DR Harris sandelwood splash and C&E sandelwood balm?

[Petersson]

Hello!
I use Crabtree Evelyn sandalwood shavecream and aftershave balm and I love the scent. I miss, however, an alcohol-based splash to get the tingling fresh feeling.
Can I use DR. Harris SandelWood splash and combine it with C & E balm or will the scents collide?
Anyone with experience?


Regards / Petersson

 

[Jerry-built Hustler]

I use the DRH sandalwood splash. I have smelled the C&E sandalwood products (including the ASB) in-store, but have not used them. However, I feel pretty confident in saying you should not combine the DRH with the C&E. For one, the brands offer two very different takes on sandalwood, and the scents will likely clash. Even if they don't technically clash, they will modify each other such that your resulting scent will be a hybrid. Second, the scent of the DRH sandalwood splash is so potent, it doesn't need anything else to go with it. Be advised, it really is EdC strength in scent; a little goes a very long way. It is also the most moisturizing of the DRH splashes (except for, perhaps, the Pink), and in using it, you might find you don't even need a balm. YMMV, of course.

 

[luvmysuper]

I use the DRH sandalwood splash. I have smelled the C&E sandalwood products (including the ASB) in-store, but have not used them. However, I feel pretty confident in saying you should not combine the DRH with the C&E. For one, the brands offer two very different takes on sandalwood, and the scents will likely clash. Even if they don't technically clash, they will modify each other such that your resulting scent will be a hybrid. Second, the scent of the DRH sandalwood splash is so potent, it doesn't need anything else to go with it. Be advised, it really is EdC strength in scent; a little goes a very long way. It is also the most moisturizing of the DRH splashes (except for, perhaps, the Pink), and in using it, you might find you don't even need a balm. YMMV, of course.

+1

I came in to post almost the exact same opinion.

 

[Left Coast DJ]

Dr Harris Sandalwood = There can be only one!

 

[mrmotley]

I have used both for quite a few years now and I can tell you the scents are entirely different. Wouldn't work together. I have owned the entire suite of C&E Sandalwood soap/cream/ASB/cologne. While I love the scent (it was the first shaving soap I ever used, the Mysore kind, given to me by my father), the soap and ASB are lacking in performance relative to other things products. I have sold off the soap/cream/ASB but kept the cologne, although I rarely use it.

The DR Harris Sandalwood AS is probably one of my favorites, especially in the winter. It has an anise overtone. Potent. Minimal sting, very soothing and moisturizing, leaves my face feeling perfect really. The scent lingers at least half the day to my nose. I have traditionally been an ASB guy, but DR Harris Sandalwood was the first true AS splash that I thought was just as moisturizing. This will always be on my shelf.

 

[CleanSweep]

Just received my order of DR Harris Sandalwood aftershave splash. Figured I love sandalwood and I'd give this one a try. Let me just say that it moisturizes very well and sooth a shaved face. Must be the glycerine in it that attributes to the soothing/moisturizing affect.

Many people have stated this one to be a true sandalwood scent. However, I strongly disagree with that opinion. As far as the scent of DR Harris sandalwood goes....I think it's anything but. There is very little to nothing sandalwood about this stuff. I find the scent very dry, peppery, with a slightly smokey church incense scent. Top notes are very camphor and anise like aromas with some faint cedar and an odd Carmex smell. Not bad, just not anything I would call Sandalwood. As far as the soothing and moisturizing affects go, this stuff performs excellent.

I'm only referring to Sandalwood based on my own long experience with genuine Indian sandalwood essential oils going back to the real stuff my mother would occasionally buy at organic markets back in the late 1970's and through the 1980's, even up to the mid 1990's before it became highly limited and regulated. The Sandalwood I remember always had a very woodsy and sweet musky scent. I realize there are various types of sandalwood out there, with the Indian Mysore being the most sought after. To me C&E sandalwood is more representative of sandalwood than DR Harris is. C&E's take on Sandalwood tends to be more powdery on the dry down from what I recall, but it's been at least 10 years since I owned any C&E Sandalwood products.

I actually find the current Proraso Red shaving cream one of the few products available today that is a very close representation to the real scent of sandalwood essential oils that I recall. Also find the AoS Sandalwood products that I used up until about 9 years ago to be very spot on for their scent being a truer representation of real Sandalwood, but I can't speak about their current stuff as I haven't bought any AoS since 2005.

I hear C&E came out with a reformulation of their sandalwood products after the previous version was discontinued a while ago.

 

[Jerry-built Hustler]

Excellent post, CleanSweep. I agree with everything you've said. It's funny reading some of the reviews of DRH sandalwood, where the reviewers say it smells like "real" sandalwood; for that matter, DRH's own product description makes the same claim. My only thought when I read things like that is, "are we smelling the same scent?" I like the DRH sandalwood as a fragrance in its own right, but it doesn't smell much like any real sandalwood I've ever encountered. That said, it's an odd coincidence* that The Body Shop's sandalwood shave cream from the early 1990s smelled very similarly to the DRH sandalwood scent; so evidently there are some perfumers out there who think this scent profile is a fair representation of what sandalwood smells like.

*Or is it a coincidence? The thought has occurred to me that perhaps The Body Shop was contracting with DRH to re-brand their sandalwood cream; it seemed remarkably close to the Green Pond (re-branded DRH) shaving cream. Unfortunately, The Body Shop cream is long gone, and I have only my memory to go by.

 

[mistercitizen]

+1 to what you guys above said. I can't believe I let D.R. Harris Sandalwood slip under my aftershave radar for so long. I finally received a bottle a few days ago and it is fabulous. I even sniffed it at my local shave shop and for whatever reason didn't buy a bottle..... but I'm glad I finally got around to ordering one. Smells awesome.... although not much like sandalwood IMO. Much better than D.R. Harris Marlborough IMO.

Ben