FRAGRANCE DU BOIS
SANTAL COMPLET
2016
Coconut
Lemon
Violet
Black Pepper
Sandalwood
Vanilla
Musk
Amber
‘The perfect antidote to a cold, winter’s day, Santal Complet’s delicious coconut opening makes you close your eyes and dream of sunny days in paradise. Bright, lemony notes cede to an unfettered heart of violet and black pepper, before creamy base notes of sandalwood, amber, musk and vanilla provide the crowning glory in what is a soft, sensual and meditative santal and coconut fragrance.’ – Fragrance du Bois
As the name suggests, Santal Complet is a sandalwood fragrance, but it’s heavy on the coconut. It was my most anticipated Fragrance Du Bois when I first smelled it.
This is incredibly smooth and well-blended. This is one of the more mature coconut scent that I’ve come across. Santal Complet is not a sun tan lotion or shampoo like coconut and it’s not a sweet coconut either. It’s very natural and it has a burned or roasted quality to it as well.
There is some vanilla / amber, but it’s not overpowering. You get a bit of lemon up top, but overall, this feels like more of a simpler and more straightforward scent from the house. Creamy, soft sandalwood, natural coconut, semi-sweet vanilla and bit of smokiness to top it off. That smokiness reminds me a bit of tobacco blossom, it’s very soft. The texture is a good mix of creamy and powdery.
Santal Complet is quite versatile and perfectly unisex. You get what you expect from the notes and I think that people who seek this one out will be more than happy with the scent.
The performance is below average, not great, so that would be the only ‘negative’ this fragrance has for me. It’s not often that I feel this way, as I don’t care much for performance, but Santal Complet has a bad reputation for it and I have to agree with it. To that end, I also tried an older bottle style/batch from Santal Complet and that performance wasn’t great either. Luckily, it’s one of the relatively more affordable fragrances from Fragrance Du Bois (still expensive though), so that works in its favor. As far as the scent goes, this might very well be my favorite behind Sahraa.