Botanical Name: Santalum Austro-Caledonicum

Plant Part: Wood

Country of Origin: New Caledonia

Method of Extraction: Steam Distillation

Santalum album. India and Indonesia are the two major producers and exporters of sandalwood oil. Sandalwood is native to Ceylon, India, Indonesia and their surrounding islands. The oil is an excellent base and fixative for other high grade perfumes. By itself it is a mild, long-lasting sweet perfume, but the perfume industry finds that it can blend well with other perfumes and does not impart its fragrance when used as a base. There are numerous products that use sandalwood oil.

Sandalwood oil is slightly thick, has a long shelf life and will actually get better as it ages. It has a characteristic sweet, woody odor which is widely employed in the fragrance industry, but more particularly in the higher-priced perfumes. It has excellent blending properties and the presence of a large proportion of high-boiling constituents in the oil (about 90 % santalols) also makes it valuable as a fixative for other fragrances. In India it is used in this manner for the manufacture of traditional attars such as rose attar; the delicate floral oils are distilled directly into sandalwood oil. Blends well with neroli, sweet orange, rose and benzoin. Flashpoint: 200F.