Embers
TRNP (Teone Reinthal Natural Perfume)

Simply the best real Sandalwood scent there is. If you’ve ever tried Trumper’s Sandalwood Cologne or a really old batch of Egoiste, this is what it smells like with the real Mysore stuff cranked up to 11.

When buying records, don’t be fooled by the occasional critic who happens to be deaf. This is music.

Stunning, especially for the early onset of chilly fall weather. Sprinkles of spicy hot cinnamon atop a warm, woody, creamy vanilla drizzled cupcake. A hint of a fresh, zesty, peppery rose (Otto) makes an appearance. The dry down is incredible. Make no mistake about it, this is NOT a gourmand.

*Note: This is a review of the 2012 version of Embers.

Embers opens with a dash of benzoin enhanced moderately sweet, smooth vanilla before gradually transitioning to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart, it stays highly linear as the vanilla remains, now joined by faint dull rose and a warm spiced woody-amber accord. During the late dry-down the linearity continues, as the rose vacates, leaving the diminished though still remaining vanilla to couple with the warm spiced woody amber accord through the finish. Projection is above average and longevity average at around 8 hours on skin.

Well, I knew it had to eventually happen... Even the strongest perfumers and/or houses with enough releases have to have a couple that really don't impress, and finally I have sniffed one from TRNP. Embers (2012) is a relatively simplistic warm spiced woody amber perfume at its core. The spice is blended enough to make picking out individual notes difficult, but if the result is as mundane as found here, it really doesn't matter and I gave up trying. While Mysore sandalwood is found in the official note list (at a 7.5% concentration, no less), I'll be darned if I sniffed any. Really the vanilla and spiced woody amber accord are the stars here, and they really are pretty much all there is to it. The perfume actually *does* smell good, but spiced woody-amber perfumes are so abundant that one ponders why they should purchase yet another. The bottom line is the $220 per 30ml bottle Embers is a pleasant but unimpressive addition to the all too crowded woody-amber field, earning a "good" 3 stars out of 5 rating, but an avoid recommendation unless you are planning on layering it with a real Mysore sandalwood soliflore perfume like Mysore Santal by Ethos Grooming Essentials (which I tried doing briefly and enjoyed).

2012 batch: some soft citrus and a soft vanillic thing with a powdery rose, and a soft sour woody undertone in the base. Had to spray 5 times in a single skin spot to be able to half-perceive something. Soft seems to be the anthem of this fragrance.
It reminds me of Nivea cream. Leans feminine.
I'm a strong lover of creative indie fragrances, but $220 for 30ml of vanillic nothingness, it's a hard no. I hope that Reinthal woke up and seriously reformulated this one to make it look like a perfume in 2020. Throwing oils together in a vial is not synonymous to creating a perfume, and here it's a textbook example. Sandalwood? MIA.
If a powdery/musky/ambery rose is what you look for, go for Villoresi's Musk, and you'll get to the next level.
You got it: ultra hard pass for me.

2021 batch: Reinthal apparently woke-up (a bit). Nice creamy/musky vanilla in the top,with high quality creamy sandalwood (rosewood?) in the base, clearly noticeable - this time. It's more convincing than the 2012, the quality is there, and I can see this scent as a crowdpleaser, mostly feminine crowds. But still, it has a very simple structure and, at that price point, I expect creativity, aka: an olfactory journey with various levels, not just a mix of oils with linear result.

I agree with PStoller: "Sometimes, you have to let the ingredients speak for themselves". This is basically what Reinthal is charging for: a high quality sandalwood oil, with a twist. My question is: is premium warranted for just 'a (micro) twist', since the job is mainly done by the materials, not the perfumer's skills (as shown by the difference 2012 vs 2021, in which the major difference is sandalwood concentration, going from utterly forgettable to ok/good)? Wouldn't the sandalwood speak even better without anything else (aka pure sandalwood), thus what is the point of this blend?

I don't have the answer for others, but as far as I'm concerned, should I want at some point a similar scent with high quality sandalwood centric (by materials) but basic (by creativity), I will opt directly for a vial of high quality sandalwood oil. It'll will save me (a lot of) money, and be deprived of any unwanted interference.

This could fit well in the Escentric Molecules line, if they kept moving forward by adding a 'N' series ('Natural') to their existing 'M' series (Molecule, nearly pure synthetics), and 'E' series (Escentric, composition based on the respective synthetic).
Embers 2021 could be renamed 'Natural 04' (pure sandalwood), and they could create 'Escentric Natural 04', a fragrance composed around natural sandalwood... that could very well be a renamed MPG Santal Noble? Just a suggestion.

I'll add a review. This is for the 2012 release of which a sample was kindly provided by a BN member:

Description (presumably for the 2012 release) from Fragrantica. I think these are usually taken from the house's marketing: "It contains a hefty dose of rare and precious Mysore Sandalwood, hand made bourbon vanilla tincture, labdanum, benzoin, rose otto and a few special herbs and spices… a unisex perfume is worth its weight in sweet dreams. Perfect for cool & cold weather, Embers is luscious, warm and cosy, like snuggling up in front of a fire with the love of your life, sipping hot chocolate whilst a blizzard rages outside"

Notes from Fragrantica: "Sandalwood, Bourbon Vanilla, Spices, Benzoin, Bulgarian Rose, Labdanum, Herbal Notes

My impressions: A powerful, sweet, vanilla, almond and fenugreek blast with a bit of a phenolic, medicinal note (that I have read some refer to as Band-Aids). I seems to be especially sensitive to this medicinal note, as it has bothered me in many fragrances. I do not get any of the eucalyptus or bergamot notes mentioned by some others. A true Mysore sandalwood is there from the beginning, but it plays second fiddle to the strong gourmand notes to me. The sandalwood starts to get stronger after a while when some of the opening notes begin to settle down. I get a hit of a nice powdery rose and some incense smoke, and the amber base accord. The vanilla and gourmand spices are still there, but more balanced in the overall composition. The scent is close wearing and incredibly long lasting. The powdery rose is not too prominent to bother my like the powdery note does in Crabtree and Evelyn Extract of Mysore Sandalwood, but it is enough to bother my girlfriend, who calls it "too feminine".