S4ND4LW00D

I am probably very bad at telling when a fragrance is a good one. I love this so much. If someone told me that this could have a retail price ten times higher I wouldn’t object. It’s a smell I find so sexy and comforting at the same time. If lasts hours and hours on me. Days on my clothes if my skin touches them after I sprayed it. There’s one of my shirts hanging behind the door and I can smell it from here. I wore it three days ago. I tried also Le Labo Santal 33 and I like it too but this is even better for me. S4nd4lwood has warmth in it, but it feels like if it was some kind of warming powder contained in a cloud of cold air, if it makes any sense. I even thought, at some point the first days after buying it, that this was going to be MY fragrance, the thing I wanted to smell like from then on. But alas I see my other favourite perfumes and I realise S4nd4lwood will always be the fling I will go back to, the irresistible possible temptation.

Received this yesterday... I've never smelt Santal 33 so I can't comment on whether or not it is (dis)similar. This fragrance does smell pretty great I must say. It is also a very DRY scent. That isn't to say it doesn't have any sort of freshness to it, it's all just very dry...maybe that's where the sandalwood comes in. I get the bergamot for maybe 20 seconds, and then mostly leather and iris for the majority of the fragrance. I would reclassify the iris as a base note (at least on my skin). I get about 10 hours easily wearing this, the only thing is, after about 45 minutes or so this becomes entirely a skin scent for me. It's enjoyable on a personal level because I can still smell it if I want to, but nobody else who isn't within intimate distance of you will really get anything for the majority of its wear. For that I would say it's a really good office fragrance, especially if you like the list of notes... The price is right too to blind buy.

Zara does really surprise me sometimes and S4d4lwood is maybe one of the best fragrances ever produced by Zara. Even the bottle is pretty, discrete and elegant. Only the name obeys some puns that Zara likes to do sometimes. This is an inexpensive masterpiece of dark ashy leather with sandalwood, just a bit of an iris background or bottom note (more like iris root) and... where is the bergamot in the opening? Never mind because you just won't miss it. It's dry, dark and woody without ambery or sweet appendices to mask it. It has an high longevity and an average sillage. For the price (€12.5) you should run to a Zara store and just blind buy it. I do recommend it!

This is a no-brainer for me. It does smell like Santal 33 but of course it lacks nuances and quality just like all other cheap clones. But it does smell really nice, it lasts and it fits my needs perfectly. I tot tired of focusing on volume so these days I'm all about quality. I save the more expensive fragrances for the weekends and cosy evenings and use the cheap ones for work and the gym. This falls perfectly in the work/gym category. It's going to have you smelling good all day and it's going to do that for next to nothing. As a scent compared to other perfumes it can't score high, but as an every day frag this is a small 9 for me.

Just got my bottle and from initial wearing this is straight up Zara Scent#1 (which is a clone attempt to Santal 33) with minimal differences. Longevity so far is acceptable for what you pay, cant say it is better than Scent#1. It just opens up less dry, warmer and richer, but quickly settles into same Scent#1, linear leathery, dry woods and hints of violet. Overall, another great release, for Santal 33 lovers this could be the daily rotation item and help save Santal 33 for special ocassions. I own both Santal 33 and Scent #1, and with S4AND4LW00D added into collection I will do a side by side and update my review.