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Family: Woody

Sandalwood: the creamy precious wood now under pressure

Sandalwood is an essential oil distilled from the wood of Santalum album, with a soft, warm, creamy, almost milky precious-wood smell. The tree has been overexploited, so perfumers increasingly turn to other species and to synthetic molecules.

Stacked red sanders logs, brown bark and bright red heartwood

Where does sandalwood come from?

True sandalwood is Santalum album, a small tropical tree in the Santalaceae family that is also a hemiparasite, tapping the roots of neighbouring trees. Wikipedia's sandalwood article calls it a protected species whose supply cannot meet demand, and notes that Australia, around Kununurra in Western Australia, is now its largest producer. In India, the main sandalwood tracts lie in Karnataka and neighbouring states.

The oil is usually steam-distilled from the wood, a slow process of 14 to 36 hours. Whole trees are harvested, stump and roots included, because those parts are rich in oil. The two santalol isomers make up about 75% of the oil.

What does sandalwood smell like?

Sandalwood has a distinctive soft, warm, smooth and creamy scent, often described as milky. Its quality depends on the age of the tree, where it grew and the skill of the distiller.

What does sandalwood do in a perfume?

Sandalwood gives a long-lasting woody base and acts as a fixative, slowing down the more volatile materials around it. It appears in the woody family as well as in amber, fougère and chypre fragrances, and it pairs often with white flowers such as jasmine and ylang-ylang. Compare it with cedarwood and oud, its neighbours in the woody family.

What should you know about sandalwood?

Wild Santalum album is assessed as vulnerable by the IUCN, as the French Wikipedia page on Santalum album records, and India has banned its export. In the EU, Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 adds both sandalwood oil and santalol to the fragrance allergens named on labels. Substitutes include Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) and synthetics such as isobornyl cyclohexanol. Our class on precious woods compares sandalwood, oud and cedar.

Often paired with

Jasmine Ylang-ylang Vetiver Cedarwood Oud

Further reading

Sandalwood in the feed

hana.neroliin Woods, Mosses & Roots · Vancouver ·

Question
Sandalwood twig with pointed leaves bearing a small red fruit

My grandmother's sandalwood box smells of warm milk

My grandmother kept her incense in a small sandalwood box. I opened it this weekend for the first time in years and it smells soft, almost like warm milk, not like any wood I know. Is that what sandalwood is supposed to smell like?

Sandalwood

nell.wattle Okay, nerd moment: 'milky' is actually how the sandalwood page puts it, soft, warm and creamy. Over here we have a different species, Santalum…

4 comments

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