Sandalo (1995)
by Lorenzo Villoresi

From this moment on I think everyone needs to stop comparing this to Santal Noble. They share 1 thing in common, and that's sandalwood, and even that is not the same type of sandalwood smell (it's pretty similar, though). Sandalo and Santal Noble will ultimately fill two completely different roles if you have them both in your collection. You might like one and hate the other, and the comparison isn't fair to either.

Sandalo is actually pretty fresh. It seems like it would be perfect for Spring. That note pyramid is pretty spot on, and the balance of it is damn near perfect. You can smell everything separately, and yet the overall fragrance is greater than the sum of its parts. The balance is so perfect, in fact, that I honestly don't think this should be named Sandalo. But it is, and the sandalwood that is present is buttery and delicious.

19th December, 2011.

The best sandalwood fragrance I've ever smelled is Creed's discontinued Bois de Santal, but the best extant sandalwood is surely Lorenzo Villoresi's brilliant Sandalo. His creations tend by hectic and brash--finally settling after several minutes. Sandalo has some of that though it quite smooth and old-fashioned compared to most of what's out there now. Sandalo is a woody oriental based around synthetic sandalwood (along with Australian perhaps), which is adeptly navigated by natural rosewood, which is sour, sharp, medicinal, and resinous. The opening is aromatic with lavender and exotic spices and floral heart of perhaps jasmine, rose, and carnation. The base consists of sandal, rosewood, tonka bean, and Villoresi's signature resin. If you crave sandalwood, this is the best one still available--but for how long no one knows.

21st November, 2011.

It's now four hours since I first applied Sandalo. At first the opening was a bit sour and spicy. Then something else crept through which wasn't incense or sandalwood but i wish it would have been.

I remembered thinking, by way of contrast, how much better MPG Santal Noble was--but that was in 2005 and I've heard it's been reformulated into a watered down shadow of its former self.
Some two hours later I was driving my, as pluran would say, female companion; when she tactfully observed : ' You smell like F****** Onions! My God that's GROSS! Open the windows! "
I remembered thinking, by way of contrast, how much I missed my cats.

Be that as it may, I'm 100% in agreement with Off-Center here. Where the hell is the sandalwood, anyway?

Not Lorenzo's finest hour.

18th November, 2011.

I find myself agreeing with all the reviewers below, positive, negative and neutral.
Everytime I wear Sandalo the result is different, some times harsh and crass at other times divine, how much I put on does have an effect, too much and it's "Whoa, easy there big boy!" But when I get it right it's delight.
There are far better noses than mine to describe the scent itself so I will only add that while I give this a thumbs up, Santal Noble is still King of the Mountain for me.

26th July, 2011.

SANDALO opens in the typically aromatic Villoresi style, with lavender adding more than a hint of soapiness to the citric facets. A shade of roundness from the rose is all I got but what seems pervasive right into the dry down is a dry, somewhat synthetic wood that does not smell much like any sandalwood I have previously encountered. Perhaps it's just my skin but sillage is weak and lasting power is no better. I'm afraid this one fails to hang around long enough to hold my attention, much less impress. Not a bad skin scent though if that's your thing.

Notes:
rosewood, lavender, petitgrain, orange, lemon, labdanum, Bulgarian rose, neroli, sandalwood, vetiver, amber, opoponax, oakmoss.

5th July, 2011.

Solid sandalwood, which is probably Australian, but hey any sort of real sandalwood is a rarity nowadays. I get the Tam Dao connection also, but Sandalo is better imo. This is on order.

6th October, 2010.