Penhaligon’s Sartorial is meant to conjure the scents of a tailor’s shop: Norton & Sons, Bespoke Tailors at No. 16 Savile Row; but I don’t get the vibe of a high-end tailor’s shop when I smell Sartorial — no scents of old wooden cabinets and floors or “motorized-metallic” aromas of hot, well-oiled sewing machines, no odors of new woolens and cottons. What I DO get when smelling Sartorial is the scent of men…not the natural body scent of men, but the scent of lots of ‘men of a certain age’ gathered in one place, all of them wearing old-fashioned, inexpensive (but not “cheap”) aftershave lotion on their faces.
Sartorial opens with a sparkling aldehydic and “wet” ozone accord. This “department store” fragrance accord leads quickly to familiar territory: metallic violet leaf that smells a tad ‘old fashioned’ and sedate. Perhaps it’s the ‘sedate’ part of Sartorial that gives me pause; every time I wear it I feel sad; my bad mood is no doubt due to some association I have with the overall smell of the composition. Smelling Sartorial, I immediately get the feeling of “Weekend in the City with Nothing to Do” or “Everybody’s Left Town (on a Fabulous Vacation)…Except ME.”
Sartorial goes from ozonic to fougère territory in a matter of minutes as aromas of moss (a bit musty-dirty) blend with a ‘watery’-mineral note (cyclamen?), washroom lavender and tonka bean/vanilla. There’s also a barely perceptible beeswax note Penhaligon’s touts as a “modern thread running through” the fragrance (what’s exactly modern about beeswax?...being wary of using it in decent quantity?)
Several of Sartorial’s notes gather together in its base to produce hazy “amber”: the powdery scent of sheer, but not too clean, musk; ‘nougat-y’ tonka-vanilla; the scent of aged leather (sniff inside an old boot with its hint of saltiness); and some bitter-dusty patchouli wrapped in ‘cobwebs.’ Sartorial smells brighter, cleaner and more like a classic fougère on fabric than it does on skin; it’s like getting two colognes for the price of one if you apply Sartorial to your shirt one day, and to your skin another day.
Sartorial is not dull, and it’s not ‘dumb,’ but even with its unusual phases and scented “hiccups” of weirdness, it’s, overall, a “square,” cologne-y fragrance. Sartorial is ‘well-made’ and it might be interesting to smell it on a really young man…or a woman, but I feel like I’m aging myself by decades when I wear it — so, I won’t. The addition of ozone to Sartorial’s traditional fougère recipe doesn’t give Sartorial a boost; it dates the fragrance during its opening, making it feel “out of touch” and behind the times.
Penhaligon's Sartorial has good lasting power and sillage and was developed by perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour; the notes include aldehydes, ozonic effect, metallic effect, violet leaf, neroli, cardamom, black pepper, ginger, beeswax, cyclamen, linden blossom, lavender, leather, gurgum wood, patchouli, myrrh, cedarwood, tonka bean, oakmoss, white musk, honey effect, old wood effect, vanilla and amber. Sartorial is available in 50 and 100 ml Eau de Toilette ($80/$110). For buying information, see the listing for Penhaligon’s under Perfume Houses.
Note: top left image and right image (both cropped) via Wikimedia Commons.
Sounds so disappointing Kevin. Reading about this when it was released painted such a vivid picture and I was intrigued. I thought the concept was charming and inspired and the notes appealed. I would still like to try it at some point, but I’m not breathless over it now.
I’m going to try it too.
C: “try it”…or BUY it and return it the next day??? I know you.
RusticD: it may delight you!
Shuddering here after that review… I worked in a medium sized financial advisory firm, and all the “upper tier” were, as you put it, “men of a certain age”. Occasionally, I’d walk past the conference room when they were all in a closed-door meeting, and that smell was unmistakable. Ick. (And ick because it usually carried with it the scents of coffee breath, stale cigar smoke, and tooth decay; not a pleasant association at all.)
Ewww Emily…not pleasant in the least!
EEeeeww. Blah. I worked once in an office tower with lots of big wigs… it seems so stuffy to me. I applaud what Penhaglions is trying to do with these experimental fragrances, but if I want classic man, I’ll just dip into some Chanel Pour Monsieur or Grey Flannel.
AnnS: a vote for Chanel Pour Monsieur
Boojum: Oh, my God! HA!
Oh what a shame. I was ‘kinda sorta” looking forward to this. Money saved eh?
The review alone sent me into a wave of depression, so god knows what the fragrance will do if i ever dare to smell it !
I was thinking the same thing!
Miss K: apologize to you as well!
nathanthomas; so sorry!
haha thats ok! i enjoyed the review but your comments were so spot-on (sigh)
I just can’t stand it when a perfume makes me melancholy and not in the beautiful, mournful sort of way-
Sounds quite depressing Kevin.
Your our Dapper Dan!
You need something crazy good after that honey
Time to bust out the Wazamba and dance a jig for the Fume’ Gods.
Or break out the Bal d’Afrique and do the banana dance again…
teehee
And take pictures.
And post them here
Miss K, Mals, Tamara, Miss K: you all STOP! I’ve already gotten in “trouble” with Robin with bananas twice: re a banana scent I want to review and an, a-hem, illustration I created for Masculinity by Intense. HAHA!
No bananas. We leave the bananas for Boing Boing.
Robin – I won’t ask.
Or get Banged again, LOL!
Tamara; I was so glad to retire Sartorial!
You’ve left me chuckling, Kevin.
I found your review amusing, although of course I have no interest in the scent. Gawd-awful list of notes – me thinks M. Duchaufour had too much fun playing with his chemistry set.
Rappleyea/annemarie: there are lots of fougeres I like…and tons of them that don’t appeal at all.
Seems like we have travelled a long way, and yet not come very far, since the days when men wore Jicky.
Wouldn’t the sort of man who fancies himself shopping at Savile Row, and having “Sartorial” aspirations be a rather old fashioned (and probably older) gentleman, anyway. I associate Savile Row with bankers to bankers and super-corporate lawyers, who mutter in distress at “Casual Friday” (or with con men posing a super conservative financiers).
Dilana: I was hoping someone out there who’s tried it and liked it would write in…maybe it’s a bit too new on the market here?
gotta say that this has been done in association with Norton & Sons who are one of the younger funkier tailors on the row – you cant move in the style mags recently without seeing Patrick Grant somewhere (he bought the name in the 90’s & revived it – along with his other more recent project E Tautz) – so i was expecting something a bit younger & more imaginative!
Are you from Britain? In the U.S., there is not a great awareness of “funky” British tailoring.
Bah. I was given several samples of Penhaligon’s scents the other day by a Harrods SA who was fascinated by what I told her about working for that company in 1979-80. Two of those fragrances I knew already: Bluebell and Blenheim Bouquet. The former was my most hated scent of all the ones I used to deal with; the latter, my favourite. And they still are. LOL!
As for those that didn’t exist at the time – Violetta, Lily & Spice, Amaranthine and Eau de Verveine, I’m afraid they were all scrubbers. Shrill and thin at the same time.
So I have no intention of testing Sartorial.
Bela: Do try on Sartorial and then go slap somebody (for me!)
I was terribly disappointed in Verveine. It sounded just my thing… but no.
I’ve read so many bad things about Bluebell that I’m actually curious to give it a sniff. Haven’t tried those others, except Violetta – agree with you on that one.
Sartorial does sound downright depressing, but as usual, it was a well done review.
I’d rather smell nothing but soap on a man than a dispirited, generic scent! Thanks for the (as always) great review Kevin!
Maggie: a delicious-smelling bar of soap does the trick…I buy lots more soap than perfume these days…
Ooooooh – what soaps tick the boxes for you?
NT: this is the smallest list in history, mine anyway: “off the bat” I love Diptyque, Floris, Tokyo Milk, for an extravagant bath: one of the Frederic Malle’s soaps, Valobra, Robin just sent me some great soaps from Lepi de Provence, Fresh soaps, Dei Colli Fiorentini/Fiorentina soaps, esp. BROOM, Claus Porto, Santa Maria Novella, Agraria, l’Amande, l’Occitane’s honey and those big square soaps in Rose, Lavender…Caswell Massey, sells nice soaps too…
thanks for that Kevin….if the perfume doesn’t do it…well there are always lists of soaps, body creams,oils fragrance diffusers,…..help, I need space!
Sounds like i will not even bother to try this one. i just opened a l’occitane almond exfoliating soap….awesome>
Sure hope Traversee du Bosphore makes up for this one!
Noz: Robin is reviewing that one soon.
My sample is on the way…. I’m, um, going to pretend I didn’t read this before I got to sniff.
Dewey Eye: delete this from your memory banks.
Excellent review, Kevin. I think I can safely pass this one by- I have no desire to smell like an old British civil servant a la Humphrey from Yes, Minister!
I also want to thank you for tempting me into
trying Costume National Homme. I adore it! Now that the weather here in England has turned we have had some cold, grey melancholy days and it is PERFECT for them.
Thanks again!
FragrantWitch…oh, good…glad you like it.
I’ve never smelled this but I love that the bottle has its own bowtie.
AmyT: I like the ties too
Kevin, so many of your reviews never fail to make me chuckle. If a vial of this crosses my path someday, that’s fine, but I won’t be rushing to order a sample!
“..the scent of lots of ‘men of a certain age’ gathered in one place, all of them wearing old-fashioned, inexpensive (but not “cheap”) aftershave lotion on their faces.”
Well who wouldn’t WANT to smell like THAT??? HA! Thanks for taking one for the team. Poor Penhaligon’s.
Joe: can’t win ’em all…we’ll always have LIMES, right?
Kevin!!!
You and I don’t often disagree, but we do on this.
Sartorial is fantastic – and, as I’ve said elsewhere, one of the best fragrance releases of 2010.
It is an absolute masterpiece, Duchafour at his best. The opening is stunning, the segue-way from top to heart notes is a work of genius and the continuing interplay of notes all the way through to the drydown is nothing short of brilliant.
Melancholy? L’Heure Bleu is meloncholy, Mitsouko too in its own way, but Sartorial? No way Jose. This is a beautifully crafted, elegant and refined scent which can best be described as an oriental fougere. It is one of a precious few scents that my significant other actually requests that I wear.
It is not often we are on diametrically opposing sides with regard to a fragrance, but, my friend, on this one, we most certainly are!
Sartorial, to me, is the redefinition of the fougere without a solid oak base. Yes, it smells of older men. It’s meant to. It’s meant to smell serious. It recalls putting on a suit and undoing the last button on the cuff to show that your suit isn’t off the rack; it’s bespoke.