while the dusty element persists which annoys me, smelling like the dusty vetiver-fig-lemon blend of kkw rare fig. I've realized that much of the dusty or stale elements in sandalwood dominant scents like Estee Lauder Sensuous Nude or Police Rich Girl (a different scent profile) and this one, stem from the pink pepper (mainly) or sometimes black pepper and dry amber pairing (due to the lemon here too) and I mean loads of black pepper cuz normally it ain't dusty, rather than the sandalwood itself even though the black pepper and cedar combo for instance in 007 Bond for women isn't dusty at all, so the sandalwood definitely contributes to the dusty effect but peppery accords are the culprit. Just like vetiver can be dusty (or smoky or more creamy and smooth) and influencing the sour unripe fig to smell dusty woody too. The difference of this to KKW Rare Fig is that this one has an aromatic, fresh, almost herbal vein similar to Santal 33 due to the violet-amber-sandalwood common notes. It becomes creamy eventually so it doesn't stay obnoxiously dusty-green and dry like Rare Fig, and the pencil shavings feature becomes a more sawdust-like, attractive and milky creamy smooth sandalwood as it is in Crystal Noir true to how sandalwood normally is. At the later drydown it retains the beautiful aromatic violet giving a natural aura to the scent like a walk in the woods but the sandalwood vanilla smell a lot like Bbw Vanilla Palo Santo like a lighter Eilish 2 scent which also has black pepper.

Just got this in and I don't like it 😕 Sometimes this brands bottles need to sit for a bit in my experience. I'll report back in a month or two.

I really couldn’t get with this one, it’s a good dupe, but like sandalwood on steroids, too much for me. Julianna’s perfume version is muuuuch smoother.