Santos Cartier 1981 Eau de Toilette

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8.0 / 10 306 Ratings

Santos (Eau de Toilette) is a popular perfume by Cartier for men and was released in 1981. The scent is spicy-woody. The longevity is above-average. It is still available to purchase. Pronunciation

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Main accords

Spicy

Woody

Smoky

Earthy

Leathery

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Juniper

Lavender

Basil

Lemon vervain

Bergamot

Heart Notes

Nutmeg

Pepper

Geranium

Rosemary

Vetiver

Base Notes

Cedar

Patchouli

Sandalwood

Amber

Coconut

Vanilla

Ratings

Scent

8.0306 Ratings

Longevity

8.1236 Ratings

Sillage

7.5230 Ratings

Bottle

8.0230 Ratings

Value for money

7.852 Ratings

Submitted by Sani, last update on 27.05.2023.

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13 in-depth fragrance descriptions

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10/27/2019

9
Bottle 8
Sillage 8
Longevity 9.5
Scent

Can777
6 Reviews

Translated Show original

Can777

Top Review 45

Character assassination

Or Assassinat de Caractère as the Frenchman says. Now that we're dealing with a Frenchman. That's a pretty bad word, isn't it? Didn't I? What did Santos get to say? Bad things! A fragrance that was very popular in the milieu and worn by dubious figures, they said. That may be, but why shouldn't such people, or rather men, have good and stylish taste? Santos played already in the 80s in the upper league under the men's perfumes. He embodied luxury and money. At almost every arm, finger or neck the house Cartier flashed or sparkled at that time. Be it the watch, the Trinity ring or the ever-popular golden panther. What could be more obvious than to gild yourself with a perfume? Santos was also very suitable for the Lord. The same goes for the unforgettable Must de Cartier for the ladies. Both are connected not only by the house, the reputation and the year of birth, but also by a very special fragrance. The two of us say very "special" made!

Santos
Santos is an incredibly beautiful and warm spicy and woody fragrance. He's got a cool bowl of steel, but a heart of liquid gold. The design of the luxury bottle at that time already shows this very clearly. A relatively cold, metallic entrance made of cool lavender and juniper berries with a metallic-cool appearance open his presentation. The dependence on steel is not so far away and is probably also wanted. After not too long, spicy warmth gradually breaks through. Santos slowly opens its golden heart of freshly grated nutmeg and a dry warm spicy cinnamon accord. A hint of rose geranium adds a slight herbaceousness but no real floridity. But what Santos always had in mind was the sensually charming and deep timbre of his base. Dry tones of unsweet vanilla blend with the fibrous wood of coconut and dusty notes of amber to create a truly devastatingly beautiful base reminiscent of the shimmer of gold. Santos was also said to have a certain very attractive physicality. Which is true, at least in the original version! It contains something that was never listed as a fragrance. Musk, that is It is exactly the same musk that was also present in a completely exaggerated and wasteful form in the unforgettable female counterpart Must de Cartier. The original Santos contains a minimal dose of it. But exactly this minimal dose gave him this sultry, soft-warm and extremely attractive aura. This note has completely disappeared from the new formulation and version. The new Santos is still recognizable, but he has been "disarmed" so to speak. Very unfortunate!

Conclusion
Everything they said about Santos is mostly true. He was a macho,a mobster,and a ripper. Although a charming and very gallant representative of this species and a true gem! He had a cultivated shamelessness, arrogance, and arrogance that sought his equal. Santos was never the loudest, but in his fine, golden Sillage was always luxury and almost shameless self-assertion. Which didn't hurt him. The opposite was more the case. It may be that his reputation has always been somewhat shady, but this made him even more interesting and attractive to men and women alike and a legend. Or how do you say it so beautifully? Once the reputation is ruined, it lives uninhibitedly!

And that... Santos of Cartier has always been perfect!

06/05/2021

8
Bottle 7
Sillage 7
Longevity 9.5
Scent

Salva

Translated Show original

Salva

Top Review 38

A charismatic mafioso with heart and soul

Santos - What is the first thing you intuitively think of when you hear a name like that? At Brazil, football, samba, Tscha tscha tscha?!
Of tanned, well-trained, always good-humored people?!

Well, is vllt. obvious, Santos is after all an important port city on the sugar loaf. And indeed, the name refers to Brazil, but "only" to a Brazilian pilot named Santos Dumont. But basically to the world's first pilot's watch with the same name, Santos Cartier, which Santos Dumont helped to produce.

[...]

The French jewelry and watch manufacturer, which was founded by Louis-François Cartier in Paris back in 1847, is one of my favorite brands among other French brands. Not only can they fragrances quite outstanding, their history can also be seen.

The handmade jewelry pieces were at that time in great demand among the population and so, for example, the then French Empress Eugénie had the pleasure of being the happy owner of various pieces. After the rapid success, the company took with the time watches in his assortment.

As the years went by, Cartier's sons joined the company and the family managed to open their first branch in London in 1902. It wasn't too long before word of the company's reputation spread among the British. Consequently, one became the court supplier of the British royal house.

Rapidly one expanded in the direction of Russia as well as the USA and attained at the beginning of the 20th century world-wide large admittingness and acknowledgment.
After the death of Louis-François Cartier and his sons, the company disintegrated and has belonged to the Swiss Richemont Group since 1997.

[...]

Parfumtechnisch stands the house for my opinion a little (unjustly) in the shadow of its French "brothers" Dior or Chanel, so at least my impression. Because I personally find the fragrances of Cartier at least just as noble and classically beautiful.

With this Santos EdT, I recently got to know one that I was fascinated by the first time I smelled it. It opens ultra masculine and is very aromatic-spicy to begin with; while the spices are prominent here, led by nutmeg and pepper, they are backed up with a certain freshness. I attribute the freshness to the hesperidic accords.

Until the base, however, this mysterious fresh-spicy aura maintains the upper hand. The aroma that this perfume exudes, I find irresistible and seductive. And what additionally makes this fragrance so brilliant for me is its progression, because towards the base it changes to a soft-soft and slightly woody gentleman. Here I perceive a mix of sandalwood cedar, which is framed by a touch of amber accord.

[...]

To me, this fragrance seems best suited for fall and slightly cooler spring days. With about 5-6h on mine it has a decent endurance.

Compared to other early 80s published classics such as YSL Kouros or Chanel Antaeus is the Santos EdT but no so-called. "Powerhouse fragrance", as I find (all three appeared in the same year). On the contrary, despite the initial strongly distinctive notes (or probably because of it) he stands out by a charming and very charismatic charisma, the wearer and the environment (at least mMn) does not scare off and frighten away.

[...]
Conclusion:

Santos EdT seems to me at first glance (or smell) from the outside like a mobster, but in truth he is at heart a noble, well-read and classically-chic gentleman with heart and soul.
Immediately after testing a bottle has moved in; not only because I appreciate Cartier in itself immensely and love, but primarily because the fragrance has grabbed me immediately and I have been very taken.

Cartier - Alone the simple and plain logo with the cursive font looks mMn very noble.

An extremely intoxicating and sexy-seductive fragrance after French chic, this Santos EdT.

[...]
Thanks for reading!

03/27/2021

9
Pricing 9
Bottle 8
Sillage 8
Longevity 8
Scent

Simi74

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Simi74

Top Review 36

No fire burns forever!

December 1993 Tunisia.
A newly married couple on their honeymoon get ready for the disco.
He grabs a sample he got when he bought her a
Gift.
"Hmm! Smells like a good shaving soap!" he thinks to himself and spreads
four drops on his neck and wrists.
After the soap withdraws a bit he recognizes a scent that looks very familiar to him namely the smell of his favorite
Drinks Gin and Tonic with a slice of lemon here but embedded in lavender. A little later join still cedar and sandalwood in addition
and make this fragrance a unique warming embrace.
This embrace remains throughout the evening and even when he wakes up the next morning, the scent has only slightly weakened, he would have had to evaluate this perfume at that time, he would probably have given a 9.5 in all points.
After they are back home he immediately makes his way to the perfumery to get a bottle of it, but when the saleswoman tells him the price it is like a slap in the face and he leaves the perfumery saddened with a bottle of Joop Homme, his signature at the time.
Two years later.
He stands in his former teenage bedroom and unpacks his few
Belongings, she apparently felt there were better men for her and broke up with him.He finds the sample tube and looks at the clock. "The perfumery is still open for half an hour and the few marks more in debt don't matter now" he thinks to himself
Since he is henceforth very economical with this for him so valuable perfume,
at the beginning only for himself now and then a splash on the wrist to be comforted and warmed by him and later then only on very special occasions two splashes on the neck, this flacon lasts a full 20 years with him.
Present.
When he holds his nose at a friend a flacon Joop Homme
and thinking about great events in the past,
he remembers his warming, fragrant friend.
In the evening he sits down at his laptop to look for him and finds him also quite fast at a clearly more favorable price than he would have expected. When finally almost two weeks later (great performance DPD) the package is in front of the door as he comes from work he can hardly wait, he opens the package and finds a new quite appealing Flacon before. "Chic! is good for you"
he thinks to himself and jumps under the shower.
Afterwards he spreads 4 spritzes on his neck and wrists like the very first time.
"I don't remember you being that soapy"
he thinks to himself. The soap goes back significantly slower and releases only hesitantly the other fragrance notes but after 30 minutes he is almost back, only the wood note and thus the warming embrace remains almost absent, it is rather just a friendly handshake.
After he has tested the fragrance for a few days, among other things, at work, where he does not fit times at all but also already got 2 compliments, the initial disappointment has
somewhat settled and he sits down again in front of the laptop opens Parfumo.de and gives for the fragrance 8, durability and sillage 8,5
and the bottle with the well-dispensable spray head 9 points.
While he starts to write a review he decides, while he is sure that this fragrance can never again warmly embrace him, that they nevertheless remain friends, especially since the fragrance now also fits much better to his age with his now 47 years in addition, the fragrance is still unique.
I hope my first review has pleased you, if not, then I am always open to constructive criticism.

09/09/2018

10
Bottle 7
Sillage 8
Longevity 10
Scent

Leporello

Translated Show original

Leporello

Top Review 21

A monolith

Before I go into detail about Santos, I would like to point out that my comments refer to the current version with the new bottle design (see Must de Cartier). Santos de Cartier has become my absolute fixed star in the perfume sky for some time and has become my signature fragrance far beyond. This was not always the case and took his time, a first acquaintance was followed by a tender appreciation and ended in a love of perfume. Anyone who has read my commentary on L´Homme from Versace will soon have noticed that I am a fan of the eighties and a bit beyond that I am also "retrospectively" inclined. Santos is for me since then an absolute giant in the men's scent sky. Luca Turin once used the attribute "blessing perfumery" in his book "PERFUMES the A-Z Guide" in relation to the older fragrances of Guerlain and I would like to attribute this attribute to Santos as well, but not without explaining how it came about, thus back to objectivity. Santos is a fragrance that initially attracts attention and tries to bribe by its appearance alone. I have rarely experienced a more consistent reduction in the appearance of a perfume bottle. Every sweetness, every playful detail is alien to the bottle and is consistently left aside in favor of a monolithic appearance. So there is a pitch-black, heavy and extremely high-quality hundred milliliter bottle in front of you, whose deep black appearance is only broken through by a small silver band with almost tiny inscription and you suddenly know that the scent does not want to play. Modernity, showmanship, uniformity and playfulness are not what you look for in Santos and you don't just notice it on the outside. Santos knows what he wants (certainly not unlike the name giver) and makes this clear immediately on first application.

Santos opens with a deliciously fresh top note of moist basil, dew-wetted juniper and a delicate dose of lemon verbena. In general, Santos seems to me at this early stage quite warm and spicy with a "tropical" slightly moist start. To my surprise, the top note can last a relatively long time, because only after a little more than thirty minutes do you notice how the spices slowly take over the direction. Here nutmeg is most succinctly represented, of course not ground, but rather reminiscent of a nutmeg, flanked by fresh rosemary twigs and a hint of cinnamon stick. The green-fresh basil and the light citrus notes of the top note still serve as the basis for the beginning spice round. A combination that is both fresh and woody and spicy at the same time and which can certainly be attributed above all to the wood, instead of the grated spice. The heart note is of a durability that I have rarely experienced before, because it lasted for over five hours on my skin, which seems record-breaking to me personally. Only after about six hours comes for me by far the most beautiful and perfect part of Santos. The base note of Santos finally takes its wearer into tropical climes, for the remaining hint of the heart note is "warmed up" once again by wonderfully warm and at the same time dew-wet aromas of coconut, but not by the sticky sweet flesh, but rather by the woody shell of the coconut and fine notes of sandalwood and vanilla. After more than twelve hours Santos sounds absolutely woody and warm and spicy and, thank God, not at all gourmandig-sweet. The durability is therefore beyond all doubt and I do not perceive the sillage as room-filling or overwhelming.

However, I am surprised at the rather divided opinion on this fragrance, especially the attribution of a dubious aura, which has already been mentioned several times. For me, a fragrance cannot be "dubious" if it is the wearer or his attitude to life. But this seems to be an almost typical phenomenon for Cartier, at least if you look at Santos and Pasha, that you combine these two grandiose fragrances with the demimonde or a pronounced macho attitude. I can't judge how well known semi-world or underworld greats smelled at the beginning of the eighties, but I want to make it quite clear that they had more style than today's suburban Strizzis with their miasmatic 1 million cloud. Cartier's chosen testimonial Alberto Santos Dumont and its origin go wonderfully with this fragrance, because I imagine a striking gentleman of the best age flying through the still early and wet morning mist, which carries all kinds of aromas of his tropical home. A man and I mean a real man, and this is not a question of hair, but of attitude, head, behaviour towards his environment, who knows how to behave and who has long since decided not to follow any more trends for himself. Santos is simply remembered as a statement, is striking, stands out positively, can convince and certainly anything but arbitrary. Santos is a monolith that outshines many of today's overly penetrating, chemically enriched and uniform fragrances

11/24/2019

9
Bottle 8
Sillage 9
Longevity 8.5
Scent

Taurus
3 Reviews

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Taurus

Top Review 17

Lifted but down-to-earth

At that time Santos and Pasha de Cartier had the most beautiful flacons for me far and wide - at least as far as men's fragrances were concerned. I had bought the Pasha at that time, but in the end I wasn't as convinced of the fragrance as it seemed to me from its stylish, apart container. Santos, on the other hand, was less an option to buy. Probably he was too overblown and exhausting for me, after all, in his young years people preferred something fresh or rather sweet.

If the bottle had continued to be used in its original version, I would probably have been more intensively occupied with it again. Its appearance was strongly based on the Cartier Santos watch model, which in turn was a tribute to the world's first pilot's watch "Cartier Santos" from 1904. Among other things, it was also the first wristwatch with a leather strap and was co-developed by none other than the Brazilian motor aviation pioneer and inventor Alberto Santos Dumont. The reading of his pocket watch while driving his airship was just too difficult, whereupon he and his friend Louis-Francois Cartier thought about the improvement.

Although the bottle is still chic at the moment, it no longer has this extraordinary mechanical proximity to the watch model. This would also suggest that the scent may have changed.

What you get is a still pompous start with plenty of dark lavender and muscaty-peppery spice paired with rose geranium and juniper. It's still quite exhausting, but in the drydown Santos gets a fine soapy-masculine note, tart rather than sweet, with sandalwood, some patchouli and warm amber. Even the coconut can be skillfully woven into the fabric without being perceived as disturbing. Probably for me one of the very few fragrances with coconut that I find extremely pleasant.

In my memory it has been a bit wilder and more dominant, yet Santos is a masculine fragrance with plenty of stamina, but which requires maturity and character from its wearer. On the wrong people, the shot could go back properly and lead to a crash landing.

Too bad because of the beautiful bottle, but I think also so he has hardly lost his radiance and knows how to convince.

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