Oscar de la Renta Essential Luxuries - Santo Domingo

I have been trying to test out a few of the fall fragrance samples that I have collected with most of my summer Sephora orders.  I have been using them at night since the day temperatures have been close to 100 degrees the past two days and I might kill someone if I wear these types of fragrances during the day.  This heat wave should break within the next few days and then I am ready to begin to bring out some more fall items and start wearing my favorite fall trench coat.  I haven't bought any new fragrances for fall yet and I plan to try and work through all of these samples before I make any major shopping decisions.

The first one that I have been playing around with is another one of the Essential Luxuries from Oscar de la Renta, I received samples of all five scents in the collection from my June Glossybox and I have reviewed three of the five so far.  The first three that I reviewed were all warm weather fragrances and I wasn't a solid fan of any of them.  Maybe the cold weather fragrances will be better choices for me.

Santo Domingo is a rich smoky fragrance and one of the more unique fragrances that I have tried over the years.  I don't own any fragrances that are classified as "smoky" and so I was a bit unsure about Santo Domingo when I wore it for the first time.  The Oscar de la Renta website describes the fragrance as such, "A smooth, smoky tabac fragrance inspired by the tropical setting of Oscar de la Renta's birthplace, Santo Domingo. Fresh, citrus notes of mandarin and coriander embrace the rich warmth of tobacco, patchouli and spices in this luscious scent."

The top notes of Santo Domingo are: Italian Mandarin, Cedrat, Italian Bergamot.  The heart notes are: Coriander, Geranium Bourbon.  The base notes are: Indonesian Patchouli, Vetiver, Dominican Tobacco.

The base notes are the strongest in Santo Domingo, the dominant notes of the fragrance are the Patchouli and the Tobacco.  This fragrance is one that I would only wear at night, it would be overwhelming at the office or with any type of casual dress.  I can see this working well with a little black dress and heels, this is a harder fragrance to wear but it would be a stunning accent to a dressed up look for night. 

This is the best of the Oscar de la Renta Luxuries so far, I love that it didn't change while I was wearing it and it is the most unique of the group.  I still have one more to review so this might not be my favorite of the group but it is one of the strongest fragrances in the collection.  I am still deciding if I will buy this fragrance, I know that I would get limited use from it but it is very unique and I have nothing like it in my collection already.

photo courtesy of Oscar de la Renta