Creed Original Santal

Top Notes: Royal Indian sandalwood; cinnamon evoking calm and home; divine coriander; fragrant, cleansing juniper berry.
Middle Notes: Tender lavender, leaves of the absolute orange tree; fragrant rosemary; revitalizing ginger.
Base Notes: Soulful Tonka bean; dreamlike vanilla

On my skin this starts off strong with a candy orange smell smoothed out and subdued by the sandalwood, vanilla, and lavender smells which over time make it smell a little like bounce dryer sheets. If you sniff deeply you can tell there's a little rosemary. It's a nice warm clean scent but not a "WOW I need to buy this ASAP" smell. If you're into lavender and sandalwood then you should look towards Royal Scottish Lavender or Caron Pour Homme. I would wear this in the summer and fall. If you want an Orange smell then look for Terre D'Hermes and Creed Orange Spice or Creed Citrus Bigarrade.

As a big fan of Creed, the local rep pushed samples of this one on me as a sexy scent that women love.

Took it home, sprayed some on.

EGADS! It's JOOP!

Without the exclamation point!

It does have a serious similarity to JOOP upon first application. And the overall sense one gets when wearing it is that it is a high quality, more refined version of that infamous young lounge lizard scent.

I wouldn't knock anyone who likes it. Fact is, I gather JOOP! is actually a very strong seller. I won't attack Creed for doing a nicer version. As one of their newer offerings, this one is created for younger men IMO. If you're young and chasing women, they may like this. It's not a bad scent and once the opening notes fade, it is a bit less JOOP! like.

Mature-ish wet shavers like me can be a bit put off by it. Not what many of us would consider a "typical" Creed.

I'm usually a big fan of Creed frags, but this one I just can't take. It smells exactly like Joop. It's an extremely sweet Sandalwood, and even then, it probably shouldn't be called Sandalwood. No thanks...pissed I spent $6 on a sample actually.

I like this scent. At first try, I thought I had made a mistake. Heavy silage here and a bit sweet. I almost caught a vision of licorice or anise. After it had matured a bit it developed into a nice, inobtrusive mellow waft with excellent staying power. After I used it a few times, I found that I really liked it...a lot! It is one of my favorites and I use it in my rotation quite regularly. I use it as a base to layer others upon as well. Truly a top-drawer scent.

While I do love the scent, I think it is misnamed. Try as I may I am only able to pick up Neroli and Vanilla with a hint of Cinnamon. Absolutely no Sandalwood to be found anywhere.

It doesn't seem to project as well as some of Creed's other offerings, but has adequate staying power and a close warmth that seems more appropriate for it silage.

No disrespect intended for those who like this fragrance, but I think that it is awful. Creed is a distinguish, legendary fragrance house, whose new products I always looked forward to trying. Original Santal was their first major mistake. It smells like Joop, one of the few fragrances that I find literally sickening to encounter. Save your money, and consider purchasing Himalaya, Bois du Portugal, Irish Tweed, or any of their other superb offerings.

This is a little sweet, so I don't wear it as often as I probably should. I really like it, but am not a big fan of Joop, whose sweetness it is somewhat similar to. I get quite a bit of sandalwood from the cologne, and normally 3-4 sprays is quite sufficient.

The longevity is quite good, and it normally sticks to my undershirts the next day, even overcoming the smokey residue left by all the bars around here. It's not quite as strong as a Thierry Mugler---Angel type cologne, but I would put it at one of better projecting of the Creed scents.