Sandalwood oil of the day

[Mr.P]

Please share the name of the oil if possible so Ouddicts don't throw away valuable funds on fake goods.

I don't know the source, it was something sent to me as a sample and I don't entirely trust my nose, but if I ever confirm the presence of sandalore and know who the supplier is I will share that (with the permission of the person who shared it with me).

I did a second comparison last night and I again was convinced it contains sandalore as a major ingredient. Since Sandalore is intended to mimic the smell of sandalwood, there's always a remote chance that this is some sub type of sandalwood I have never encountered before that happens to be close to that aroma chemical.

 

[Mr.P]

Indonesian sandalwood - this is an oil distilled from shavings, not heartwood - a long ambient pressure distillation. Heartwood oil from the same source produces a typical clear oil with a very pale yellow tinge. This shavings/sapwood oil has an excellent aroma and it is starting to acquire some of the aged sandalwood characteristics that I enjoy (especially in my other bottle, which has a little more airspace). This has a more intense initial aroma and a shorter duration on skin than a heartwood oil. I am picky about sandalwood and Iove this stuff (even if it isn't the kind that you put on at 8 in the evening and is still as strong at 8 AM the next day).

 

[PerfumeAl]

@Al Shareef Oudh - Hekayat - First oil from the house - certainly doesn't disappoint. Beautiful Sandalwood turbo-charged by musk. Powerful, complex, but also soothing and grounding. Nice!

 

[Mr.P]

I'll toot my own horn today, especially because this is not something for sale so there's no conflict of interest. I was just chatting with somebody who I sent a sample of this to and they seem to enjoy it as well. My sandalwood of the day is this resinoid extract of Indian wood chips that I had kept sealed in a mason jar for the last 20 years or so… this is a pretty unusual sandalwood with rich complex mature woody and musky facets, traces of atlas-cedar like sweetness, and good duration on skin as well. I am a fan (in general) of the absolutes, carbon dioxide extracts, and resinoids of sandalwood!

 

[mesOUD]

I'll toot my own horn today, especially because this is not something for sale so there's no conflict of interest. I was just chatting with somebody who I sent a sample of this to and they seem to enjoy it as well. My sandalwood of the day is this resinoid extract of Indian wood chips that I have had sealed in a mason jar for the last 20 years or so… this is a pretty unusual sandalwood with rich complex mature woody and musky facets, traces of atlas-cedar like sweetness, and good duration on skin as well. I am a fan (in general) of the absolutes, carbon dioxide extracts, and resinoids of sandalwood!
View attachment 52094

Look at that color

 

[Mr.P]

Look at that color

Its aroma is similarly rich and intense. I have a small bottle of it in the sample set I put together for you. 🙂

 

[Mr.P]

Actually I'm being too modest, I have been collecting sandalwood for 35 years, I don't think anybody has bothered to make solvent extract of this quality of wood chip before (at least for sale publicly). I haven't smelled anything like it.

I'm not saying people aren't making distilled oils from this kind of material but in terms of this type of concentrated solvent extract, just never seems to happen.

I did a batch of more recently collected chips and the aroma was not comparable and for me not as appealing. It was a good solvent extract, but the aroma was more like some that I have seen in the past - reminded me of a couple of CO2 extracts and absolutes I have smelled.

i'm very curious to try Australian sandalwood. I have some blocks that I've had in my possession since 1996 or so, and I'd like to get some fresh material and see how they compare. I have one batch of a CO2 extract of spicatum, to me it did not bring anything to the table that the distilled oil doesn't which actually really surprised me because that's not the case for Santalum album. I wonder about the solvent extract…

 

[Mr.P]

Excellent "Mysuru Special" from @AlHind Oud - smells better every time I smell it. Full fat fuzzy sandalood heartwood oil - a bit musky and almost bitter in the top, classic sandalwood "chewiness" almost rubbery facet, velvety-woody, gooooood stuff.

 

[Mr.P]

My sandalwood reference library 🙂

 

[Mr.P]

The "one tree" sandalwood from @AlHind Oud is excellent - a real beauty with sublime top notes, gorgeous smooth full rich aroma. Hits the nail on the head, I am impressed. This has a fair bit in common with this one old batch of oil from Tamil Nadu that I especially love. I really wasn't sure if I was going to smell another one like it… this is not the same but there's a certain specific quality to the profile that reminds me of that oil more than any of my others. One of the finest oils that white lotus ever carried as far as i am concerned.

 

[Mr.P]

In contrast to the very rich and traditional "hydrodistilled old heartwood" style of the One Tree from @AlHind Oud I am now wearing a swipe of one of the plantation mass produced oils from Australia, in this case from Quintis. My opinion of this has improved over multiple wearings, at first I was mainly tuning into these "green"(?) notes in the opening - it's some kind of accessory note reflecting the particular terroir or wood age / selection or extraction methods and it's not one that I'm particularly fond of. It doesn't dominate the top notes but it sticks out just a little bit, and I really start to enjoy this one most about 10 to 15 minutes after application.

After about 15 minutes, you're left with a very classic reasonably full high santalol profile, has high beta and alpha, and it is 100% enjoyable from that part on out with a nice classic smooth long dry down. Not flashy but 100% authentic.

I love this kind of oil for perfume making, not to try to save a few bucks on the formula - but to be able to make something authentic and really rich that is affordable to people who are not collectors, and most importantly without destroying priceless one of a kind specimens by burying them in a mixture of other materials. The collector in me he recoils a bit at the thought of mixing the rarities with other things.

 

[AlHind Oud]

In contrast to the very rich and traditional "hydrodistilled old heartwood" style of the One Tree from @AlHind Oud I am now wearing a swipe of one of the plantation mass produced oils from Australia, in this case from Quintis. My opinion of this has improved over multiple wearings, at first I was mainly tuning into these "green"(?) notes in the opening - it's some kind of accessory note reflecting the particular terroir or wood age / selection or extraction methods and it's not one that I'm particularly fond of. It doesn't dominate the top notes but it sticks out just a little bit, and I really start to enjoy this one most about 10 to 15 minutes after application.

After about 15 minutes, you're left with a very classic reasonably full high santalol profile, has high beta and alpha, and it is 100% enjoyable from that part on out with a nice classic smooth long dry down. Not flashy but 100% authentic.

I love this kind of oil for perfume making, not to try to save a few bucks on the formula - but to be able to make something authentic and really rich that is affordable to people who are not collectors, and most importantly without destroying priceless one of a kind specimens by burying them in a mixture of other materials. The collector in me he recoils a bit at the thought of mixing the rarities with other things.

What do you think about toasted sandalwood extraction? Might paired well with your regular CK extraction.

 

[Mr.P]

What do you think about toasted sandalwood extraction? Might paired well with your regular CK extraction.

I have no idea... interesting thought! The reason I was toasting the CK was to try to convert the chromones into their aromatic forms (as opposed to wanting to introduce literal toasted notes). It could be interesting because there's something wonderful about that slight toasted quality when sandalwood is on the burner, and I don't think that's something that the oil really captures.

 

[AlHind Oud]

I have no idea... interesting thought! The reason I was toasting the CK was to try to convert the chromones into their aromatic forms (as opposed to wanting to introduce literal toasted notes). It could be interesting because there's something wonderful about that slight toasted quality when sandalwood is on the burner, and I don't think that's something that the oil really captures.

i would expect caramel note from this type of extraction, this note works really well in blending.

 

[AlHind Oud]

there are companies i know sells the post distilled material extracts of sandalwood.

 

[Mr.P]

i would expect caramel note from this type of extraction, this note works really well in blending.

I would also like to get one of these short path distillation rigs someday, these allow you to distill under a vacuum at a wide range of temperature (no water involved); the vacuum draws the vapor arising from the heated material through to the condenser. Might be a perfect thing for pulling out some of these caramelized toasted notes and concentrating them, I have no idea how the yield from a dry distillation compares to one involving steam or water.

 

[Mr.P]

So many different sandalwood variations out there who knows what's better or what's worse or what things are supposed to smell like these days! That said, and I've said this before… The "One Tree" oil from @AlHind Oud just keeps impressing me. Even though this is Indonesian in origin, the last time I smelled a similar profile in an oil for sale was in 2002 that special deg distilled Tamil Nadu oil from WLA, that region's late prime and COINCIDENTALLY (?) also a whole-tree oil.

It's this warm maple/fenugreek adjacent quality - soft warm sweet maple fuzz with all of the rest of the sandalwood goodness. One of my favorite styles of sandalwood oil, I have a few other favorite styles as well lol.

I don't know if this particular style is generally circulating out there and I just happen to have missed it, but it's quite rare in my experience. Once in 2002, and here once again today.

 

[Alamande]

Fraterworks Sandalwood Mysore Signature Oil

I only really bought this to get my Fraterworks order over the line for delivery. Again, I’m far from the most experienced nose on the forum, but this does the job for me. Big citrus blast up front - sharply lemony - with the cream coming in behind and lending a lemon meringue pie vibe; notes of fresh lumber in the drydown. Not overly white-woody, not buttery-diacetyl, not animalic either. A very refreshing profile. I was going to use this to top up another bottle for musk maceration, but I can see myself using most of the gram before that happens.

 

[Mr.P]

Fraterworks Sandalwood Mysore Signature Oil

I only really bought this to get my Fraterworks order over the line for delivery. Again, I’m far from the most experienced nose on the forum, but this does the job for me. Big citrus blast up front - sharply lemony - with the cream coming in behind and lending a lemon meringue pie vibe; notes of fresh lumber in the drydown. Not overly white-woody, not buttery-diacetyl, not animalic either. A very refreshing profile. I was going to use this to top up another bottle for musk maceration, but I can see myself using most of the gram before that happens.

A very interesting response! I get nothing lemony at all but absolutely do not doubt your experience - it is wild how each one of us responds so differently to these things (I'm assuming it's not a batch difference).

There was some other post here recently where someone wrote an impression of an oil that I had also smelled and I would never have thought it was the same oil based on the adjectives used.

It's fascinating and a little bit unsettling because what does this mean to somebody who's trying to make perfume? The sense of smell seems so personally inflected, idiosyncratic and different from sight and hearing - it is a bit like two people looking at a paining, agreeing on the basic subject matter but not being able to agree on what colors were used in the painting or what details there were when you examine the scene more closely.

Maybe with aroma it all comes down to being reminded of things, like you were reminded of citrus… I am not for some reason…so it's more like two people looking at the same painting and being reminded of different experiences in their past than two people looking at a painting and not seeing the same colors.

olfaction is very strange

 

[Alamande]

A very interesting response! I get nothing lemony at all but absolutely do not doubt your experience - it is wild how each one of us responds so differently to these things (I'm assuming it's not a batch difference).

There was some other post here recently where someone wrote an impression of an oil that I had also smelled and I would never have thought it was the same oil based on the adjectives used.

It's fascinating and a little bit unsettling because what does this mean to somebody who's trying to make perfume? The sense of smell seems so personally inflected, idiosyncratic and different from sight and hearing - it is a bit like two people looking at a paining, agreeing on the basic subject matter but not being able to agree on what colors were used in the painting or what details there were when you examine the scene more closely.

Maybe with aroma it all comes down to being reminded of things, like you were reminded of citrus… I am not for some reason…so it's more like two people looking at the same painting and being reminded of different experiences in their past?

olfaction is very strange

I do wonder if this is totally different stuff from what you got - like a wildly different batch, or something.

If I had more, I’d ask to send you some and find out!

At this rate I might actually be interested in buying more. 35 euro or so for 4 grams seems like good value. But I should knuckle down to burning and swiping what I already have, especially since I just got back from Oman with 0.75 kilo of resin.