Description
“A ‘’sacred wood’’ steeped in magic and mysticism for thousands of years, releases an enchanting aromatic essence that swirls to life in a spellbinding blend that infuses earthy hints of wood and incense.
Coveted by shamans for centuries, it is believed that this spiritual wood has the power to protect and usher in good fortune. A faint misting will cleanse the mood and raise spirits, invoking the true purifying virtues of Palo Santo.” – a note from the brand.
Palo Santo by Carner Barcelona is a fragrance for women and men. Palo Santo was launched in 2015. The nose behind this fragrance is Shyamala Maisondieu. Top notes are artemisia and rum; middle notes are milk, guaiac wood and tonka bean; base notes are vetiver, vanilla and sandalwood.
TomBoy – :
I have to second Emski777. This was a huge disappointment. I love palo santo. I love Cuirs by this same house. It seemed like a sure thing and instead it was this awful, cloying, sweet vanilla mall juice.
Stay well away if you don’t like sweet vanilla fragrances.
ПУШИСТИК – :
Yuk!!! Oh how I LOVE the smell of palo santo wood, all by itself. It struck me that it would be awesome to be able to wear that smell and I admit I went against my gut feeling with buying this one.
How can I say this – it’s obviously a very personal thing but this smelled of all the generic airport duty free stink shops that I have NEVER found a perfume that I like it. This perfume has that overload feeling, it’s trying to hard, it’s just SO not me. I like the skilful blends and this just seems loud and gaudy, sticky and horrible. I think it’s maybe a cultural thing – it feels kind of alien to me, the idea of wearing such a stench as this! Bleurgh.
marko.69 – :
Palo Santo along with El Born are the best unisex gourmand scents I’ve ever experienced. I’m not a gourmand lover and I can’t stand milk note but Palo Santo is a masterpiece. Overall it feels slightly boozy gourmand. Suitable for fall, spring, day and night and cool summer evenings.
Dominant notes are hot milk, it’s exactly the smell of milk before the boiling point. Smooth tonka beans which blend perfectly with the delicious vanilla. They feel like one note. Noticeable woody notes at the background and soft/mild rum. The rest notes are very mild. As time passes the woody notes and the sandalwood become slightly stronger.
Performance is very good. Long lasting with moderate sillage/projection.
If you love milk and gourmands give it a try. Highly recommended.
bwg290bedyWelty – :
On my (female) skin, Palo Santo comes off quite masculine. Especially in the top notes it’s very woody and boozy. The rum note really dominates the opening. Angelica is another strong note, it’s a little licorice-like. Together these two create an aniseed spirit vibe.
I can smell the vanilla and tonka underneath that. The milk note is not that noticeable to me, it’s more like a creamy warm vanilla milk than actual fresh milk. This is really sweet. For several hours, angelica, guajac wood and vetiver overpower these sweet notes though. The scent only becomes smoother and more balanced far into the drydown.
I guess this might not suit me too well. I seem to get a very different experience than other reviewers and I find some notes a little overwhelming. Because I like the final drydown, I might revisit my sample in late autumn or winter to see if it reacts differently in the cold, though it wasn’t really hot when I tried it in spring either.
agafadon – :
Gorgeous sent. 3 hours of great projection, followed by another 3 hours of good performance. Skin scent for a further 4 hours, total duration 10 hours, 6 of which is amazing, the last 4 is still very nice too.
All thing considered, (smell, performance and price) 8/10
lexaor – :
Wow, do I love this…the milky note is very light and elevates the woody notes to make this almost, dare I say, a summer fragrance?!?!…I don’t find this very sweet at all, but a creamy, woody blend that is calming and grounding…a new fave…
доц – :
No, no, no! I can’t get over the milky note, it has no business here. For me the milky note is nauseating. If you try this you must be prepared for it and want to smell like baby formula. To me this is an epic fail.
вета – :
Scent – milky woody vanilla opening, that transitioned into a not so sharp vetiver, with tonka bean by its side until the very end.
Season/Time of Day – I prefer to use this one in the warmer months, day or night.
Projection – I didn’t get noticed, I didn’t get a compliment.
Longevity – I get 12hrs consistently.
darda – :
I get more sweetness than expected in the beginning.
Then I smell the smooth , creamy palo santo incense blend with the sweetness beautifully after 2 minutes. Soon after you notice the clean vetiver and patchouli raise the sense of depth and strength of the fragrance. Some woods come in the base and your nose wants to smell vanilla that isn’t there.
I need to test this more, but this is beautiful and the only gourmand I own after smelling a few and the only one appropriate for men, besides Black Phantom, that I have smelled that would work on a man.
This is a upscale and lavish party fragrance or a wedding fragrance. This worn with white or white and gold would be complimentary. Women do not feel shy, you can pull this off and might just love it.
Smells like a beautiful Bread pudding to me with a confident edge. Again I recommend this and find it a masterpiece. Not a vanilla bomb or overly creamy or milky. love,love,love and a killer fall outdoor fragrance, or winter indoor fragrance.
8 to 10 hours longevity and projects strongly and until it settles down to elbow length. It certainly can be sexy, but I find it more on the comforting side. Guys in tan Celtic wool sweaters and girls in white blouses or Natural tone turtle necks with this fragrance would be a knock-out.
Артёмка – :
Cherry Darling… I’m surprised that your nose isn’t picking up vetiver in the drydown….
It’s the most balanced gourmand I have ever smelled…
Anmakss – :
I get a creamy smooth but sweet slightly woodsy vibe. However, after an hour or two, it just becomes cloyingly sweet on my skin. I’m not a fan of super sweet fragrances.
As for the name, I don’t know of many who really nailed the smell of actual Palo Santo wood in a fragrance. However, I’ve tried a couple recently that are worth sampling if you’re also looking for that, and they are Antimony by House of Matriarch and Santo Incienso by The Different Company.
Ryslan7739 – :
When I wear this, I imagine myself in the corner of a cozy cafe in the middle of winter. The streets are covered lightly in snow and Christmas decorations are up, people are walking past the cafe window smiling and Christmas songs are playing in the background.
What I get for this is a milky woodiness with a slight incense like quality. It’s soft and very comforting. It borders on gourmand, I would prefer to say a “woody gourmand”. Picture warm milk being pour over Guaiac wood, then dust a bit of tonka over it. Now this sounds weird, but imagine a slightly herbal-like vanilla vetiver wafting in the air. Put all of this together and this is what Palo Santo edp conjures up for me.
I don’t like giving fragrances a seasonal description, but this is great for those cozy winter and fall days. Even great as a night fragrance going to dinner or something like that.
Association types:
Food: bread….soaked in a milky rum batter mix
Feeling: cozy, nostalgia
Time of day: dusk, cool
Color: swirly milky brown and white
In the family of: Jeux de Peau (for the dry bread scent), Dries Van Noten, I Love NY For All (the peppery opening and milkyness)
Sirenitia – :
This is a very wearable fall fragrance for me. I find it warm, welcoming & easy, but also deep and enigmatic. It carries the mystery of far away lands. Evoking the unknown.
Loved it right away, but waited a few weeks before committing to a FB.
It has the smokiness of burned palo santo, but also the sweetness of the wood when fresh.
I get a boozy feeling, but I find it just at the beginning and it does not really last. It’s more about the milkines and softnes of the fragrance. It’s so cozy. I like to burn palo santo at my house and was worried that I would find the perfume to smokey and heavy. But it is just perfect. I get lots of tonka bean and just enough vanilla. Nicely blended. I would not call this really a gourmand scent, but it has a gourmandish sweetnes.
It takes you to another place. I find it distressing, soothing. Grounding.
Longevity is all day, silage moderate. I lose it during the day and have the sensation that it’s gone, but every time I get back home, I can smell it clearly. Very nice.
Knifeman – :
I liked it from the first spray and I bought it. It’s sweet, aromatic woody. Caractere! I would only have wished last longer. It I have to use some one of my Profumum brand collection if I want the long lasting.
mironn82 – :
To describe Palo Santo in one word: gourmand. What a delicious gourmand!
Right from the top you can smell the boozy vanilla and later it will create this warm milk vibe, perfectly blended with the guaiac wood and tonka bean.
It’s very creamy, warm, somewhat boozy and sweet, but not overly sweet. The warm milk accord takes the scent to a unique level, in my opinion.
I still need to test it more to know how how it performs, but, for scent wise, it’s a 10/10.
pavel.bobrovnik – :
Original Carner work where the effect of combining milk, rum, tonka and vanilla causes a homogeneous blend caramelee, sweet, very interesting liqueur, entering full in the gourmand aromas.
In short, it is a kind of liquor filled liquor very appetizing.
The projection and the duration are moderate and good qualities.
Rating: 6
sergei1975 – :
A very nearly an orgasmic opening for me. Palo santo is right up my street in oh so many ways, it smells like as if Alessandro Gaultieri made a gourmand. This is the acceptable and enjoyable side of the warm milk fragrance because it’s a little smokey and woody unlike a jeux de peux for example.
Boozy, tonka bean but with gourgeous guiac wood underneath, grounding it and adding a hint of spice and earth and most importantly curbing some of that sweetness.
The only downside and this seems to be a theme of my reviews of niche perfumery at the moment, is the longevity. I never used to be someone who associated a high price or exclusivity with long lasting performance, not all fragrances need to last or have massive trails. However, I do feel a little short changed when they fade in a hour or two. This is usually exacerbated by the fact many of these niche scents open so strongly you think, wow I’m gonna be smelling of this for a week and when you can barely smell it an hour later, it just kinda sucks.
Anyway Palo Santo looses some of it’s complexity in the drydown and gets a bit sweeter and creamier, more vanilla like basically but very close to the skin.
Only a minor complaint because this is an amazing fragrance with lots to enjoy.
Update: The second time wearing PS and it’s lasted much better although it’s primary on clothes but that’s still fine. Also I noticed in the opening it was a little reminscent for a second of Rochas Man but hugely high end and much better, thicker and more complex mind. Then the deep drydown like 6-8 hours + smelled a lot like Givenchy Play Intense, another fragrance I really like but didn’t start out that way. All these comparisons are only slight and even if they weren’t still positive because I own and like both, PS has a lot going for it.
Vladz – :
This formula can easily take you to the tropical forests of Paraguay with the real gaiac wood (aka palo santo, aka lignum vitae) from that location.
Apart from gaiac, the perfume formula features a whole bunch of exotic woods from South America and the Caribbean: tonka from Venezuelan, amyris from Dominican Republic and quite fittingly a rum note.
Overall smoky and creamy, and a sweet nuance provided by tonka.
Some people smell caramel, but it’s a trick played by the combination of gaiac, tonka, davana and milk accord.
chiga – :
Too sweet – almost candy like reminds me of Werther’s Original. Longevity and projections are really good. Overall a pleasant fragrance but alas at a high price – at this price point it’s a “pass”.
Scent: 8/10
Longevity: 9/10
Sillage: 9/10
Cost ratio: 4/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Not a safe blind buy but worthy checking out for the gourmand frag lovers out there.
stokton – :
This is great – but the drydown is vanilla and tonka bean and nothing else. So it just turns into a sweet vanilla.
чукку – :
Palo Santo is all over vetiver on me.Not bad but it is very woody scent -when I was rather expecting some sweetness coming from tonka and vanilla.No way, any creaminess or delicacy.There are some milky accents, but they are hidden in depth.
First associations with Sycomore Chanel or even super dry Encre Noir.
The name touches straight the essence of the scent -I can easily imagine small pieces of wood burnt in a bowl to give a room business smell or create a special aura for good rituals.Some exotic impressions come from guaiac wood.
It becomes more subtle with time but it`s still rather masculine scent.Its nature is additionally underlined by noble rum notes which are present in the background. Not gourmand at all.Average longevity and sillage. Rather for niche lovers.Nice but nothing special or unusual.
Alexsbk1991 – :
Gourmand fragrance. A fresh full cream vanilla milk & tonka beans in a wooden room with vetiver decorating the walls.
Helleye – :
I love palo santo (palo santo is not agarwood/oud, it is guaiac, and they smell totally different). I burn the wood regularly, and I also have the essential oil. This is an artistic interpretation, a beautiful one, that plays on the creamy facet of the scent of the actual wood. Palo Santo is definitely not a palo santo “soliflore”, so one must try and get past the name and not expect something so simple.
Right off the bat it smells like the booziest bourbon vanilla poured into scalded milk. The effect is a bit like a milder, creamier version of a buttered popcorn Jelly Belly. Quite sweet, actually. Condensed milk also comes to mind. The lovely woods are in the background, and altogether this is the milkiest, creamiest perfume I have ever encountered.
Sillage is great, and the milk note is pronounced, which is not the norm (in my experience) with perfumes claiming to contain a milk note.
Highly recommended for those who love creamy woods, but be prepared for the fact that this is gourmand. I am not sure if that was the intention of the nose for it to be so, but I get more mental images of food than I do of woods.
torres3a – :
I like this very much, though it’s completely different from my usual florals. At first whiff, the rum is very noticeable, followed quickly by sweet warm milk and spices. Interestingly, the top note other than rum is listed here as artemisia, but the perfumer calls it “Indian davana”, which is artemisia pallens. This is one of its qualities, per Wikipedia: “When applied on the skin, Davana is said to smell differently on different persons. This peculiar property is highly valued in high class perfumery to create fragrances with truly individual notes.” Maybe that explains the widely different reactions here to Palo Santo. Luckily for me, it seems to work!
stalker1979 – :
Why so harsh?! Wow, I did not expect this.
This is glorious. Woody, creamy, milky, long lasting. A warm cloud of delicious rum and vetiver. Comforting, attractive, unique and warming. For me it’s a win.
pompyxns588Diobtetty – :
Amazing nice, complex fragrance, 10+ hour longevity. ”Warm caramel, sweet tonka bean and vetyver fuse with the intensity of Palo Santo creating a fragrance that calms the soul.”
kucJIotHuk – :
Compré hace un par de meses el set de muestras de la firma con la ilusión de descubrir si habían sido capaces de plasmar el aroma del palo santo a un perfume. Desgraciadamente no tiene absolutamente nada que ver. Huele demasiado dulce, a la media hora resulta empalagosísimo. El resto de perfumes de la marca me parecen bastante corrientes. No destacaría ninguno. Quiero decir con esto que no me parecen de perfumería nicho. Bueno sí, en lo 90 euros que debes pagar por 50 ml.
hann752 – :
That burnt tire smell, that’s the palo santo (guaiacum), which roughly translates into “sacred stick”. In South America they burn actual sticks of this wood as incense and it is also used for spiritual ceremonies to ward off evil. I have yet to try this offering but I can’t imagine having to pay $150 to smell like it. For $1, you can get half a dozen palo santo sticks in the local store.
LiganDeMorgan – :
First impression based on a sample. All I got first 2 hours was a harsh smell. My nose was attacked by some distinctive and burned tyre smell which I guess it’s Guaiac wood. Once it settled down the sweet creamy/milky sandal wood with some tonca beans and vanilla in the background joined in. From this point till it became skin scent I enjoyed what I was smelling on my hand. Versatility wise….hmm..Limited I guess! But longivety is beast mood.
maxssuss – :
Some wonderful Guaiac Wood here!! Nuff said 😉 Love the Carner Barcelona house….
ibtrffsrcd – :
Looking at the votes for the main notes is funny.. Being that the scent is called “Palo Santo” you would think that palo santo wood would be a prominent note.. Looking at the votes for the main notes the “Guaiac Wood aka Palo Santo” is the least voted note.. Maybe some just do not know that Guaiac Wood is Palo Santo..
sypintara – :
Milky, stodgy rice pudding. Thick, syrupy and cloying.
A huge misfire from this house.