Sandalwood Cologne (2002)
by Geo F Trumper

This is by far the most sickeningly sweet and cloying sandalwood type cologne I have yet try (though the shaving cream is decent). The opening is an indolic blast then creamy woods and super sweet vanilla and tonka bean emerge and stick around for hours.

This is an excellent sandalwood fragrance. I think it's best described as a crude Egoiste, and that's not a bad thing, though it isn't exactly the most unique fragrance I've ever worn. It lacks the polish of Chanel, but it's obvious that it's made of quality materials. It's a sweet, slightly spicy sandalwood with a vanillic base. I actually like this better than Egoiste because of its relative simplicity and its excellent, colorful drydown, which itself is reminiscent of Egoiste's drydown. It also has a subtle soapiness and a slight Habit Rouge-like orange peel note during the first hour, which makes Trumper's Sandalwood smell cleaner than Egoiste. Finally, I am happy to say that this fragrance has excellent longevity; on my skin, I can still smell this about 12 hours after application. Sandalwood is a winner.

These days, there are no sandalwood scents which are really built around good quality natural sandalwood oil in any quantity, as the stuff is in very short supply. This means that sandalwood scents are either "impressions" of the precious stuff or full of the synthetic replacements which can smell fantastic but cannot really replicate the true oil.

Trumpers have taken an interesting approach - they have chosen to "stretch" aspects of the sandalwood accord out in various diections - sour, spicy, sweet, creamy - exaggerating each facet around the small but good quality sandalwood note which sits right at the centre. Lemon, sweet orange, spices and rose, vanilla, milky aldehydes and much more acheive this. This works very well for me.

Sandalwood Cologne is somewhat reminiscent of Egoiste, but lacking the "chanel" aldehyde attack up front. It is very complex and well composed, and fits the Trumpers tradition well. The level of complexity puts it alongside their Spanish Leather. It is long lasting and has beautiful evolution. The sillage is controlled and makes it very wearable.

Excellent.

A deeply unpleasant experience, saved only by a brief phase close to the end that was smooth, mildly spiced, and what I had hoped for from the beginning. I could have sworn that I sensed the presence of cassis in the opening, it provided an oily hemp like accord that was quite wretched. I would have preferred to have the presence of the sandalwood earlier in this experience, as it would have lent the whole fragrance a much more reassuring seam on which to build. As it is, this is something bizarre and chaotic.

this is a lesson in patience... Preconceptions given the blatant use of sandalwood in the name would lend you to believe that this would be a one man show, but this is very far from the truth. The opening spicy citrus kick is anything but the creamy soft texture you would think a sandalwood fragrance to be. My girlfriend, who has the enhanced olfactory sensitivity of a newly pregnant woman, thought it beautiful on the skin but had a bit of insect repellant sillage. As we lay down to watch American Idol (thank god for DVR) some mysterious changes came to pass. Within fifteen minutes the brutal acid of the citrus top started to quiet, and an extremely sweet (though not cloying) floral santal vanilla started to pulse and waft up from my chest. This is definately an "aura" fragrance, which projects only enough to be detected by those within a couple of feet from you. As everything settles down you are left with a very stark vanilla with just enough sandalwood to keep it from being too sweet. All in all at hour one I would give it a 7, hour two a 9, and hour three forward down to a 8. It definately does not fit the bill as a pure sandalwood fragrance, and after the last few months of smelling vanilla in most of the fragrances I sampled, I cannot give it an enthusiastic thumbs up, but a thumbs up teetering on neutral.

Much like Le Labo's Vetiver 46 "isn't vetiver", Sandalwood Cologne isn't sandalwood. Also much like Vetiver 46, this is a sweet, creamy, incensed sandalwood. Good thing I wasn't expecting a huge sandalwood. I'd be disappointed if it actually was sandalwood. I rather like this. Good cool weather wear.