Two sandalwood oils, both from the same material, wild wood gathered in Aceh, Sumatra. This oil is distilled from shavings as opposed to pure heartwood and I think that explains the pigmentation, which is quite dark compared to the heartwood oils from literally the same region and source I have received from artisan distillers (those all have been completely clear or just a slight yellow tinge).
The bottle on the left was distilled at elevated temperature and pressure, the bottle on the right was distilled at ambient pressure and lower distillation temperatures. Both were long-term distillations made possible by some kind of temperature regulation set up… I'm trying to remember the details,
@Margon explained it to me at one point, and he is the distiller of these particular oils.
The high-pressure oil has some real punch, it is sandalwood and very rich and velvety, but with a bouquet of accessory notes that compete a bit with the core sandalwood elements. I can sense the impact of the heat and pressure - very curious how folks here would respond to this on a blind sniff test.
The ambient pressure oil has a soft quality, more mineral and earthy and hints of clean soil petrichor in some ways. It brings forward a lot of of the notes I have smelled in Indonesian oils over the years which I suspect all have had some amount of shavings wood as part of the feed stock (given the huge contrast in aroma with the Aceh heartwood oils distilled by
@AlHind Oud and olefaktory). this ambient pressure distillation is closer to a typical sandalwood oil while still being pretty rich in additional facets.
The shaving oils deviate a bit from the simple very high santalol heartwood oils - they make an excellent complement to the more traditional sandalwoods. total santalols are lower (recently saw a gcms of the high pressure oil) but the top and mid note aroma is more rich and complex so it's a tradeoff.
