Earlier this fall, Guerlain launched Santal Royal, a new limited distribution unisex woody oriental fragrance geared towards the Middle East.
Guerlain House Perfumer Thierry Wasser drew inspiration from the treasures of the East, and worked one of the rarest and most precious ingredients in the perfume world for this creation: sandalwood. Shrouded in mystery, this bewitching note is exalted in a new woody oriental fragrance, a study of subtle contrasts between the dark notes of leather and oud wood, and the luminous floral notes of jasmine and rose.
Additional notes include neroli, cinnamon, amber and musk.
Guerlain Santal Royal is available at Harrods (but not online as of this writing) and in Dubai, in 125 ml Parfum for £125.
(quote via online.dubaidutyfree, additional information via Harrods online magazine, beautyandfashiondubai)
Is it going to be available in the US?
I don’t know, but I doubt it. If you love Guerlain and live in the US you pretty much need to be content with the standard line. The exclusive offerings that are sold are in so few stores they are hard to try. I have noticed that Saks.com does carry some hard to find ones, but long after their launch. For example, I see right now they have the “Orient” perfumes that were made for the Middle Eastern market.
I wouldn’t get too excited! I tried it when it first came out and was majorly disappointed in it & even at the relatively low price I couldn’t get the enthusiasm up to buy it.
I love sandalwood fragrances and this one didn’t come close – it was more of an Oud than a santal for me. I’ll stick with TF santal blush or SL as an everyday sandalwood
Thanks! That’s been my experience with just about every hard-to-find (modern) Guerlain I’ve tracked down.
I don’t know but I likewise doubt it. You could call the Vegas boutique, they do sometimes get things that aren’t elsewhere in the US.
FYI, someone on Facebook said they were told Neiman Marcus would have it for a limited time…
SA at Bergdorf said they will be getting it later this year.
I’ll take one for the (NST) team: I drop by the Toronto Guerlain boutique after work this week and see if they have it. I also want to check out their new Eau de Cashmere
I have a paper strip that I kept tucked away in my camera bag (they have it at Munich’s newish Guerlain counter at the Douglas [sic!] store in Theatinerstraße). Still smells really strong after almost a week. It’s so loud I have to think of artificial musks. It’s very inscensey. I like smoky scents, but this smells medicated, not beautiful to me. I remeber I smelled santal in the shop, but now it’s actually somewhere between Le Labo’s vetiver 46 and oud 27 (both of which I love), but less interesting than either of those.
Btw, also smelled L’Heure de Nuit and thought it reminded me of Balenciaga Paris l’essence (which I thought smelled like a cheap 1990s men’s fragrance ^__^ ).
Oh no! Sorry, I just realise the paper strip I was describing as Santal Royal actually has “Songe d’un boi d’été” written on it!
And now I found the one with Santal Royal … as I said, these papers strips are already about a week old! Its dried-fruit, slightly gourmand cherry/almond (cherry coke… 😉 ) accord underlayed with powdery musks reminds of Serge Lutens Louve. Probably too fruity for me but worth trying on skin, just for fun. The saleswoman suggested things randomly, after I said that I was addicted to smelling my tiny sample of L’HB from 15 years ago, but found it too ladylike for me to wear outside the house.
Interesting, thanks — I never did smell the Santal Royal.