Reviews of Palo Santo by Carner Barcelona
Word to the wise: this completely falls apart in warmer weather, so if you live somewhere where it's warm all year you might want to just stay away.
The name is curious since nobody will smell this and immediately think of palo santo. We may be able to evaluate it as a kind of abstract portrait, a riff on palo santo's lactonic and woody facets.
Boozy, almost gooey warmth defines the opening of this scent, giving off an impression of davana mingling with warm milk with rum.
In the mid and especially into the drydown, this does start to coalesce into a squint-and-you'll-see-it palo santo accord: a bit green, a bit woody (mostly an effect of guaiac, cedar, and vetiver having been blended tightly together, methinks). Texturally, it's somehow both milky-creamy and dry-sandy, both scratchy and smooth.
Like many lactonic scents, it's a wear-with-caution kind of thing, since out of context milk aromas often read as "off" to passersby who catch whiffs of your sillage. Personally speaking, though, I'm enjoying this fairly novel creation.
The name is curious since nobody will smell this and immediately think of palo santo. We may be able to evaluate it as a kind of abstract portrait, a riff on palo santo's lactonic and woody facets.
Boozy, almost gooey warmth defines the opening of this scent, giving off an impression of davana mingling with warm milk with rum.
In the mid and especially into the drydown, this does start to coalesce into a squint-and-you'll-see-it palo santo accord: a bit green, a bit woody (mostly an effect of guaiac, cedar, and vetiver having been blended tightly together, methinks). Texturally, it's somehow both milky-creamy and dry-sandy, both scratchy and smooth.
Like many lactonic scents, it's a wear-with-caution kind of thing, since out of context milk aromas often read as "off" to passersby who catch whiffs of your sillage. Personally speaking, though, I'm enjoying this fairly novel creation.
Wait what ? I wish I could smell the warm milk, the rum, the guaiac wood, or even the caramel. All I get from this is a very vegetal chicory like scent. YUCK.
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Guaiac maple malt
With burnt tonka syrup and
Vanilla ice cream.
Palo Santo thus
Remaining a mystery
The wood and this scent.
In the same way that
Answering the great questions
Leaves a greater mess.
With burnt tonka syrup and
Vanilla ice cream.
Palo Santo thus
Remaining a mystery
The wood and this scent.
In the same way that
Answering the great questions
Leaves a greater mess.
From melting toffee to sweet and salted wood, Palo Santo is a strange one, but it's a familiar kind of strangeness. The odour profile from start to finish is dense and buttery, but as the projection is a bit tentative, it doesn't overwhelm. This toffee-impregnated woody with slightly boozy breath has a kind of maple syrup and bacon meatiness about it which is perhaps aiming to achieve an olfactory umami sensation. If Jeux de Peau rocked your boat, then this may also be worth your while.
I think the listed notes in Palo Santo (2015) of guaiac wood and cedar may be the dominant smell of this in the top, based on similar-smelling fragrances with those notes, such as Affinessence Cèdre-Iris (2015, which lists both) and Olympic Orchids woodcut (2014, which lists cedar).
This one also lists warm milk, which does seem to match.
Into the base, I started liking it and switched from neutral to thumbs up.
This one also lists warm milk, which does seem to match.
Into the base, I started liking it and switched from neutral to thumbs up.
Stardate 20170531:
I have tried Palo Santo cone (thanks to Hat and Beard) and liked it. This is not like that at all. I thought maybe Carner meant Guaiac wood when they say Palo Santo but nope, not getting that either. The other problem with this fragrance is that it sucks.
So not Palo Santo and not good.
I have tried Palo Santo cone (thanks to Hat and Beard) and liked it. This is not like that at all. I thought maybe Carner meant Guaiac wood when they say Palo Santo but nope, not getting that either. The other problem with this fragrance is that it sucks.
So not Palo Santo and not good.
A quiet and somewhat gauche pairing of sweet milky caramel and difficult dry woods.
In the opening flourish, acid fruity syrup and disinfectant tell of interesting things to come, but sadly these fade out far too soon. This leaves the field to an unsettling dry woody iris set against thick and creamy caramel.
What could have been a chance to explore borderline eating issues, attraction & repulsion / appetite & nausea, is lost when the unpalatable woods get swamped by too much sweet caramel.
There's a mildly surprising twist, which leads to a drydown of orange inflected woods, which is ok. But between the first act, and the finalé of this teenage Samsara, there’s a long boring interlude - and a missed opportunity.
In the opening flourish, acid fruity syrup and disinfectant tell of interesting things to come, but sadly these fade out far too soon. This leaves the field to an unsettling dry woody iris set against thick and creamy caramel.
What could have been a chance to explore borderline eating issues, attraction & repulsion / appetite & nausea, is lost when the unpalatable woods get swamped by too much sweet caramel.
There's a mildly surprising twist, which leads to a drydown of orange inflected woods, which is ok. But between the first act, and the finalé of this teenage Samsara, there’s a long boring interlude - and a missed opportunity.
Another niche scent I don't really understand. The stated notes are davana (artemesia), rum; warm milk, guaiac wood, tonka; cedar, vetiver, amyris (balsamic).
Some of these notes are prominant from the very beginning; in fact, the astringency of the davana, the creaminess from whatever is providing "warm milk", and the intoxicating aspect of what seems like a high abv rum call to mind nothing as much as calamine lotion. I'm in two minds as to whether to wear this or apply it to my foot blister. If I ever get itching on my pulse points, I'm in luck.
I was hoping that this would be a temporary effect, and that PS would dry down to a creamy rendition of balsamic woods or some such. In fact, this is what happens - on exposed skin at least - but it takes such an inordinate time to get there that it has only just escaped a negative rating. Eventually, everything comes together to create a not-displeasing effect; the kind of thing that is redolent of the rounded sandalwood of Davidoff's Silver Shadow (and a thousand others) but rather more complex. However, the spray to my chest ends up with a smoky effect probably drawn from the amyris and perhaps vetiver - eliciting the kind of squinting that is normally reserved for an eyeful of smoke from a barbecue, or perhaps a good glug of that rum.
So, interesting, not without merit, but for me it's a long way past that initial medicinal effect.
Some of these notes are prominant from the very beginning; in fact, the astringency of the davana, the creaminess from whatever is providing "warm milk", and the intoxicating aspect of what seems like a high abv rum call to mind nothing as much as calamine lotion. I'm in two minds as to whether to wear this or apply it to my foot blister. If I ever get itching on my pulse points, I'm in luck.
I was hoping that this would be a temporary effect, and that PS would dry down to a creamy rendition of balsamic woods or some such. In fact, this is what happens - on exposed skin at least - but it takes such an inordinate time to get there that it has only just escaped a negative rating. Eventually, everything comes together to create a not-displeasing effect; the kind of thing that is redolent of the rounded sandalwood of Davidoff's Silver Shadow (and a thousand others) but rather more complex. However, the spray to my chest ends up with a smoky effect probably drawn from the amyris and perhaps vetiver - eliciting the kind of squinting that is normally reserved for an eyeful of smoke from a barbecue, or perhaps a good glug of that rum.
So, interesting, not without merit, but for me it's a long way past that initial medicinal effect.