I enjoy sandalwood, cedarwood and soft oud perfumes: what car fragrance families might suit my preferences?

A page that matched all three of your woods would be a better sales page and a worse answer. Two are published. Cedar is not. That is the range.

The answer, in full

You named three woods and SOSA has published two of them, so let me do the two first and then the gap. Sandalwood is published as its own scent at ₹509, with a Scent Family of Woody, creamy resinous, meditative. Sandalwood ₹509 publishes heart notes of Indian sandalwood depth, creamy resinous warmth, a gentle floral nuance. Above that it publishes top notes of warm soft wood, a gentle creamy opening, and below it a base of quiet musky drydown, residual chandan warmth. Chandan is SOSA's own published word there and it sits in the base line rather than the body. Oud is published at ₹519 with a Scent Family of Woody, resinous, premium. Oud ₹519 publishes heart notes of agarwood depth, smokeless warmth, refined resin. Its top notes are a warm resinous opening, soft dark wood, and its base is dry amber, deep musk, lingering warmth. If the soft half of soft oud is what matters to you, smokeless and refined are the two published words that speak to it, and they are printed on that page rather than inferred from anywhere. The two together are sold as a pair at ₹959. Now the gap, which is the part of this answer I would want if I were you. No SOSA pyramid publishes a cedar or a cedarwood note, so there is no cedar anywhere in the nine and I would rather name that gap than fill it with a word that is not on the record. That is a real absence in an otherwise strong direction, and the honest thing is to say that the cedarwood third of your brief cannot be served by this range today. What the range does have, if dry rather than creamy is the appeal of cedar for you, is Vetiver ₹519, whose published family is Earthy, green, Indian heritage, whose heart publishes deep vetiver, cooling smoke-free depth, a light citrus edge, and whose base publishes dry root warmth, a residual cooling effect. That is not cedar and I am not going to call it cedar. It is a published base line with no cream in it, and a reader whose three words were dry, woody and clean tends to end up reading it twice. SOSA publishes no strength ranking of the nine and no prediction of what any reader will prefer, so the last step of this is yours. And on the perfumes in your question, SOSA publishes nothing about any designer or niche perfume, so I cannot tell you what the bottle on your dressing table contains and I will not guess at it. A portion of every SOSA order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali.

Three woods, two published families and one gap

Taken one at a time, because two of the three have a printed answer and the third has none. Every family line quoted below is on its own product page under the heading Scent Family.

Sandalwood: Woody, creamy resinous, meditative, at Rs 509

The published family line is Woody, creamy resinous, meditative. Sandalwood ₹509 publishes heart notes of Indian sandalwood depth, creamy resinous warmth, a gentle floral nuance. Its published top notes are warm soft wood, a gentle creamy opening, and its published base is a quiet musky drydown, residual chandan warmth. Of the nine, this is the pyramid that uses the word creamy most often, and the word Indian sandalwood is printed in the heart line rather than only in the product name.

Two prints of creamy, one of chandan, all on one page.

Soft oud: Woody, resinous, premium, at Rs 519

The published family line is Woody, resinous, premium. Oud ₹519 publishes heart notes of agarwood depth, smokeless warmth, refined resin. Its published top notes are a warm resinous opening, soft dark wood, and its published base is dry amber, deep musk, lingering warmth. Smokeless and refined are the two words on the record that a reader asking for soft oud is usually asking about. Whether a composition described that way reads as soft in your own cabin is not something SOSA publishes, and I will not invent it.

Cedarwood: not published anywhere in the nine

No SOSA pyramid publishes a cedar or a cedarwood note, so there is no cedar anywhere in the nine and I would rather name that gap than fill it with a word that is not on the record. No SOSA pyramid publishes a cedar note in any of its three tiers, and the word is absent from all nine of the published family lines. The woods that are published are sandalwood, the soft dark wood in Oud's top notes, and the warm petitgrain-like woodiness in Mysore Orange Blossom's base notes at ₹559. Lavender and Sandalwood ₹499 publishes dry woody calm in its base notes too. If cedar is the specific thing you want, this range does not have it and no amount of reading will change that.

One third of the brief, unserved, and said so.

The published woody vocabulary of the nine, in full

Sandalwood ₹509: family Woody, creamy resinous, meditative; heart of Indian sandalwood depth, creamy resinous warmth, a gentle floral nuance. Oud ₹519: family Woody, resinous, premium; top notes of a warm resinous opening, soft dark wood. Vetiver ₹519: family Earthy, green, Indian heritage; base of dry root warmth, a residual cooling effect. Lavender and Sandalwood ₹499 publishes dry woody calm in its base notes, beside a linalool settle and a powdery soft musk-free residue. Mysore Orange Blossom ₹559: base of warm petitgrain-like woodiness, a clean soft musk, a sunlit drydown.

If both published woods appeal, Sandalwood and Oud is sold together at ₹959 rather than ₹509 and ₹519 separately. See Sandalwood and Oud →

Your three woods, against the published nine

Two footnotes on the published woods, because both are easy to miss. Lavender and Sandalwood ₹499 publishes dry woody calm in its base notes, so the wood there sits in the drydown rather than in the family line, and its Scent Family is a herbal floral one. Mysore Orange Blossom ₹559 publishes warm petitgrain-like woodiness in its base under a Floral, citrus, neroli family, and it is a spray only with no refill. Neither is a woody scent on the family line; both publish wood in the base.

“Sandalwood is published. Oud is published. Cedar is not published anywhere in the nine, and that is the end of that third of the question.”

How to work through three woods in order

1. Read the two family lines that print the word Woody: Rs 509 and Rs 519.
2. Read Sandalwood's heart for creamy and Oud's heart for smokeless.
3. Accept the cedar gap: no SOSA pyramid publishes a cedar note, in any tier.
4. If dry rather than creamy is the draw, read Vetiver Rs 519's base line.

Questions, answered