Original Santal
Creed (2005)

The opening consisted of some citrus paired with some herbal notes and spices. This is followed up with some florals and oriental notes before drying down to the familiar ambergris base. Why was this called Original Santal? For the life of me I don't understand. I was not able to detect any amount of sandalwood in the fragrance. Many others compared it to Joop which I definitely agree, at best Original Santal may be considered a moderate improvement but nothing more than that. Performance was fair, I got around 4-6 hours from it. One can probably wear this casually, to work, or going out. Not something that I'd ever want to reach for.

Nice scent, aromatic, dry, very well balanced and rather sharp I would say, with the sandalwood that is well perceptible but does not work as a protagonist. Masculine for my nose, the aromatic notes of lavender, juniper and (I think) violet leaves are very evident, even if not shown in the pyramid. Higher performance than many other Creeds.
The price is obviously exaggerated but ... if you like it then it makes no sense to argue about the price since, in my opinion, the good 90% of "niche" perfumes have an absolutely disproportionate price.

I'm reviewing my 2016 bottle (as the new ones are awfully synthetic and weak), Original Santal is an absolute joy to own in the British climate, it has a structure and scent dna that lends itself to any season I think, smells like soapy cinnamon and vanilla with fruity touches, now that joop is a faded memory this dna will be new to a whole generation of people, assuming they don't watch Jeremy fragrance they won't have tried MB individual, it is a cosy scent but at the same time loads of fun, I've smelt high quality Amber based fragrances with a similar sillage, it's a sort of classy bubblegum type of smell, I don't mean like invictus by any stretch I just mean it's like a spicey bubblegum vibe but ultra classy, I mean how can chewing bubble gum be a classy thing..this is where the quality and blending comes in, like most early formula Creeds the perfumer has a natural talent for saying to himself when something is finished and a complete product, the balance of performance, quality and fun are all here in perfection and in my opinion way better than joop, original santal has always been in my top 3 Creed fragrances and I've managed to buy a 2016 back up bottle, now be warned the new formulas are not good at all in my opinion, one third of the performance and more synthetic which is where most people will judge this scent, maybe Creed will improve things going forward hopefully but for now I suggest people buy vintage or avoid altogether.

It's actually a nice, casual fragrance, and regarding all the commentary about cost, I've purchased it twice now at acceptable discounts. It smells good. No, it's no Egoiste, no Bois des Iles. Just a fun spray and go. Light application, please.

Wore it around the house and once the top note had gone, my wife looked at me and said 'Wow, are you wearing Joop, I haven't smelled that in years'. So basically £200 Joop!

I don't dislike the smell but (Joop had its own place and time) but I wouldn't be rushing out to buy it!

First Creed that I ever called a scrubber. Don't know what happened here but like some have already posted, it doesn't even seem like a Creed at all - just maybe someone else's interpretation or something but definitely a failure. Why anyone would pay $355 for even the smaller bottle is beyond me. My observations are from a sample atomizer. There is no sandalwood, just a mess of synthetics that, granted, do last a long time. After 3 hours I just couldn't take it anymore.