EP02: Santal 33... Is it Pickles? - The Cologne Sessions

Ryan is trying Santal 33 for the first time.. The Cologne Sessions are side quests with Myke and his new work friend, Ryan. Confusing we know... but, we hope to keep the legacy alive with taking a new friend on a journey that has given us so many ups, downs, and all around great memories.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the cologne sessions. I'm Mike. And I'm Ryan. And we're two work friends getting together smelling different fragrances. Ryan here, he's a novice, he's brand new. He's only smelled one fragrance so far, so this is gonna be episode two.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Officially smell the fragrance. You know, there's been experiences throughout 29 years I've been on this rock, but yeah, this is official.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Official, all we need is a whistle. Well, today we're smelling Santel 33 by Leilavo. And I can't wait to see how much you think this is. Because we said last episode, from now on, you gotta guess the price first, just based on the fragrance profile.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

For uh for the first you know, handful of episodes, maybe some more. I'm gonna be shooting in the dark. That's okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

That's okay. He also is nice enough to get us Yukon Coffee, which is a local chain here in Texas that we absolutely love. Hey, you know, what are friends for?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yeah, that's my co-host right there.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Well, I'm gonna read these reviews and then we'll see how it stacks up against how you feel about it a little later. The first one is from IOH IOB Ha. I'll go with that. You're a rabbit. You live in a dead garden. Your entire diet consists of unremarkable weeds, poison ivy, oak, sumac, and the occasional poisonous flower blossom. But this isn't just any garden because its owner decided to plant a bunch of cucumbers this year. So you're a rabbit, you live in a mostly dead garden, your entire diet consists of raw cucumbers, unremarkable weeds, poison ivy, oak sumac, and the occasional poisonous flower blossom. The best part is that every so often you get to munch on all these things after they've been spritzed with an insecticide. SantaL 33 by Leilabo.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

That's awesome. I hope that throughout this journey that we're taking, smelling these scents, that it like unlocks a part of my brain that will allow me to leave such thorough, yeah, thoughtful reviews. It's gonna take you places or I hate it.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Just something that like I could write a little short story about it. Right. We don't know if Ayoba is really AI or an actual person. It does end in AI. All right, here's a positive one. One of the best niche fragrances ever, an absolute masterpiece from Frank Volkle. Anyone who says Santel 33 smells like dill pickle has snorted too much substance in their smeller. Haha, kidding, but not really. And we're gonna smell this thing, but first, let's just take a minute and talk about Creed's Aventus that you got to smell last day.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Yeah, if you were kind enough to let me take it home and kind of put it in action. I was gone on a work trip pretty much all last week. You know, not too many chances to get a compliment out there. I didn't take it with me because one is an expensive bottle. I didn't want to risk it. But I tell you what, yesterday I did get home, took me a good old shower, got refreshed. Beyonce was off last night, so I got the spritz it on a little bit and take it for a test run, and it was well received. Okay. A positive experience. She said it was uh she could definitely smell the citrus. She didn't get any sweetness or like any of that pineapple or anything. Right. But I had mainly, I I think I just went on skin.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

So maybe that's on me for not being as thorough and trying to get a close yeah, you just walk around naked the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

But uh no, she was well received. She did not agree on the price tag. Okay. Um, you know, we're seeing out eye on that one. So woman after my own heart, she's frugal. That's a good find there. But she liked it. She said it was real musky. Uh, she did get kind of the woodiness, earthiness. Just like me too. I don't think she's well as well versed in a lot of her wooden wood scents, uh her forest scents. So she didn't give a specific wood by name, but yeah, she did like it. She said, you know, if you could find a copy of that, like she would enjoy smelling it.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Okay. So she said, I like it. I like it on you. I think it'd be good. Just don't spend that type of money. Yeah, exactly. Okay. The times that I've worn it, I feel like people enjoy it on me. I've gotten quite a few compliments and people seem to think that it works well for my personality. But again, there's a fragrance by Insider called Insidious, which is a clone of this, but it's done by a like a really high-end perfumer. So it's somebody who really knows what they're doing. They're not just like mixing stuff up in a bathtub, like they're you know, in the laboratory making it happen. And so it's really high quality and the longevity is great because that's one thing we didn't talk about. We talked about performance as like how long it's gonna last, but also the projection, too. You know, because some people want it, they want you to smell it from there.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah, you know. Okay, yeah, that's a good point. We didn't touch on that.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

I don't know that this one specifically, the Creed version, is like a beast as far as like it's just projection. It's not gonna reach out and touch. No, no, yeah. I don't know. Do you want fragrances like that?

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Would you like that? Or you know, if my sole purpose was to turn heads and try to reel in compliments, yeah, you know, I would definitely want to be casting as wide a net as possible. So if that's what I was looking for, absolutely. I want it to reach out, I want it to wander or to hook line and sinker somebody right over here. You know what I mean? Yeah. But I think for me right now personally, I would go for more longevity. Like I want to smell good for a long time. Especially if I'm gonna spend $500 on a bottle, I want to get my money's worth out of every time I squeeze that little cat.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

So well, a lot of the times that is a trade-off. The louder fragrances won't last as long. Yeah. Uh, and the ones that do last quite a long time don't project as loud. Because typically you'll kind of learn this throughout. Well, you have different types of fragrances. You'll have like an EDT. So if you see like eau de toilette, you'll see that sometimes. Okay. And then you have an EDP, which is an eau de parfum, and then you'll have a parfum. And that's a difference in the amount of oil versus perfumer's alcohol. And as you go up, you'll have more oil and less alcohol. So it stays closer to your skin, but it lasts longer because there's more of the raw materials and the fragrance chemicals that will stay on your skin longer as opposed to the alcohol, which projects it pushes it out, but it also wears the fragrance pretty thin.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

So there, there's pretty much a category for whatever you're trying to achieve. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Yeah, and sometimes you'll go, I really like this fragrance, but it's too loud and it doesn't last very long. So maybe I go with the EDP or the parfum so that it's less loud, but it lasts longer. That's sort of a thing. Look at that. My vernacular is ever increasing. We're gonna jump into this one now. Sandal. By Le Labo. Which you're a bilingual sort of man, so can you guess what that means? Le labo. Leilabo? Oh, you were gonna say sandal.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Sandal. Oh, yeah. Well, we'll get into this. Sounds sounds like it's got some some Spanish on there. Yeah, yeah. I think so. Leilabo. It just makes me all I hear is the lob.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

I just think like to throw or the throw. Well, in this case, I think it means the lab. So if you look, it's like very like, you know, it's got like the labels on it. Oh, I see it now.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

It looks like a test vial. Right, right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Spray it on there, soldier. All right, here we go. Let's get your your daily dose of spritz ASMR. Cool. A good crisp, just oh yeah. I like that. Power. Okay. Yeah, we'll go on the skin now. Now, is it more appropriate to to dab rather than to like rub? Because I know you said last time people would get on my on my hiny about uh rubbing it around on the skin. Yeah, you could probably dab, I'd say that punch the lotion in the basket.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Let's see, first reaction, what you think about it? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

I do like that one. It's like a soft, subtle. Dude, this is what I want my laundry room to smell like. Okay. Like anytime I walk into my laundry room, I want it to smell crisp, clear, and clean. I feel that. That's what this is to me right now on the test strip.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

So Santal is like uh, I guess a fancy highfalutin word for sandalwood. Okay. So this is a predominantly sandalwood fragrance.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yeah, that's nice. It smells like uh this also reminds me of like the beach. Okay. This is a very beachy smell to me. Yeah. Like everybody's wearing white. We're on the beach taking family photos. I could see that. Yep. This is this is what Uncle Tom's wearing today. But the cool Uncle Tom. That's right. The cool Uncle Tom. Yeah, I like it. Uh so that's the test trip. Let me let me smell the wrist. Oh, see, now that's different on the skin. How so? To me, it goes to more of like a there's a little bit of cinnamon, it's kind of warm.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Oh, okay. And that's not your macchiato over here you're smelling.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

I don't think so. Now it's just coming off my upper lip. I need to start doing this.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

To me, it does the same thing. Smells very clean, smells a little woodsy. This is kind of getting into more of that, like, especially on the skin, that kind of like cedar shaving sort of brightness.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

I can kind of okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Yesterday I wore this because I knew like we're setting up for a company 4th of July party, is which is happening today, but yesterday we were setting up for it. And I wore this because I was like, I need something light. And so I wore it, and I'm kind of walking back and forth between the two offices, and there's some gals that work at the other office that were falling behind me, and they're like, What are you wearing? And I was like, Oh, it's until 33. And they're like, Oh, we like kept smelling it blow towards us, like it's like loud, it smells great. And so I was like, Okay, and that's one thing that people say about this is like this is a pretty loud fragrance. Yeah, it carries real well. So I did get a little compliment from it yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

He's already farming, he's farming that aura. That's right. No, I I really do like this one on the skin. It's like a very warm and inviting scent for my personal palette. I think the people around me and myself personally, if I catch a whiff of it, would enjoy that.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Let's talk about what people do and don't like about this fragrance. We'll go through the pros and cons here really quick. It's a unique and polarizing fragrance. Okay. And as you heard from the review, some people say this smells like pickles.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

No. If anything, and that's this is not just because I'm wearing a cowboy hat, but uh it smells like a Cavendars.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Like it now, it's developing a little bit of leathery. Gotcha. Cavendars is like a western store.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Yeah, it it smells like just leather product a little bit. Okay. That's that's kind of what I'm getting now. Now this again, uh to me, I I really like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

This is unisex, so it's not marketed towards specifically men or specifically women. So, what do you think? Do you feel like it's masculine or do you feel like there's feminine qualities?

SPEAKER_01 11:23

To be a hundred percent honest, I would say on the skin, it's more of a a cologne or it's more male-oriented. Right. If my woman was wearing like a sundress or something and she and she sprayed Sandal 33 on the on the dress or you know, or a garment. And I think based off of that, if this is what the clothes scent would be like, yeah, that would be nice.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Okay. Another pro, it's a sharp, intoxicating leather and wood blend. Okay, so there you go. I've never heard anybody say this smells like leather before. We hit both of them. You you picked up on the wood, and I got the leather. Last one, green floral woody dry down with a creamy depth.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

A creamy depth. Yeah. Getting creamy up in here.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

The cons. Here's where I've heard people talk like this, but I've never smelled it specifically with this. Now I've smelled it with clones where like they've tried to create it for more affordable and it smells kind of pickkly. But it's a cons here are infamous dill pickle or vinegary smell. I definitely don't see I don't get any vinegar anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Yeah, I don't either on this.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

And maybe that's just because this is a 2021 batch.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

I don't really get a whole lot of pickle either. I don't see that. I don't get that either. Maybe it is a batch thing. I don't know. Or maybe it just maybe every now and then it just comes across a certain nose that that hits it a certain way, and somebody's just built a little different.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Second con is highly hyped and perceived as overpriced. So I'm curious to see what you think the price tag is on this. Okay. And the last one, jarring harsh opening that repels some.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Maybe that person, I know you said that it's got some reets, and you've even already got a compliment, you know, from someone in your proximity. But I wonder if maybe someone was fresh off an application and you know somebody walked up on them and they said, Whoa, now it's pretty strong.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Or maybe they just went ham on really spraying it down. Because sometimes the more you spray kind of changes the That's a variable people need to think about when spraying a review.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Yeah. Because maybe you didn't get any compliments, maybe you just drown yourself in We know people like that.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

That they go absolutely bonkers on spraying it. And guys, sometimes fragrances are like salt and pepper. A little bit can go a long way, and too much can absolutely run a dish. You want to guess the price tag on this?

SPEAKER_01 13:55

I don't think it's it's not gonna be in the in the creed range, but because I like it, I'm a little bit more inclined to probably throw a little higher number out. Okay. Let's see, let me tap into my third eye and see if I can. I'm gonna say I feel like that bottle would last me a long time. Um I've had it five years, so I'm gonna and and it's still three-quarter full, ladies and gentlemen. You can't see it. So uh I would say I'm gonna go $150. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

That's close. Okay. That is close. We're looking at $340.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

That wasn't close. No, I'm kidding. Okay. So there I was I was really hoping that it would be that. Because you're like, I could probably do this.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Yeah, yeah. Well, you can get so this is the Big Daddy. This is a three-ounce or a hundred mil bottle, but you could get 50 mil bottles for then closer. It might be in that 175 probably range. But this was, and I think that was close to that whenever I got it. So I got this, I mean, almost exactly five years ago. I got it in 2021 on June 21st. Okay. Yeah. So they put the date and everything, and you were kind of laughing because it was like uh bottled in Chicago by Chris. By Chris. The thing that I've noticed about this one is a little bit goes a long way. So you can tell in five years, I haven't even gone halfway through. Because you could probably do four sprays of this and be plenty good. And the more you spray, might not be putting you in a better scenario than if you just eased up, yeah, just wowed up on the trigger.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Don't get a little bit too out in front of your skis there.

unknown 15:37

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

But I would say, I don't know. So last time, you know, you gave me the the creed or the adventist by creed. And I was able to test it out on my fiance. So now, since we have the party this evening, I'll have to uh I'll have to maybe maybe get a couple more dabs. We'll see, you know, kind of how it's yeah, how it's going. And maybe then next episode I give a review on how I was received at the party.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

That's right. Yeah, I'd say go ahead and get you a couple sprays around the neck and yeah, go ahead and okay wear this bad boy out. And I will too. But yeah, I'll let you uh same thing. I'll let you kind of take this with you because you know I'm I'm headed out for a week. Going to Spain. Spain. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

It's gonna be a good trip. I'm excited about it. I'm jealous that I'm not going. Um, but I know y'all are gonna have a good time.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

And maybe, you know, in your travels, you'll come across maybe you'll have a little time, dip off, try and find you a new scent to bring home.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Yeah, well, that's one thing I noticed over in Europe, they have different brands that are more, I guess, centralized to Europe. Rich uh rituals is one of them. So, like when you're in the States, you'll go to like a hotel, and you know, sometimes the fancier hotels will have like a specific soaps and lotions and stuff that are like formulated by a company, and rituals is kind of like that. And you'll see like boutiques where they have their fragrances for sale and stuff like that. So I thought that was kind of cool because I saw it in Switzerland. I know that they're over there in the UK and stuff as well. So maybe maybe in Spain they got some fun.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yeah, I can imagine that a lot of places probably have scents that are based off maybe some things that you can only find in that region, right area where you're located. So that would be cool too to learn a little bit about some of the ingredients that might be specific to where you're at in that moment, you know.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Valencia by Spain.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

So would you wear this or who would wear this if you wouldn't?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

I I would wear this for sure. Yeah. I think that's pretty pretty much been conveyed uh so far. Um but who who would wear this? Yeah. This makes me think, and again, I haven't you know seen kind of what the reach is like, and you're the only person I've talked to about it so far, so that would the jury's still out there on that one. I would say off the top of my head, this is somebody who just likes a good, simple and efficient scent. Like it's just pleasant.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

I think it's like distinguishable enough too, though. Sometimes you'll find like if you go to a department store, like if we go to Dillard's and we pick out a cologne, a lot of them will smell very similar, but this one has a clear identity that people will remember. Now they may not know the name of it, but they'll go, Oh, I can put my finger on it, and I know that smells like this specific thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

It doesn't try to do too much to me. Yeah, it knows what its goal is and it does it well to achieve it.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Yeah, sandals that's what we're going at.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

I am kind of with you, and I'm gonna touch on what you said earlier on in the episode, which is it does smell kind of beachy. It does kind of remind me of you've got like the linen shirt, you know, like it's open, you got the chest hair popping out, you're wearing, you know, shorts and sandals. It's just a bright, airy sort of vibe.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

And and for a lot of people, that's a good time. To me, it's a great time. So it's like, I want to smell like that.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Yeah. Although our beaches are more like lakes, and you know, you're more on a bass boat than you are.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

You gotta go all the way down Texas to get to a good beach. Shout out to South Padre.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah, I mean, you can almost if you either drive down to Corpus or you can drive all the way to Florida, and it's the same length of drive. It's eight hours. Exactly. You know, and you're going to like Port Aranzas or you're going over to you know, whatever. Yeah. What's that one that people go to all the time over there in Florida?

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Uh we got like Gulf Shore, or that's Alabama, but uh Daytona Beach, Pensacola. Pensacola, maybe, is what I'm thinking of.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Yeah. But that's one of those things where Texas is just so big. I've talked about that before. Driving from here, and I've drove to Vegas a few times, and literally half the drive is just driving through Texas. 21-hour drive, and you're spending 10 hours driving in Texas is wild.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

It's ridiculous. The European mind cannot comprehend it. Right. But actually, you know, a lot of them are now. Now that they've come over for the World Cup. Oh, that's right. They're they're like, whoa.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Yeah, I had some friends from the UK actually reach out to me because you know they're big into that that fun stuff, you know, football. Yeah. And they were talking about how they were like, Yeah, you know, it's uh it was right in your neck of the woods. And I said, Yeah, we had like a work event down there, and finding parking was just ridiculous. We were frustrated. Yeah. And you guys nearly got rained out. You're nearly drowning.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Dude, I'm telling you, in the we we went to set up, and 45 minutes later, when we came back out to the car, there was like six or seven inches of standing water. Man. Soaked the shoes instantly. Yeah. You got to go back to bed and start your whole day over at that point. Yeah, you're like, dude, when your socks get wet, the day's done. I'm out of bed. That's sorry. But uh that's kind of like, you know, if you've ever had that. I think Daniel Tosh said this one time. He said, uh, you ever had to poop after you got out of the shower? Oh, it's like you might as well go back to bed and start your whole day over.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Well, speaking of poop, we'll decide whether or not this is good transition. That's very good. I'm trying, I'm working really hard on these, you know, high high budget. Skip it, sample it, or buy it. What are you gonna do, Ryan? Man.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

300, you know, is still pretty steep. I just just bought a house and still budget's kind of depleted. I think I like it enough to where I would spend the money on it. Okay. Maybe not right now, but definitely is on the radar and I would add it to my arsenal for sure. But if somebody, you know, if it's somebody out there who's really looking for something a little sharper, might not be for you just because I feel like it's kind of chill. Yeah, a little bit more chill.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

But yeah, I would buy it. Here's an option too, because you're seeing this, and in five years, I've probably done 30 mil worth, you know.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Yeah, well, so that that too. I forgot we just you'd mentioned that.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Yeah, 50, you know, so yeah, even if you even if you drop less than a hundred bucks on say 15, 20 mil. Oh, yeah, you're gonna get some value. Yeah, you'll get if you use it the right way and kind of sparingly, you may get a couple years out of that, and that may be worth it because like we said earlier, unlike last episode with Creed, where you can find really good clones and dupes of it, this one you really can't because you get into, like people are saying, and I think what some people have said, oh, it smells like pickles. I think somebody probably wore a dupe and said it was this, and they thought it was so on this one, you can't really find a good dupe, and Lailabo gives you the offer, just get 15 mil of it and see what you think, wear it around, and you'll get quite a few wearings out of it.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

I think that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna end up doing that.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Heck yeah. Well, you can borrow this bottle for a little.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

That's true. Yeah, I'll have to do that, I'll take it on some test runs. I should be in the office next week, so you know, maybe I'll get everybody at work's thoughts on it. We have a good good cast of different different types of characters that we have around the office, so yeah, and then see if by chance I I just happen to be out and about in the in the wild blue yonder and uh somebody tosses a compliment my way. That'd be pretty tight. The more I think about it, you know, after we kind of talked about it last episode and have had some discussions outside of the pod room, yeah, I think it would be nice, you know, to get a compliment for sure.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

I can definitely it's like a conversation opener. That's an easy one for somebody to come to and be like, hey, what cologne are you wearing? That smells pretty good. And then that opens the rest of the conversation up. Because I've done that with some people. I've been like, hey, somebody smells good, but oh shit, you know, it's just such and such. Yeah. And then before you know it, you're selling them a plate roll. Yeah. A boy can dream. Well, we're dreaming, I want a pony.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Well, uh, unfortunately, we didn't get any comments on how to close this puppy off. And so I think disappointed in you guys. Come on now. We need to participate. I think we're gonna have to starve them and just give like the lamest exits until they really start pitching in. So that was pretty much it. See ya. Bye.