Santal Blush

I had high hopes for this as a fan of sandalwood. This is very much a loud, pungent spice fragrance with sandalwood somewhere very far away. It is complex, I'll give it that and stops you in your tracks when you first smell it. Definitely takes a few tries to figure out if you can live with it or not. On me it developed very oddly throughout the day. I was expecting a powdery, musky dry down as some reviews note, instead the cumin got louder and louder throughout the day and I just couldn't stand it anymore. This is another fragrance where skin chemistry is very important as the scent can go awry very quickly, Test it on your skin well before an important event/meeting or you'll end up like me - a cumin bomb by 5 PM.

I usually find Tom Ford fragrances to be too heavy (and too heavy-handed) for my taste, but this one is lovely. Compared to Tam Dao, my go-to sandalwood, this is more refined and a bit more complex. While Santal Blush is, more or less, a sandalwood soliflore, floral and spice notes soften the edges. Despite the pink juice, this is a true unisex fragrance, though I do think it's more wearable on a woman than, say, Santal 33 (which I consider more masc-leaning). Docking a star because, like all TF scents, this gives me a bit of a headache (I'm not typically headache-prone). And, while it is lovely, $225 for 50 ml does not make sense here.

On me this is just meh. It dries down to a flat, one-note powdery sweet light musk. I prefer scents with a little more complexity. I'd like something a little unexpected in there with the sandalwood, but nope, not here. Not for me. It is persistent though, so points for staying power and a little going a long way.

Santal Blush, with its sharp, sweet, woodsy opening upon barely-there florals, with a hint of the minty camphor note from precious woods... smells just like Santalum Album. It mellows into a warm, creamy, sweet, buttery santal that floats around, moving just out of reach if you try to smell it directly: but your skin still smells like precious woods. By comparison, Tam Dao is like the average of the notes in Santal Blush: equally gorgeous, but less multifaceted... and a touch greener/vetiver-y.

I agree with the other sandalwood devotees: this is the BEST. I am addicted to and obsessed with Sandalwood, and have bought oils and perfumes all over the world. But with Santal Blush, Tom Ford has created an alchemical masterpiece. The floral notes float in and around, dancing around the sandalwood heart. People stop me in elevators and on the streets. At least five women I know ran out and bought it after sniffing it on me. It's magical. Tom Ford is very hit and miss with me. I adore some of his fragrances and cannot tolerate others, but this one... this one is pure divine mastery of blending.

Santal Blush is the perfect sandalwood. I am a sandalwood fanatic and truly, this is the best one. It is earthy and a little sweet, like a true Indian sandalwood. My Indian wife says it reminds her of the sandalwood they would wet and scrape to a paste for religious ceremonies. This is expertly blended and all the notes work together to support the star of the show. Again, I truly recommend this if you are a sandalwood aficionado. Worth every penny. Oh, it has a great longevity and I find the sillage is not too potent, so I can smell it all day on myself without worry that I would bother a co-worker. Perfect for male or female.

I love, love, love this fragrance! It has become one of my favorite scents to wear. I'm not sure which one of the notes makes this so special, but this fragrance is in a class all by itself! By far this is my favorite Tom Ford scent!

I thought this would be something special, given all the hype around this man. But I find it to be exactly like three other scents I have recently owned, and almost three times the price in one case. Don't waste your money. But do forgive my spelling.Try papparadscha, by Satalite. Wonderwood , by Comes des Gar sons, and also Profumums Santalum. Sorry Tom

I sniffed trough all the Tom Ford scents, and this one appeard to be the least "offensive" one. It is true that it opens up with coconut and fig, which is what captured me. Not sweet at all, but an adult scent with a hint of tropic exclusiveness. I love Rose 31 from Le Labo of the same reasons, it's not a girly, pretty rose, but a robust and woody one. I thought I found something similar, but unfortunately the sandalwood is too prominent here. It's intriguing and animalic, the scent is in the same cathegory as most of the Tauer-perfumes, but for me it's just too much heavy "santal" and not a hint of delicate "blush". Compared to "santal 33" by Le Labo, this one reminds me more of a classic take on hardwood and glue with a powdery finish, whereas santal 22 is more fresh and modern. It might appeal to the woman who like a dressed up version of the classic 20's scents (heavy, powdery, pungent but still very unisex), although I'd rather see it on my man, who gently told me I smelled a bit like a modern woodchucker.