Hi Gents,
I think its interesting seeing all the posts about sandalwood, either smelling artificial, or genuine, or whichever. It is expensive but it also does not take a gallon of it to flavor a tub of cream. FWIW the pure mysore sandalwood scents (eg. QED soap, and Crabtree&Evelyn) come across to me as almost pungent; very strong. Personally I am drawn to the more blended, if not artificial, sandalwood scents, such as the amazing blend trumper uses in their new Sandalwood cologne.
I've seen various different scents (Taylor, Trumper-etc etc) declared to be the genuine article, so here is what I did:
Go to a local healt food store and find the rack they all invariably have of essential oils. Make sure it is not fragrance oils, but genuine EO's. Find the ridiculously small bottle labeled "sandalwood essential oil" or sometimes Mysore Sandalwood, Indian Sandalwood, whichever. Open the tester and take a whiff. This could be an eye opener, it was for me. Now, look at the price for that T-I-N-Y little bottle of sandalwood oil, and gingerly place it back into the rack these stores always have for such things-and be glad you didn't spill or break the thing. About 3 thimblefulls will destroy a 50 dollar bill faster than you can sneeze.
I learned that the Trumper "sandalwood" cologne I find so intoxicating, only has sandalwood as a minor component, based on scent. AOS sandalwood is the real deal, but its ONLY sandalwood, and therefore a bit pungent and strong (IMHO). C&E as well as AOS shave creams are apparently also the real deal as they claim, smelling as if one had simply poured straight from the EO bottle I had to flavor them. Likewise QED.
Want to know what AOS/C&E sandalwood shave creams smell like? smell the QED soap, and vice versa.
That said, I've had Taylor sandalwood, as well as vulfix sandalwood, and bodyshop shave creams (also described as a "sandalwood" scent) and none of these smell like plain old sandalwood, but I like them all the same.
I am starting to think real sandalwood is just so potent as to be a little "too much" by itself, (not to mention expensive) and hence the wonderful smelling blends such as the new sandalwood scent from Trumper.
I'm rambling now.
JMHO
John P