Reviews of Bois de Santal
by Creed

I have now tried the three Creed offerings with ‘Santal’ as part of their name. Bois de Santal avoids the cloying sweetness of Original Santal. And it provides a greater potency than the weak Santal Imperial. What disappoints me here is a very clear civet note (which thankfully one other reviewer alludes to). For me this remains from application through much of the drydown. The civet does not enhance the experience for me; rather it mars the sandalwood. I find myself ambivalent to this one. On reflection, I think Creed’s Bois du Portugal is their best wood dominated offering.

The official list reads orange leaves, lemon, sandalwood, vanilla and tonka beans, the description additonally mentions "notes of greens." The opening blast also unmistakeably features, if only briefly, a Jickyesque fecal civet note, which mercifully drops into the background to enhance a beautiful creamy-sweet woody oriental that manages to smell of true sandalwood, whether by artifice or nature (I suspect at least some of the former). Bois de Santal avoids the cedary character of many supposed sandalwoods, as well as the incomplete feel of Santal Imperial or the monomolecular harshness of Floris Sandalwood in their current sad states. It is very much a unisex fragrance - Creed lists it as masculine, on the net it is frequently classed as for women. It seems unavailable except, ocassionally, from one ebay retailer, which is a shame as it is easily not just the best Creed sandalwood but at the top of the entire genre. It lends to its wearer a distinguished air of old world sophistication and for me is very much an evening/romantic scent, perfect with a fine suit, though more relaxed and pleasurable than the somewhat austere vintage Tabarôme and certainly not misplaced in a more casual "cold autumn day promenade" context.

A wonderful sadalwood creation, somewhat akin to Chanel's Bois Des Iles in its warm sandalwoody creaminess, it is a simple construction of quality notes.

It opens with an old fashioned sour lemon and green petitgrain and drops into a aldehyde and sandalwood accord which lasts the remainder of its journey. I agree with my esteemed colleague zztop that this does contain a little indian sandalwood oil, but in my opinion only a touch of the real deal while the rest of the accord is a superb construction from other elements, maybe some other real sandalwood from other parts of the world, some other woods and some synthetics. The ghost of the lemon note with aldehydes adds some of the milky sourness which is an integral part of natural mysore oil, the smoothness is all there and the dry woody drydown too.

Still a very good perfume, and the best composed sandalwood perfume I know after Bois Des Iles (though I haven't smelled a recent version of that, maybe it has suffered a similar fate?), this must have been outstanding when availability meant it could contain a big quantity of real mysore oil.

Highly recommended, one of the few sandalwoods out there which is still worth the name, it is made from excellent materials which are used in a straightforward way.

Top notes: Orange leaves, Lemon
Heart notes: Sandalwood
Basenotes: Sandalwood, Tonka, Vanilla

Bois de Santal (BdS), technically a part of the Creed private collectiona, is exclusive to Harrods in London and Saks in NYC. Its one of the old world Creed wonders, and is the big daddy of the Creed sandalwoods (the others being the metrosexual woody-spicy Original Santal and the austere sandalwood-ambergris Santal Imperial).

Bds opens with tart lemon slightly softened by an orange note before quickly moving to a luscious, powerful and woody heart of sandalwood ...indeed, BDS is dominated by an arresting sandalwood note which smells like its loaded with beta-santalol, the key ingredient of indian sandalwood (indian sandalwood has a higher beta-santalol content than alpha-santalol, while its the reverse in australian sandalwood). The slightly sweet, ambery-woody and medicinal aroma dissipates off the skin and into your nostrils, surrounded by remnants of green citrus undertones left over from the top notes. I am no chemical lab rat and can't verify the individual constituents of BDSs' sandalwood note, but based on my experience with oils and other sandalwood fragrances, BDS does indeed smell like it contains a high percentage of the indian variety (mainly due to its beta-santalol overloaded note). This is a sandalwood note which is not adulterated by cedar or rosewood. Nor is it artificially engineered by presenting a good beta-santalol loaded sandalwood top which then falls aparts during further evolution (ala Etros Sandalo). The sandalwood note is stable and consistent all the way into the drydown where it smoothly links to a base of vanilla and tonka. Longevity is around 8-9 hours and although not a sillage monster it does create a decent radius of sandalwood aroma.

BDS is a sandalwood tour de force. Instead of constructing a fragrance with a lot of multifaceted notes in the top and heart phases, Creed take an uncluttered approach and rely on the complex nuances of a top shelf sandalwood accord to drive the fragrance to high levels of awesomeness. The only thing is ..an indian sandalwood shortage might threaten to rip the heart out of this superb juice and it remains to see how Creed react to that..

Rating: 9.25/10.0