Santos (1981)
by Cartier

I was surprised at testing this one. I don’t believe that I have ever smelled it before although I have worn and loved Santos de Cartier Concentrée for years and years. I tested the two side by side. I was surprised because the opening on this one is smoother, fuller, and more attractive than the opening on the Concentrée version. I didn’t expect that, and for a while I was concerned that I might have been using the wrong fragrance all these years. The opening is a green, sweet, citrusy accord with aldehydes and a bare touch of lavender. It smells like an excellent version of the all too common green / citrus / lavender accords of so many ‘90s fragrance. After about ten minutes, the two Santos’s smell the same, the better accord in the opening was just a flash in the pan for the regular Santos. The heart notes for the regular Santos are pretty much the same as with the concentrated version: green, aromatic, a little bit spicy, and floral to round it out. After a little over an hour, this regular Santos, has already moved into the mossy, coniferous, drydown while the Concentrée is still spilling out its excellent heart. Two hours later, the regular Santos is almost done – the last gasps of aroma are wimping off the skin. The Concentrée, however, is still going strong. I like Santos, but I’ll stick with Santos Concentrée.

An (initially) overbearing and pungent herbal-lavender combo that smells like something my dad would have gladly worn during the '80s.

Synthetic, unpleasant and horribly outdated.

Meat. That's what I get. OK, that is a little extreme, but just as with Declaration, I get a meat association with Santos. In declaration, it is more of a spicy salami. With Santos it is the same salami but as a dried 'jerky'. Outside of that, it is a very manly 70s larger than life frag, recalling G. Ferre, Antaeus etc. Please don't let the meat association scare you off, its just the spice and lavender that does it. My nose also tells me Carolina Herrera frags smell like fried food. So maybe it is just me.

I tried both the regular and concentrée versions of Santos. Counter-intuitively, I find that I don’t like the regular but can appreciate the concentrée. That is because of the role of patchouli and how it is treated in each version. In the regular version, patchouli dominates. Perhaps in concert with the juniper, I get a most vile scent! To me, it seems quite obnoxious. Pungent, sweet, metallic in an “airy” style, medicinal, harsh, perfumed, pongy, irritating. Tangy cheese? Something going dodgy on an aluminum plate in the hot sun? Stinky sneakers in an old gym locker? You get the picture. This one doesn’t work on my skin, folks. End of story.

Strong herbals and a genuine scent of lavender without the use of vanilla, that gets high points in my book. Slightly peppery which is reinforced by cedarwood. Strong masculine scent. Best of the Cartier mens fragrances.

Alongside Declaration, this one is one of the best masculine scents by Cartier. It is named after Santos Dumont a dandy and aviator who lived at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century and truly smells like conservative elegance. Stylish chypre scent with citrus and green notes. Starts floral and herbal, especially with a touch of lavender including all the chracteristic sweetness and warmth of this note, then it tends to end in a very leathery way, but inspite of the drydown, the citrus( almost lemony, Mediterranean note) is still very powerful, but mixes perfectly with the more potent, woodyand chypre ingredients. Literaly an old-school and old-world scent, luxurious and discreet, designed as if someone had the refined and elaborate pleasures of the Parisian dandy or the high-end resorts of the French Riviera in mind. Being a fan of citrus and chypre scents- as it is easy to notice- i truly was impressed by this one.