Areej Le Doré - Al Sandal Extrait de Parfum 35ML
Fragrance Description:
Al Sandal by Areej Le Doré is a Oriental Woody fragrance for women and men. This is a new fragrance. Al Sandal was launched in 2024. The nose behind this fragrance is Russian Adam. Top note is Saffron; middle notes are Indian Sandalwood and Coumarin; base note is Indian Sandalwood.
Fragrance Notes:
Top Notes
Saffron
Middle Notes
Coumarin
Indian Sandalwood
Base Notes
Indian Sandalwood
Fragrance Accords :
Warm Spicy
Vanilla
Metallic
Aromatic
Woody
Sweet
Balsamic
Leather
Tobacco
Fragrance Description
Al Sandal made me want to cry. It is sad that the only way one can experience real sandalwood of this quality these days is through a limited batch run by an artisan distiller-perfumer that is both expensive and hard to get your hands on. I am grateful to have the chance to smell this, but cannot help feeling sorry for the people who love real sandalwood and for whom Al Sandal is out of reach.
Smell this and your true north of sandalwood is re-set. Afterwards, you are never able to smell a modern niche ‘sandalwood’ perfume without also smelling the loud, trashy fakery of Javanol or Ebanol. It is like drinking fresh, full fat milk straight from the cow, then moving to the city and trying to fill the yawning gap with those plastic nipples of UHT creamer at a buffet breakfast.
The sandalwood in Al Sandal isn’t Mysore sandalwood – very little can be, these days – but it does smell like one with a very high percentage of those all important santalols, the molecules in sandalwood responsible for its characteristic aroma. Apart from a lactic twang that is more buttermilk than yoghurt, this is a rich, warm, and almost buttery experience, a sort of ne plus ultra of sandalwoodiness. The dusky scent of freshly roasted and ground coffee beans settles a foamy, aromatic bitterness on its head, like a reverse Guinness, reminding me a little of Santal Nabataea by Mona di Orio.
Though it speaks with an indoor voice, as all genuine sandalwoods do, it gets straight to the point, plunging straight past the volatile wood esters to explore the savory, ‘reddish’ depth of the heartwood, big thick ‘nuggets’ of resin and spice knotted into the buttercream swirls of wood. Sandalwood always gets me in the emotional solar plexus. It’s the contrasts for me, that finely tuned but constant tug of war between the fresh, aromatic bitterness of wood and the incensey sweetness of resin in that same wood, something most people would understand as the play of arid and creamy.
I am not sure I ever smelled sandalwood oil as a child but Al Sandal is a scent that seems hard wired into me somehow. I hope it is not sacrilegious to say, but it reminds of one of Ensar Oud’s famous Mysore sandalwoods – generally richer, incense-ier, and less pine fresh than the Feel Oud examples – mixed with a rose hydrosol, shaken vigorously, and then applied liberally all over. My sincere wish is for a bottle of this, diluted in a one liter bottle, and kept beside my bed for the times when my insomnia is wearing on me like a ragged nail.