Pal Zileri Sartoriale

Sandalwood, definitely… but it may not be the sandalwood you’re accustomed to.
This isnt the peppery sandalwood from Comme des Garcon’s Wonderwood, or even Wonderoud.
This isnt the clean and transparent sandalwood from Diptyque’s Tam Dao.

This is a sandalwood all its own.
Its masculine, its rugged, its a bit dirty.

The scent begins with a sheer, refined citrus, more leaning on a green apple note.
Its not crisp, not biting, but easily identified by its juiciness, and slight sweetness.
This part of the note tree lasts about 5 minutes, then gives way to a bridge note of violet leaf.

The violet is complimented with a very light, white floral note I cant identify.
In my opinion, the violet leaf and musk make this composition smell a bit sweaty.
This effect does not last too long, but its enough to notice during the transition top and mid.

I dont detect other notes, specified in the note tree, especially rose, even vetiver in its usual form.

45 minutes later its all about the dry down.
Sandalwood plays tug of war with oak moss for dominance.

Thankfully the sandalwood is out in front with the oakmoss playing the role of the little brother that rolls around in the sandbox out back to provide a little roughness.
This scent overall lunges back and forth between the 80’s oakmosses and the modern clean sandalwoods.
Its an interesting contrast that reminds me of the reformulated Santal Noble quite a bit, but with just a generic rough sandalwood rather than Santal Noble’s “damp attic” rendition of oak moss that makes it unappealing at some point along the journey.

Not a big projector but even 4 hours in, with 2 sprays on top of the other, I can detect this easily away from my face on my wrist.
The sillage has a violet leaf still hanging around with musk, while the close to the skin scent has a spicy, smoky, wood accord which is great. Odd.
Another candidate for layering sprays on top of each other to help with performance, but at the current price of about $31 on various websites, its OK to waste a few sprays helping it out.

If you enjoy Santal Noble or Tam Dao or Wonderwood, its worth it to give this value buy a look.

Any season except the hottest of weather.