Welcome to the perfume room. My scent of the day today is Sontal from Headspace. I cannot tell you how impressed I am with this entire collection. You've already heard me rave about absinth,

and if you are in Smell Club this month, perhaps you have already smelled absinthe, but oh my god, every single scent in this line is just hit after hit after hit. Anyway, to me, Sontal, the name, it's a misnomer because it's less sandalwood, less Sontal 33, Sontal blush, and more saffron and rose.

It's got that same sort of overarching woody, mossy, ooid, rose saffron combo in fragrances we've seen like Ud Bouquet, Cairo, Ud Satin Mood, Radical Rose, Rendonui, Black Saffron, Santal Carmen, I could go on and on and on. And I know I am doing a disservice to fragrances in general

by comparing these as if they could all be considered the same because they are so incredibly

different from one another. But I do feel like as I describe these, you probably in your head

like have a sense of the overarching scent that I am describing. You know what I mean?

Like rosy, saffrony, a little makeupy, a little

sweet, a little woody. But here is my big hot take, okay? Headspace Sontal might be my favorite

execution of this type of scent. It just wears so well. It is so beautifully balanced. It's a little

bit makeupy, which you know I love. And the dry down has this sort of like dusted cacao feel, almost like it could be a cousin of Sers Luton, Sontal-Majie school. And you know what? Actually, as I say that, I kind of feel like it straddles Santal-Masje school with, like I said, that sort of dusted cacao, pointed rosy feel, and something like,

as I mentioned earlier, by Radal Black Saffron, a sort of sweet, varied saffron fragrance.

It's excellent.

The perfumer is Julianne Raskine, who is so masterful in this exact genre.

This is his wheelhouse.

He's so good at warm, moody rose fragrances, leathery makeup scents. He's

done Van Cleef Rose Rouge, Frederick Mall the Moon, Lancombe Rose Berberanza, Vdiquet Parfam, Tobacco

Rose, Naomi Goodsor, Iris Sondre, which is also in your sample pack this month. This one is just

such a stunner. If you like any of the fragrances I just mentioned,

definitely check this one out. Anyway, let's get to our guest because today we are joined by

someone who has been mentioned on this podcast for almost as long as this podcast has existed,

Alayton George. Now, Alayton currently works at Bergdorff as a brand manager for the maker,

another former guest of the podcast, and as a scent stylist for the fragrance department

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