Sample Pass: Into the (Sandal)Wood meets All That Jas(mine)

I am the lucky owner of a huge (195 ml) bottle of Myrurgia Maderas de Oriente in locion strength, made in Mexico. I last owned this in the early 1980s in the more familiar "perfume de tocador" concentration, made in Spain. Both bottles have two twigs tied together floating in the juice.

I find MdO to have the definitive sandalwood drydown. After a alluringly dirty start, it softens to a creamy sweet wood that lasts on my skin for hours. At least that's what I think I'm smelling. What I am smelling is a component of my Most Favored Drydown, as I experience it in several vintage frags: Antilope, My Sine, Ma Griffe, and Miss Dior most notably.

I'd like to share MdO with noses experiences (cacio, TWolf, you are being most respectfully summoned!)and new. My plan is to circulate three 2 ml samples so that many noses can sample without it taking forever. I'd like each sniffer to feel free to sample over a three day period and then contribute your insights.

Additionally, if anyone has another representative sandalwood to contribute, let me know.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

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"I'd like to share MdO with noses experiences" should read experienced not experiences. Basenotes is not letting me edit since it came back on line [sigh].

'Tis true, TWolf, there's not much overlap in our wardrobes, much as one person loves Brahms and another Mahler. I invited you because of your aptitude for note identification, and above all I wanted to be sure it's sandalwood I'm smelling. MdO is a very simple fragrance, blunt even, and, of all things, I sometimes combine it with another of the loud and linear, Perfumer's Workshop Tea Rose (I hope this doesn't have you running for a gas mask!). Thanks for responding. I respect all thoughtful opinions, not just those that jibe with mine, but I certainly won't ask you to sniff something you find unappealing.


cacio, sure I'll send you some—actually I thought I had, but that may have been someone else.

TWolf and cacio, do you recommend anyone else for note identification? I am remiss to not mention my other astute Weil samplers (besides cacio), Whitefluffy, PerfumedLady, CivetLady, and cestrum nocturnum, whom I would love to include. MdO was a dirt cheap fragrance back when I was in my 20s, so—the little immersed twigs notwithstanding—I do wonder if the wood I'm smelling is a) sandalwood, and b) natural, not synthetic.

Lastly, if I've never met you or you've never done a sample pass, please feel free to jump in.

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TWolf, I will have to revisit your wardrobe. I still have some of the lovely samples you sent me. If I had but one word to describe your taste in fragrance it would be refined. I especially appreciate being introduced to Coriandre, which I must scout on eBay.

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TWolf, I will have to revisit your wardrobe. I still have some of the lovely samples you sent me. If I had but one word to describe your taste in fragrance it would be refined. I especially appreciate being introduced to Coriandre, which I must scout on eBay.

cacio, heliotrope? I always associate heliotrope with a bitter almond scentam I mistaken? I do think the woods come out much, much later.

cn & WF, glad to have you on board. Both of you have been great contributors to the Weil thread. WF, wow, the real thing! I do remember putting bars of sandalwood soap in my scarf drawer, sandalwood being much more available decades ago.

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cacio, heliotrope? I always associate heliotrope with a bitter almond scent—am I mistaken? I do think the woods come out much, much later.

cn & WF, glad to have you on board. Both of you have been great contributors to the Weil thread. WF, wow, the real thing! I do remember putting bars of sandalwood soap in my scarf drawer, sandalwood being much more available decades ago.

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another update (can't edit for some reason): cacio, I find the opening of MdO to be "stinky" of all things, sort of dryly fetid. Do you?

MdO lasts forever on me. The best of it doesn't even show up until about 4 hours in. I prefer it on the back portion of my forearm, as the hair seems to hold it. re: heliotrope, I just received a sample of modern Habanita which I find to be a great big heliotrope, verging into loukhoum territory. Very fetching.

Buona notte!

lucasai, yes, you're in! I'll wait a few more days before announcing a pass sequence.

Wow, mp23, and thank you! Those are definitive threads. You must let me send you some since I'd like to read your impressions.
So far would be five of you. I think I will send out individual decants so as to keep the thread lively and not dragging into 2012.
So, WF, cn, mp23, and lucasai, pm me with addresses, and I will prepare packages.

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fwiw, and be advised: I remember MdO as a bargain fragrance in my youth. It was neither department store nor chain drugstore, more something you bought at a neighborhood sole-proprietor type drugstore or some small accessory boutique. In Cleveland it was probably from some little storefront in the Old Arcade.

not late at all, CivetLady. Samsara EDP would be a wonderful pairing, passing the PP seems extravagant. Do you want to send me a ml or two? This makes six participants—so far... (:

Sure, kalli, pm me an address. I think I'll close the pass here.
WF—noted! Thanks.

Hi, everyone. Just wanted to let you know that with Civet Lady's generous addition of Samsara,I am inspired to add some jasmine sniffing to the mix, and am waiting on Donna Karan Essence Jasmine which I just got on ebay. I went with the DK because it is the most straight-ahead jasmine of which I know, in that it smells exactly like the jasmine tea I like. I also landed some MdO in the "perfume tocador" concentration which is what I wore many years ago. If it is different from the locion I may have to include both, in which case I'd best double check my decant supplies...

hi, darlings,

family issues are looming big. Time-consuming and stressful. I have a wonderful son who is a young adult, hitting a rough patch. We will get through it, and I'm looking forward to assembling this sample pass. Cyberhugs most welcome. XXXOOO

Thank you kalli. He is a wonderful young guy with a big heart and some challenges. We will prevail but when he hurts I hurt.

Well, the samples have been mailed, at long last. It's not exactly a sample pass, as each recipient has their own sample. WhiteFluffy, CivetLadt, mikeperez23, lucasai, cacio, PerfumedLady, and kalli are the luck recipients of:

—The Sandalwoods
•Myrurgia Maderas de Oriente, locion formulation (made in Mexico, provenance ebay)
•Myrurgia Maderas de Oriente, perfume de tocador formulation (made in Spain, also ebay)
•The Gap sandalwood (thank you WHitefluffy!)

—The Jasmines
•Donna Karan Essences Jasmine EdT
•Serge Lutens Sarrasins EdP (bell jar straight from Paris, tiny sample, just a saturated cotton ball)

—Jasmine and Sandalwwod meet
•Guerlain Samsara EdP, 1980s (thank you CivetLady!)

I will post my own experience with these some time this weekend. Looking forward to everyone's observations.
Sniff on!

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oh, and cestrum nocturnum is part of this pass, too. Sorry for the omission

Hi, Perfumed Lady, so glad you are enjoying Sarrasins. I actually think it opens quiet but intense, I experience it first and foremost as a skin scent. Despite Uncle Serge's "dark side" vibe, I do find Sarrasins to be cheerful, just not extroverted.

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Now onto my own take on the samples:
I opened this thread with my experience of the two Maderas de Oriente formulations. I'll just add that I find the locion formulation a little dirtier, a little bit barbershop and the perfume de tocador more floral, more feminie. Both evoke my 1st experiences of sandalwood, which are soaps, fans (remember those?), and little carved statuettes, not perfumes. The Gap Sandalwood sample is elusive to me, but settles in to a sweet wood, crisp rather than creamy.

Next the jasmines. Donna Karan Essences Jasmine smells exactly like jasmine flowers and jasmine tea. It is linear, fresh, and plain, not an indole wafts by. Lately, tho, it's been my go to while I cope with some stresses. Serge Lutens Sarrasins, on the other hand, is complicated, creamy, luxe, gamy. It is also warm and cheerful, jasmine sweetened with osmanthus and oiled with leather, an odalisque of a fragrance.

Then there is Samsara, Guerlain's meeting of sandalwood and jasmine, in the lovely 80s EDP formulation generously supplied by CivetLady. It has taken me a while to warm up to Samsara. On paper I ought to love it, and yet—how to put it?—Ah: It's like having two dear friends who finally meet and can't stand one another. It's powdery sweetness overwhelmed me. In time, three separate wearings, the two leading ladies reconciled, and what seemed like noise harmonized at last. Out of curiosity, I layered MdO and DK Jasmine, just to see what would happen. I did indeed recognize both elements. I asked my ever-cooperative son to smell the Samsara on one arm and my layered experiment on the other. He pointed to the Samsara straightaway, and said, "this one." I asked if they smelled similar, and he remarked that the Samsara was "less exaggerated",very well put!

An aside: I often layer MdO with another big, straight ahead soliflore, Perfumer's Workshop Tea Rose. I had thought of adding Tea Rose to the pass, but decided o leave well enough alone. In the meantime, I snagged Elizabeth Taylor Gardenia for a song at TJ Maxx—yet another big soliflore. Tea Rose, DK Essences Jasmine, and Liz's Gardenia, that would be a an interesting grouping, "The Big, Blowsy Babes".

Looking forward to hearing from my sniffers.

WF, since you have actually smelled Mysore sandalwood, I will look forward to your take on the two Maderas formulations.
cacio, backup bottle, that was smart! I love Sarrasins more with each wearing. All the more reason to make travel plans...

Interesting, MdO locion lasts forever on me.

Since I have a huge bottle of the locion, I sent everyone 2 ml.

Ah, and here I am, just woke up, trying to figure out what to wear over last night's locion. I'm going with my vintage 50s or 60s Antilope EdT,as there are common notes. Yes, cacio, the locion is definitely "dirtier" the tocador more "polite". The tocador also reminds me of the made in Spain vintage Myrurgia Maja I have. The Gap disappears on me a little more detectable on paper. I find it crisp rather than creamy, most definitely woody.

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Ah, and here I am, just woke up, trying to figure out what to wear over last night's locion. I'm going with my vintage 50s or 60s Antilope EdT,as there are common notes. Yes, cacio, the locion is definitely "dirtier" the tocador more "polite". The tocador also reminds me of the made in Spain vintage Myrurgia Maja I have. The Gap disappears on me a little more detectable on paper. I find it crisp rather than creamy, most definitely woody.

Oh, lucasai, I am so happy to hear your are loving the scents even before you sample them. This is all quality stuff, IMO.

Sarrasins is big stuff, mike, though on me it is a great big skin scent. I don't think it is a sillage monster. I'm not sure I've ever worn it away from home.

cacio, I always took the animalic in the locion to be ambergris based on one tenuous association, JHAG Not a Perfume, which is pretty much Ambroxan(synthetic ambergris). What do you think?

Hi, WF, basenotes double posts for me, too sometimes. Usually it's the first post after I've opened my browser.

I know what you mean about the rotten note in the locion, it reminds me of a rotten note I picked up in a vintage bottle of Ma Griffe, which may have been asafoetida. I find the rottenness fades.

Wanting to double-check on the presence of sandalwood I came across this site, including this description:

Why not, lucasai? (;