- Messages
- 16,173
- Location
- Halifax, Republic of Yorkshire
I was looking through my explosion of wood bowl triple-milled soap and realised that I have a lot of Sandalwood ... and so lined 'em up and gave them a damn good sniffing!
I've presented them left to right being lightest/purest in scent through to most cologne-like.
Over on the left is White Company Aspen, which is billed as "rich sandalwood, amber, clove and cardamom, lifted with the freshness of green leaf and a twist of bright bergamot" and to me, that reads like Floris Santal. I don't actually know if there was once a Santal shaving soap from Floris but this White Company soap is (I'm very sure) a Broad Oak Toiletries formulation and absolutely delightful! Deadringer for the (empty) sampler of Floris Santal to my nose anyway. It smells the lightest (scent is delicate rather than spent) and perhaps should be over on the right but being the lightest I've put it on the left.
Next is C&E's legendary Mysore Sandalwood which is very pure indeed. It's sandalwood. Gorgeous, deep, beguiling, dusty, even musty sandalwood.
Very close indeed is the Art of Shaving Sandalwood, which is just a tad sweeter and just a touch less dusty.
Then we're into Trumpers Sandalwood (mine is from the Broad Oak Toiletries days) and there's a lot more going on in there in terms of other notes, but it's still sandalwood ... but getting on towards "an interpretation".
Which brings us to T&H Sandalwood, which is lovely but it is far more a collection of notes centered around sandalwood than a sandalwood soap. It's a cologne.
Finally, quite close in scent to T&H is TOBS Sandalwood, which to my nose takes that just that bit too far and into Arko territory! I'm being perhaps a little cruel there, but compared to T&H the TOBS soap is far more herbal and far more synthetic clean ... akin to a good toilet freshener. It's not pub toilet citrus piss brick by any stretch, but it is at that end of the market. Bloody good soap, though!
... all of 'em are!
Which then turned my thoughts to aftershave, for which my absolute favourite is DR Harris whose version is something I could happily bathe in! I tend not to buy in EDTs as I really prefer oils, but do enjoy a short blast of something following my shave.
... and that smacked me up the side of my head for not realising the bleeding obvious omission to my little collection. No DR Harris Sandalwood soap! I'll have to remediate that.
I hope you enjoyed me mucking about with some of my shaving soaps. What's your favourite Sandalwood shaving soap?
