Review of Santal Royal Eau de Parfum by aad de gids

(2018) Les Absolus d`Orient Santal Royal Guerlain To me this perfume gave me an impression with thousand faces. As I begin with this review writing now in the night we already have one particularity of the "Guerlain Santal Royal": it is one of the perfumes which performs better in the evening and night while, in my experience, at daytime it gets easily distracted and even sometimes seems to wholly disappear completely. Yet if this isn't the case, as now it is clearly present one gets also the whole patch at once. I smell a definite strong medicinal (just the way I like it) oud. I smell the strong rose which correlates with the oud in fickleness and the lovely perfumy non-linearity. Then the sandelwood of its name fairly early also steps in and it is a particularly powdery sandelwood. It is this note specificly which ultimately gives this scent its 'footstep' and I remember having read that we find not a Mysore- but an Australian sandelwood in here in any case the powder factor, already considerable, is enhanced with the clearly discernable cinnamon note. So secretively writing in the night within the cloche of 'Santal Royal' I am getting continuous wafts of rose, oud, sandelwood, cinnamon and the leather I perceive here more as a composed factor which emerges as a combined factor of oud, sandelwood and even the, nowhere sleepy, rose. Because of its fickleness it took me a while to get "into" this perfume whereas its daytime "halfvalue" seemed to dwindle rapidly yet in the evening after my work I could often smell the fully restored perfume back. This feature to me also proves that high-class ingredients were used as they kept coming back and back. The perfume is also a real 'work-in-progress' qua development on the skin. In (twelve) steps first the oud appears intermingled with a strong rose, then also at the same time both this lovely, indeed somewhat cabinet-like, sandelwood 'smokes up' in company of even more powder of the cinnamon. the leather is rather an 'achieved taste' which for instance in Montale or Tom Ford or Vero.Profumo is more exaltated and explicit. This diminishes however nowhere the highly recommendable experience of this emotional perfume which offers its authentic ingredients as the waft of a chic salon, elevating the wearer sticking her, him, with golden stars. Not one but myriads. Now, after hours, what rests are the woody notes with an air of sophistication.