Hermessence Santal Massoïa Hermes for women and men

The issue with notes is that you can guess but you never truly know what they combine into! Case in point- this perfume. It smells nothing like expected from reading the notes. I don't get any fruits, there is nothing milky here and it is just barely sweet.... if at all. Imagine dry woods impregnated with dusty iris and you have a better idea of what this actually smells like. It is very masculine even though it is listed as unisex. I hate to say this but it smells like shoe polish. Iris has a tendency to do this to a composition.

Great fragrance, it has the same DNA as a couple of other Hermes fragrances. It reminds me a little bit of Poivre Sarmancande and Paprika Brazil. I don't smell much Sandalwood though. And the milk, who came up with that? None whatsoever. Nice fragrance nonetheless.

This one is great, very pleasant and smooth.

What a peculiar fragrance! It smells quite milky to me, like a can of condensed milk or a baby that has just been breastfed.
It is a comforting scent, suited for a cold weather, longevity is pretty good...yet...I don't know...I sort of like it but also do not like it. I think it's the sweet milky note I am not keen on.

I've been wearing some verious kind of santal fragrances but all of them were for long term to strong - smelling like a barique wine barrel for all day definitely isn't what I want. Santal Massoia was love for the first sniff as all components are well balanced and it isn't overpowering either. Even again a typical JCE fragrance with its airy attribute.

I don't get much of sandalwood, neither milk. The first notes remind me of squeezed suculents like aloe vera or crassula, then the perfume becomes slightly sweeter, it's not the milky sweetness that would make me sick but rather dried fruits sweetness combined with wood.
The sandalwood and massoia are there, furtherly present, distant, such an ideal that the perfume would like to reach but it... I cannot say fails: no, the lasting power is incredible on me, but it's still just a concept of the 'idea of sandalwood', not sandalwood itself - but what else is a perfume: an idea of something material :)

To me, this smells like a sweeter version of Bois Blonds by Atelier Cologne. It's woody and I get the hint of something sweet, almost like vanilla. I didn't smell the coconut note. This fragrance is very light and the staying power is poor.

Hermès Hermessence SANTAL MASSOIA is definitely the nicest sandalwood-centric perfume I've smelled in recent history, and there have been many since sweet sandalwood somehow became designated as "the juice" from which to start many a designer launch. Although the sweetness in this case appears not to be due to vanilla, there's enough sugar in this composition to make it closer to an oriental than a woody perfume. Some gents therefore may find SANTAL MASSOIA too feminine. In the drydown, I detect an emergent (pseudo-)woody fig quality which may or may not appeal to some wearers.

The quasi-coconut milk note (apparently constructed from massoia and "milk") adds creaminess but not the scent of coconut, which will be good news for those who eschew suntan lotion and monoi facsimiles. SANTAL MASSOIA is a very simple perfume. If you like natural-smelling sweet creamy sandalwood, then you'll like this scent, but it's not a complex or provocative perfume. Nonetheless, it wears well, and I would not mind in the least having a bottle of this!

Name :
Santal Massoia (10th Hermessence 2011)

Created by JEAN -Claude Ellena for
Hermessence Collection


Supple
Instinctive
Sensual


The magnetic union of two milky woods,sandalwood and massoia.A foray into the unexpected,a fragrance that is both sweet and pungent,combining the skin-like supplensess of these woods with the warmth of resin and the delicious element of dried fruits and dulce de leche.Strange and familiar in one bottle!!!

Price:175€ -100ml Edt.
278€ - 200ml Edt.
And Nomad Set 4x15ml - 104€ or 12x15ml -312€

Santal Massoia is a nice milky sandalwood scent. Classy, elegant, understated. Hugely overpriced. Absurdly fleeting.

On paper and clothes, SM is honey sweet with a distinct peppery alcohol accord that is only mildly off-putting. On my skin, it is buttery sweet wood and cotton rag, an old cigar box full of postcards. There is something here like a hint of wood glue that keeps SM from becoming cloying or powdery.

None of that matters, though, because like all of the Hermessence line (save Ambre Narguile), thirty minutes after I spray this on, I can't smell it even if I clear my palate and sniff nose to skin.

A nice mild sandlewood/floral scent but at 170 euros it's way, WAY over-priced for what it is. Obviously Hermes set out to make an exclusive line that all the riff-raff couldn't afford when it created the Hermessence Collection.

Also, it has the potency of a cologne, rather than an EDT or EDP.

This smells like Fig to me even though it's not listed, and I see that I am not alone in that thought.
It's soft subtle, and gets a little more creamy and woodsy as it mellows, but to me it's not as fab as many of the other scents in this line.
Has good lasting power and moderate sillage.

After a fresh start, it turns very sweet and milky, but... smells more like a fig milk than a sandalwood. I was waiting for a beautiful milky and natural sandalwood, and Ellena brings us a fig fragrance quite similar to Diptyque's Philosykos. Very disappointing, I can't say if I like it or not.

I' ve tried it today in the Hernes Boutique, one day before it will be in the shelves. Those of you that expecting something smooth and creamy, will probably be a bit disappointed. It is nice, very woody, and as it dries down, it has a hint of a pine smell, a bit like a fresh green christmas tree. I will defenitely go for it!