The Door - Woodysandal Hermetica 2020

Although this fragrance is marketed as unisex, I feel it’s predominantly masculine for my specific likes.
It’s a very odd mix of fruit and sandalwood. It’s green for sure, relatively light, but it just doesn’t do it for me, which makes me think it’s the sandalwood. I’ve never smelled blackcurrant, so it could be that. Either way, I won’t buy it.

Despite my dislike of this perfume, I do suggest trying it and specifically this brand, as all their fragrances are distinctly unique and worth it.

For Christmas, I was able to visit my grandmother again for the first time in 2 years. She is now 90 years old, lives in a small self-built house from the 1950s on a forest clearing, speaks a dialect that is incomprehensible to outsiders and nearly extinct in its form, and still cooks in a way that makes the palate rejoice and the stomach feel warm and secure for hours - in a natural and traditional manner that I have never experienced anywhere else. She tends a large garden, a paradise akin to the Garden of Eden with various fruits and vegetables, herbs, and spices, whose seeds she often inherited from her parents and grandparents and continues to cultivate herself. In short, she is fit as a fiddle, although she prefers hand-knitted socks and bulky leather shoes over sneakers.
And as was customary 70 years ago, she married a man she considered attractive and God-fearing, with some property; other factors apparently played no role in the choice of partner, typical of the post-war era.

Now, what does all this have to do with The Door - Woodysandal?
Everything.

The scent starts off intense. Medicinal. Certainly woody, but still more herbal than woody. My association was wormwood. Bitter medicinal herbs that should stimulate digestion and provide relief from menstrual discomfort. A bottle of this wormwood is always kept in a cupboard at my grandmother's, in case the food turns out to be a bit too hearty - and it is always offered afterward. Alongside it, a bitter woody note emerges, which I initially suspected to be the powerful fir trees of the forest behind my grandmother's house, rather than cedar. Amid the powerful herbs and the scent of coniferous trees, one can also occasionally detect black currants here and there, which are always processed into thick syrup that must not be missing on any visit.
In the initial phase, functionality and tradition clearly dominate, "it's always been this way, and it fits," scents that I never encounter in everyday life but that immediately remind me of my childhood at my grandparents'. However, after about an hour, the scent becomes consistently milder, the titular sandalwood slowly comes into play, with tonka bean and vanilla bringing sweetness and gentleness, and also more trust.
"You know, my grandson, you change your partners like undershirts. Back then, that wouldn't have been possible. One couldn't even imagine getting a divorce. Why would you? After a month, you got married, everything was perfect. And then you just had to arrange yourselves. Until death do us part. Otherwise, the neighbors would have talked behind your back."

Overall, I find the scent to be extremely old-fashioned. And thus, extremely modern. Too modern to wear in everyday life, it reminds me too much of wool socks, green lilies, laxatives, and the cane my grandfather always carried, and the strong development within a short time is not necessarily suitable for everyday wear.
It fits my place of residence, Berlin, the trend towards purism and functionality, Carhartt, Manufactum, and Docker Caps, a true hipster scent. But while I can still wear Dunhill's Edition comfortably at nearly 30 and find it pleasant and suitable for everyday use, Woodysandal is more of a journey that I would prefer to undertake physically, hopefully more often soon, if Covid-19 allows it.