Poll: Why Sandalwood?

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:42 am

Let's see some poll results. Why is sandalwood presumed to be the standard male fragrance? Are there really that many guys who always prefer sandalwood over everything else, and always tend to buy the sandalwood product before buying any other fragrances?

I admit that vendors may have actual sales figures that prove it, and that's fine, I'm just wondering. Maybe it's just me, and I should try harder to like it, or face the shame of having my "guy card" flagged for being out of synch with the rest of you sandalwood addicts.

And lastly, if we (men) are so in love genetically with sandalwood, have the companies who produce female-targeted fragrances missed the boat by offering thousands of wonderful fragrance products for women other than "our beloved" sandalwood, if it is true that the objective is a genetic aphrodesiac effect, to attract mates? If so, wouldn't there be a "Chanel #5 Sandalwood Guaranteed Love Potion"?

TRBeck · Post by **TRBeck** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:05 am

Gary, I think the main reason everyone feels they have to offer sandalwood at this point is tradition. I love sandalwood, but I do find it interesting and perhaps odd that even the small producers of glycerin soaps all make a sandalwood scent. The only way to explain it, I think, is that many firms make a sandalwood soap because everyone else does (I think this is true primarily of English firms - for obvious reasons - and of American soapmakers who are trying to emulate the incredibly popular English soaps: the French, Germans, and Italians don't seem so hung up on sandalwood)
That said, it is a classic scent for men's shaving products, one that can be interpreted in many ways: dry or sweet, bold or discrete, etc. Thus, while everyone makes a sandalwood, they are all very distinct from one another. Personally, I think good sandalwood scents, whether intentionally rich or lean and dry, smell classy and distinct without being cloying, and they make me feel more "dressed up" when I wear them

Regards,

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:15 am

It is a fact that males normally don't like change, just for the sake of change, and you are right on when you say sandalwood is a tradition within the industry. It gives a new company or a new product a "hook", to make a prospective new customer to feel that he is buying something conventional, that he immediately identifies with, and thus, he can make the purchase and feel comfortable telling himself the purchase is justified.

Knowing all of this, if I had a shaving company or a product I wanted males to buy, no matter what the fragrance was, or how far from traditional it might be, I'd easily call it Sandalwood or at least include the word sandalwood in the name or on the box so the buyer would get the subliminal reassurance that he is doing the right thing in buying it in preference over somebody else's product.

Or, more likely, if I only had resources at first to offer one product with my brand name on it, you bet it would be Sandalwood, so they would have the courage to venture away from tradition on the next purchase, and buy a different fragrance with the brand name previously made more identifiable through the assistance of the sandalwood enigma.

ChemErik · Post by **ChemErik** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:37 am

Sandalwood is not my favorite scent, but I do like it. That's how I think many men feel about it. If I want to try a company's SS, I can always get the Sandalwood if nothing else stands out to me and I know it will be at least an acceptable scent.

drumana · Post by **drumana** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:39 am

I voted 'No', although I really do like sandalwood scents... All sandalwood scents are so different from each other. I tend to like them all, save for the super sweet ones... but I don't think I can pin down my "favorite scent". It changes too often.

IanM · Post by **IanM** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:55 am

Sandalwood isn't my favorite, but having said that, I've only tried it from 1 company. From what I gather, it varies quite a bit between brands.

Ian

swarden43 · Post by **swarden43** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:32 am

drumana wrote:I voted 'No', although I really do like sandalwood scents... All sandalwood scents are so different from each other. I tend to like them all, save for the super sweet ones... but I don't think I can pin down my "favorite scent". It changes too often.

+1 (with emphasis on "I don't think I can pin down my 'favorite scent'"), although C&E is the only sandalwood I've tried. I have seven soaps in my rotation, each with a different scent. They wouldn't be in my rotation if I didn't like BOTH the scent and performance.

Big Ren · Post by **Big Ren** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 11:14 am

I also voted "No". With the the exception of AOS Sandalwood shaving cream and some Yardley bath soaps, I generally stay away from this scent category. Too grandpa-ish.

Ren

TRBeck · Post by **TRBeck** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 11:39 am

Ren, interesting perspective. I agree that AOS sandalwood is the best sandalwood scent I've found in men's grooming (though there are some other edts that are as good). However, I don't mind (in fact, I really like) the sandalwood shave soaps from C&E, Trumper, and Harris (Marlborough). I only use AOS and Marlborough because the others don't work as well for me, but their scents are nice. I understand where you're coming from with the grandpa-ish comment, but for whatever reason it doesn't really bother me with the shave soaps (maybe because my own grandfather really doesn't smell like anything except Juicy Fruit gum: one piece lasts him all day, resting on the rim of his plate during meals).

Regards,

jvan · Post by **jvan** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:02 pm

Big Ren wrote:I also voted "No". With the the exception of AOS Sandalwood shaving cream and some Yardley bath soaps, I generally stay away from this scent category. Too grandpa-ish.

Ren

Ren, that is probably why Sandalwood is one of my favorites. Each time I use it I can picture my maternal grand father standing in the bathroom, suspenders hanging off his shoulders, lathering up for a shave.

Great memories and a great scent in some cases.

Big Ren · Post by **Big Ren** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:19 pm

John,

I also appreciate the memories a scent can evoke. As an example, I love the scent of Old Spice, which my father has always worn, and still wears, but for some reason sandalwood seems anachronistic to me.

Ren

Big Ren · Post by **Big Ren** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:31 pm

TBoner wrote:maybe because my own grandfather really doesn't smell like anything except Juicy Fruit gum: one piece lasts him all day, resting on the rim of his plate during meals.

Tim,

As always, there is something profound to be derived from your posts. As a kid, I could never understand the appeal of Juicy Fruit gum, which I regarded as an "adult" flavour. I now know that Juicy Fruit is to gum, what Sandalwood is to shaving products. This may not make sense to many of you, but it does to me.

Ren

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:33 pm

Tim, Regarding sandalwood as being such a traditional English staple, I have to question that. As far as I can tell, it is a relatively recent addition to the scents offered by the old school gentlemen's purveyors. Up until some time in the mid-1980s, for example, Trumper shaving creams and soaps were offered in three scents only; Rose, Almond, and Violet. These, along with lavender, are the real traditional English scents for shave products I think. All the old late 19th and early 20th c. pot lids I've seen always seem to be in one of these four scents.
Regards,
Gordon

TRBeck · Post by **TRBeck** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:43 pm

Ren, thanks for your post. I appreciate the comment about profundity, but I can assure you it's usually accidental.

I will add, though, that ginger ale is to soda what Juicy Fruit is to gum.

Gordon, that's interesting. I came to the game late, so to speak, and so I guess I just sort of assumed that sandalwood was traditional, especially since the English houses all seemed to offer it. I wonder is its use in English perfumery and grooming products tied to a bit of false nostalgia, that is, connecting to a past that never was, a wrongly-remembered time when English gentlemen perfumed themselves with the scents they discovered in far-flung colonial corners of the world? Or is there some other reason sandalwood became so prominent, so suddenly, so recently?

Regards,

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:59 pm

Tim, Well, this is just speculation, but perhaps that was an element in it. The 1980s were definately a time when there was a resurgance in 'traditional' English and English style goods, both there and here. This is the period when C&E ( an American company, of course ) really got rollng, when Floris, temporarily, brought back some of their older scents, etc. And a connection with 'the Raj' et. al. might have been part of that wave of sometimes ersatz tradition. Then too, '80s scents tended to be stronger in general, more in-your-face flamboyant, and spicy sandalwood would fit in with that tendency of the time. Obviously, sandalwood had been used in classic English perfumery for a long time ( ref: some of the original Penhaligon's scents for example ), but as a component of the base notes in colognes mainly. But as it's own thing; shave creams, soaps, etc. it seems to have come in with the London firms only in the 1980s. It was more prominent in American scent earlier, actually.
Regards,
Gordon

TRBeck · Post by **TRBeck** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:24 pm

Gordon, thanks. Very interesting. Every time I think I know a fair bit about this stuff, I read a post from you or one of the other long-time wetshavers and realize how little experience I really have in the scheme of things. Good stuff as usual.

Regards,

brothers · Post by **brothers** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:07 pm

I'm going to admit that in spite of my age, I have never ever heard or read about a "sandlewood tree". I've just always presumed it was made up some decades ago only as a scent or fragrance, not to be confused with "Tuscan or Tuscany" which is currrently all the rage for selling everything from clothing to food to homes to battleships, for all I know, and happens to be a real place.

Anyway, if I'm correct that sandalwood is a marketing name kind of like "Corolla", then maybe some genius who's now a multi-trillionaire decided that if you could take the word "sandal" and marry it to the word "wood", that you could make most males instantly see visions of ourselves in the company of females in the summertime, or on the beach, where both sandals and (drift)wood are presumably plentiful. Thus, evoking a mini-soap opera to go shooting through our testosterone-drenched brains, and causing us to temporarily lose control of our better judgment, purchasing the object to which that name might be attached, with wild abandon. It's just a thought.

razorburned · Post by **razorburned** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:47 pm

I have to say 'no' as it is not my 'favorite' though I do like it a lot, and will generally buy the sandalwood from any maker just to see their take on it.

As for why it is so common....I have a theory (which kinda fits with Gordon's "it's not THAT old sentiment)....When I first started wet shaving I was not sure what to buy soap/cream scent wise. I was used to the medicinal or cologne smells of the canned goo (notice there are no sandalwood canned goos out there)....I was not willing to go for all the fruity and floral scents as I felt they were too 'girly', so I got the Sandalwood.....then I got curious and tried rose....no more 'girly' self imposed stigma....now I like them all. I think that maybe the sandalwood scents are there to attract new clients both who know wet shaving, and who are new to the sport.

as for 'sandalwood tree'....In the strict sense these are woods yielded by trees in the genus Santalum, used often for their essential oil. These are yellowish woods, heavy (just short of sinking in water) and fine-grained. Sandalwood has been valued for thousands of years for its fragrance, carving, and various purported medicinal qualities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandalwood

JimR · Post by **JimR** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:24 pm

Last week I would have said "No" but now I'm not so sure. I've been using it this past week in Paul's AS MIlk and it's grown on me a lot. It's pretty clearly "masculine" and, like Tim said, it makes me feel classy.

Hmmm...

doleeo · Post by **doleeo** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:47 pm

I've tried quite a few Sandalwoods but the only one I've liked is Harris' Sandalwood....which....makes me feel classy.

SMF

Poll: Why Sandalwood?

As a male, is sandalwood your favorite fragrance?

Poll: Why Sandalwood?