A five minute video from Lush on the Australian sandalwood trade. (And you can find prior Lush videos on the subject of sandalwood here)
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Thank you for posting that interesting video. I wonder if the Australian sandalwood is the same botanical variety used in the classic perfumes, do you happen to know? I was under the impression that the original Indian sandalwood had been over-harvested and therefore was no longer available. How does the Australian sandalwood compare?
Mysore sandalwood from India was used in the classic perfumes. It is now very scarce and too expensive to use anyway, but is still considered of higher quality than Australian sandalwood. Also important to realize that perfumes that list sandalwood in the notes don’t necessarily have any sandalwood of any kind in the mix.
Technically, they are different species. Classic Mysore sandalwood = Santalum album, Australian Sandalwood = Santalum spicatum. They scent profile is quite different, but many people, myself included, like Australian sandalwood for what it is, even as we cry over our dwindling stash of vintage Mysore. What happened to Indian sandalwood is just too stupid for words. For all means and purposes, the supply is now finished. Check out what Trygve Harris has to say about that.
And yes, just because the notes say sandalwood, that does not guarantee anything, especially in mainstream releases.
Thanks for posting this video, it was very interesting to see the actual workings of the whole distilling process. Well done production, too, slick and with cool music..
Thanks Akimon!