As for me, I was busy smearing wax on my neck, totally intoxicated by the scent of the candle. I begged the guys to make a wearable version, but they wouldn’t listen. “We ignored the few friends, including you, who said, ‘You should go for a perfumer version,’” remembers Penot. “We were too busy keeping the boat afloat.”

— Jane Larkworthy on Le Labo Santal 33, in New York’s Cult Fragrance Wouldn’t Exist If It Weren’t for Me at The Cut.

For Santal, something started to kick in around modification number 93. I felt we had something there that had the potential to be powerful. Then I got lost in hundreds of other trials to realize that the theme we had in 93 was lost. We decided to throw away a year of work and start back from there. The solution was a few moves away, adding a 'key' that unlocked the whole formula. That key is the secret of Santal that prevents all the copies out there of it from achieving the same effect.

— Fabrice Penot talks about the creation of Santal 33. Read more at Le Labo's Founder Has Mixed Feelings About The Success Of Santal 33 at Fashionista.

Santal 33's omnipresence as the signature scent of both waifish fashion buyers and bored office workers alike is an impressive feat. But as a result of this complete and inescapable ubiquity, the perfume has devolved into the "pumpkin spice latte of fragrances," as one Redditor so aptly put it.

— Read more at Le Labo Santal 33: The Scent That Went From Ruggedly Cool to Utterly Basic at Fashionista.