Best Santal 33 by Le Labo Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

This extrait is named for the archipelagic country in the South Pacific Ocean, source of the sandalwood in the base. Vanuatu is a lively, confident blend of spices (black pepper, cardamom, cumin) dappled across characterful woody materials (sandalwood, patchouli, cedar and papyrus). Putting meat on the bones is fig milk, with violet leaves adding sharp sparkle. A fragrance for unexpected adventures.

A tribute to the scents of Colombia, this extrait de parfum suggests a late-night dinner for two under the stars. A gourmand dance of aromas is carried on the warm breeze: coffee, rum, chocolates. Powdery, pillowy vanilla and iris blur into vetiver and sandalwood for a sumptuous dream.

Perfumer: Clément Marx

Extending a moment held in time. At dawn, hand in hand.
Images cross and softly intertwine.
Zesty tangerine, fresh eucalyptus, enveloped by cocoa. A loving memory.

Santal takes its inspiration from a Sandalwood fragrance originally created in the 1800s which has then been given a distinctive contemporary edge.

In the beginning, there was confinement. Arbitrary walls and borders. Then you woke up, and you were no longer locked in a box you didn’t make. Now you’re in a forest temple breathing in the heart-opening smells of sandalwood, spices and violet leaf. No one will contain you ever again.

Perfumer: Angéline Leporini

Year: 1986
Place: Los Angeles
Palm trees, a wild sweet breeze, fortunes told, green tea leaves, naked hips, Freudian slips, loose lips, sandalwood embers in warm amber sunsets, a city of angels with no angels, a haven for heathens, cowboys and nymphos.

“Zelen” translates to “green” in Serbian. This is vetiver as it was meant to be celebrated, energised by the natural world. The emerald earthiness of vetiver is lifted toward the sun on a cloud of lime, bergamot and pink peppercorn. Green cardamom and beeswax absolute deepen the allure of Mysore sandalwood and Virginia cedar.
 
This composition is 25% parfum concentration, of which nearly 75% are natural ingredients. Capped with Italian Carrara marble in a delicately etched glass bottle. 

Perfumer: Christophe Raynaud

A moonlit leather made with velvety violet leaves and smooth cool orris, all studded with cardamom, dry cedar and spicy earthy cypriol.

In the Beso trio, Beso Negro ("kiss of the darkness") represents the sleepless nights of the busy holiday island: velvety darkness, golden lanterns, cooling sea breeze, stars, and sand.

“Hey Bitch! You smell fucking good.” In Perfume World, that’s what we call a result. Hey Bitch! raises eyebrows with its dissonance between buttery, blowsy orange blossom and tough, bitter leather. Tangy rhubarb at the top snaps its fingers in your face, before dissolving into a blur of suedey iris and milky sandalwood. The dance between bitter and sweet keeps you on your toes throughout, conjuring hints of…what? Photocopier ink? Coffee? For sure it conjures ambered black leather, Bitch!

A new project with Bertrand Duchaufour and a landscape artist/photographer Martin Hill.

The same way in which Martin goes to a sight and rearranges what nature left there into an installation, the perfumer rearranged some molecules and materials to put the beauty of a natural material into focus.

Also Martin aims to let his stuctures to be absorbed back into natural chaos. Perfume evaporates into the environment in a similar fashion, beautiful but transient.

In Leather Shot all the focus is on the leather aroma effect (which can be achieved through many combinations of various perfume materials). In this particular perfume it's velvety orris, black tea and a touch of smoky sandalwood that create that dense, dark and heady aroma of suede.

The structure in the image below is a bit like the leather effect in perfumery. It manifests itself on the surface after some aromatic forces have worked their mysterious magic.