Sartorial Penhaligon's (2010)

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8.0 / 10 325 Ratings

Sartorial is a popular perfume by Penhaligon's for men and was released in 2010. The scent is spicy-woody. It is still in production.

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Perfumer

Bertrand Duchaufour

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Aldehydes, Violet leaf, Cardamom, Black pepper, Ginger, Neroli, Ozonic notes, Metallic notes
Heart Notes	Beeswax, Cyclamen, Linden blossom, Lavender, Leather
Base Notes	Gurgum wood, Patchouli, Myrrh, Cedarwood, Tonka bean, Oakmoss, White musk, Honey, Woods, Vanilla, Amber

Ratings

Scent

8.0 (325 Ratings)

Longevity

7.6 (229 Ratings)

Sillage

6.6 (222 Ratings)

Bottle

8.0 (224 Ratings)

View Video of Sartorial (Vimeo)

Submitted by DeGe53, last update on 21.10.2018

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Reviews

12/20/2017

9.0/10

8.0/10

8.5/10

Smora

Very helpful Review 4

Brut-ish Gentleman

Scentrack
Variety Lab – London in the Rain

When I visited tailor workshop for the first time I was totally shocked by its spectrum of smells. Metal, textile, wax, steam... Very unique smell. Master Duchaufour perfectly translated it into perfume.
Sartorial is complicated and masculine scent that reminds of Brut. But it takes the best of Brut and amplify it on the whole new level. Interplay of notes is incredible, unreal and so incompatible and cacophony expected, but eventually perfectly mashed. Metallic notes, aldehydes, wax, honey, Proustian linden blossom, lavender, flowers... perfection.
Fantastic, formal, masculine, regal, dignified, well mannered. The essence of Britain. A work of a genius.

Rating: 8.5/10

More on Scentimental Words

06/03/2017

7.0/10

6.0/10

8.0/10

AsulynS

Penhaligon's Sartorial Splendor

Close to Brut Parfums Prestige for men but Better Performance.
IMO It's quite lovely fragrance for special occasions.

10/04/2015

5.0/10

7.5/10

MasterLi

Very helpful Review 5

Clean and beautifully made...

This is a fragrance which I have no problem loving. As soon as I smelled it I realised it pleased me. For me it's honey and beeswax and lavender, surrounded by green herbs and mossy woods. A very grown up, very "gentleman" like fragrance.

This one gives me the impression of being clean and groomed, like trying on a brand new suit in a shop, which I guess was the intention, given the brief and description of the fragrance (ie that it should smell like a tailor's workshop). I would happily wear this formally. I find nothing wrong with it whatsoever in terms of style and character. It gives me a good feeling to wear. The feeling it gives is gender neutral. Just a lovely, impressive aroma of brand new fabric and of wearing nice clothes. I do find it would suit a well dressed man perfectly, but a woman could pull this off too.

Some people say the smell is old fashioned. I don't. I think it's quite modern. The use of aromachemicals here is very cleverly done, and by a very talented perfumer (Bertrand Duchaufour). I would recommend this one to gentlemen for formal wear, and for anyone who not only likes to be well dressed, but who would like to smell like that too. Very well made. Impressive.

03/03/2013

5.0/10

7.5/10

10.0/10

Miaw2

Outstanding!

At first i didnt like Sartorial. But after wearing it some times now i do love this scent because it shows newer facets while i wear it.

Very complex and well balanced, i smell different notes each time i wear it, and always with a decent level of sweetness.

Smells old and modern at the same time, this one of my most loved scents ever.

It has a nice barbershop vibe that makes it very masculine.

Longevity, lasting power and sillage are medium-high.

If you like Rive Gauche, you'll enjoy Sartorial. If you like Brut, you'll fall in love for Sartorial.

Updated January 2014

12/26/2012

7.5/10

5.0/10

6.0/10

Drseid

Helpful Review 4

Penhaligon's Best, But Only Just Good Enough...

A mild thumbs up from me for Sartorial. I like its opening that really is a nice aromatic blend of citrus and spice, but then the scent calms down to a kind of barbershop fresh vibe at its heart that stays for the rest of its duration that I feel like I have smelled before. A well done scent to be sure, but a somewhat sub-par effort from a great nose like Duchaufour who has created so many truly outstanding scents. From almost anyone else I might call myself impressed with the results. 3 to 3.5 stars out of 5.

07/24/2012

jtd

jtd

Greatly helpful Review 10

pretentious review of an affected fragrance

Sartorial demonstrates the difficulty of story-telling in perfume. Penhaligon’s own press, and a number of reviews popose that Sartorial paints a picture of the British bespoke tailor’s shop in the 21st century. Take apart a well know reference, reinterpret it with a contemporary smirk, change the context---classic postmodernism. The equation of tailor’s shop with fougère is understandable. The late 19th century was the era of the fern and the Victorian gentleman’s tailor. Then to fuse the fougère with scents one might find in a tailor’s workroom is a more tenuous step. To my mind the story of the tailor’s shop is a bit of schtick. It also serves to create an expectation that can’t help but be frustrated.

Perfume can conjure and it can evoke, two words I’ve read about Sartorial. But it simply can’t tell over the lengths of paragraphs the same narrative to each person who wears it. Truthfully, marketing department, full paragraphs aren’t needed. In this case the fiction is told with very few words. Simply to mention a British bespoke tailor’s shop ties together fantasy, aspiration and fetish in a few short words. But then to tell us about the cloth, the cabinetry, the wax, the thread… Oy gevalt. It’s like Ralph Lauren / GQ porn from the 1980s.

All the above would matter less if the fragrance told me its own actual story, or took me a on bit of a journey. But I find Sartorial an unpleasant fragrance. The starch-and-steam-iron-like note up top can be an attempt to elicit the image of a steam iron in use, but it smells out of place and metallically flat in its floral/spicy setting. As Sartorial progresses the sweet overlap of notes of patchouli, waxy honey, and caramelized lavender (all long-lasting) turn it into a bland gourmand-like fragrance. Pardon my blunt, rather lacking description, but I don’t get much more from Sartorial. I’m a great fan of Bertrand Duchaufour, but to me, Sartorial is the latest cut of the emperor’s clothes.

The fragrances of Etat Libre d’Orange share the conceit of fantasy-narrative, but their approach of story or hint of portraiture are more successful than Sartorial’s full-blown Victorian fantasy. (To be fair, ELdO’s laughably pretentious, simply bad text is far worse than Penhaligon’s here. Enough so that maybe it’s easier to dismiss.) But Tom of Finland gives you a loaded, iconic image and a fragrance. Rossy de Palma gives you an actor and a fragrance. The rest is up to you and the perfume.

Please measure the above with the fact that the fantasy that Sartorial wants to give you, that of a 21st century world of people who frequent tailors, has no appeal for me. Maybe if it did I might enjoy Sartorial. Who knows?

1 Replies

01/11/2012

7.5/10

10.0/10

hedonist222

Helpful Review 4

a beacon from Penhaligon's

From penhaligons.com:
______
Sartorial is a contemporary interpretation of a classic Fougère; the traditional notes of oakmoss, tonka bean and lavender have been exquisitely stitched together with woods, ozonic and metallic effects, leather, violet leaf, honey and spices to create the perfect illusion of a tailor’s workroom.
______

Sartorial is a very complex perfume. When you smell it you feel there are a multitude of notes in it. So well blended that no particular note stands out. Feels a bit futuristic at first (whatever that means) but then an hour or so into it it gets much more natural and down to earth. Earthy in fact.

Its not directly floral, nor is it blatantly woody. Its just blended well. Too well maybe?

Longevity and sillage are very good. Not good, but excellent just very good.