Looking for sandalwood soaps

I'm about to finish my DR Harris Sandalwood which was wonderful, will have lasted about 9 months by the time it's done and created a great lather. But what I'm looking for is something that smells a little more like Sandalwood. This DR Harris is almost not even sandalwood. Not warm and sweet enough. What I want is something that smells like Truefitt's Sandalwood soap but without being so horrible to lather, something that lathers like DR Harris but with a more sandalwood scent. I can't smell these myself because there aren't a lot of shops here in Paris. I order my shaving supplies online.

Thanks for any recommendations.

If you can find the orig AOS Sandalwood, it sounds like it would suit your fancy

tarrant said:

If you can find the orig AOS Sandalwood, it sounds like it would suit your fancy

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Sadly, as I mentioned, I'm in Paris. I can't get AOS products.

You could have luck on the bay?

How is Taylor's for lather and scent? Anyone know?

I love the Proraso Red Sandlewood and Shea Butter. I find the croap stronger than the cream but both are very nice. A bit more 'purfumey' than the Art of Shaving Sandlewood but I like it better. Plus it's cheap.

I enjoy my Truefitt & Hill sandalwood soap. Sorry to hear that you have problems lathering it.

Mine lathers very well. I do put a little water on it at first while my brush soaks.
Perhaps load more? I start my lather in a scuttle, but find it easier to finish building the lather on my face.

I have used it for a month straight with no issues. It is a puck purchased in 2015.

The other sandalwood I enjoy is the TOBS.

Pepin said:

I enjoy my Truefitt & Hill sandalwood soap. Sorry to hear that you have problems lathering it.

Mine lathers very well. I do put a little water on it at first while my brush soaks.
Perhaps load more? I start my lather in a scuttle, but find it easier to finish building the lather on my face.

I have used it for a month straight with no issues. It is a puck purchased in 2015.

The other sandalwood I enjoy is the TOBS.

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I worked it for several minutes, never got a lather out of it. I'm not the only one, there's a whole thread dedicated to the difficulty of getting Truefitt soaps to lather. Working the puck more and more eventually made the entire puck disappear in 3 months.

In any event do you find that the Truefitt and Taylor's Sandalwood smell the same or are they different?

Your clearly a soap guy as am I but I did have a sample of the truefitt sandalwood cream and it was so great I may have to buy a tube. It would be my first cream purchase ever.

DRH soaps, on the whole, are of lower intensity/lower concentration than TH's offerings. That being stated, to my senses, "pound for pound", DRH's Sandalwood is truer to form, than the more cologne-/synthetic-like TH.
I find TOBS' version closer to TH's--in terms of intensity and quality--than to DRH's.
On the other hand, the Sandalwood scent in AOS soap is more potent and homogeneous relative to that of DRH.
If you can't find the AOS, then, I echo the Proraso rec, whose scent is almost as true as that of AOS. However, its performance is sub-par relative to DRH or AOS, IMO.
Of course, none of the aforementioned use authentic Mysore Sandalwood. But then again, who does? *sigh*

AOS is the only sandalwood I've tried and it's pretty darn good.

I agree that Proraso Red soap is a great earthy type of sandalwood. I have heard a lot of people have performance problems with T&H, GFT, and TOBS soaps, and that the creams are better. Not sure if that is true since I haven't tried their soaps. Chiseled Face makes a sandalwood that is also earthy, or Haslinger Sandalwood is a great scent and performance as well.

Proraso red meets you scent criteria but is a croap not a hard puck. I've tried a sample of chiseled face sandalwood and its also very good. The scent is on the earthy woody side, close to what actual sandalwood smells like. I cant reasonably comment on intensity though as i only had a sample and am not sure what impact that would have had on the scent.

tinpanalley said:

How is Taylor's for lather and scent? Anyone know?

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TOBS sandalwood soap is great. Lather is easy to achieve and scent...well, it's the TOBS sandalwood scent. Some like it, some don't. I for one like it. Very powdery, quite sweet, but also old fashioned and masculine. Stronger on the puck than in lather form, where it softens and gets "woodier."

See here for a demonstration to show you how easy it lathers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNupT2bhHq8

Just went through a formal test with sandalwood creams. The TOBS is great.

tinpanalley said:

How is Taylor's for lather and scent? Anyone know?

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I find the cream (soft soap) is great but I did not care for their hard puck. It didn't lather as well and the scent was not as good either.

tinpanalley said:

I worked it for several minutes, never got a lather out of it. I'm not the only one, there's a whole thread dedicated to the difficulty of getting Truefitt soaps to lather. Working the puck more and more eventually made the entire puck disappear in 3 months.

In any event do you find that the Truefitt and Taylor's Sandalwood smell the same or are they different?

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To me they are different scents. The T&H sandalwood I would describe as a mix of sandalwood and a traditional cologne.
The TOBS is stronger in the sandalwood part, and has some powderiness to it.

You may want to consider Haslinger's Sandalwood as it is readily available in Europe. I am not sure about the scent as I find it a tad mild, but it is a fantastic soap, really, and one of the best I have tried.

I would highly recommend some of the US-based artisans, but that might be a tad expensive to have them shipped to Paris.
Good luck.

Try Captains Choice!

celestino said:

You may want to consider Haslinger's Sandalwood as it is readily available in Europe. I am not sure about the scent as I find it a tad mild, but it is a fantastic soap, really, and one of the best I have tried.

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+1 Haslinger Sandalwood (all Haslinger soaps, actually) are excellent. Scent-wise, Haslinger soaps are on the milder side, as noted by Celestino, but the superb lather and subtler scent works for me.