Fragrance Note
Sandalwood
Used in 3203+ fragrances on FragranVerse
What it smells like
Sandalwood. Santal blanc. Provides a creamy mineral base, warming a composition with praline-like warmth. The oil is steam-distilled from the heartwood of Santalum album, a hemiparasitic tree whose roots form haustoria that penetrate neighboring species to extract water and nitrogen. Native to southern India and parts of Southeast Asia, the tree must reach 30. 60 years before its heartwood accumulates commercially viable concentrations of sesquiterpenic alcohols. The dominant odorant is (Z)-alpha-santalol (41. 55%), with (Z)-beta-santalol following at 16. 24%. Natural supply falls far short of demand, making synthetics like Javanol and Polysantol essential in modern perfumery.
How it's used in perfumery
The supreme base-note smoother. Sandalwood grounds a composition without asserting itself. A creamy, warm platform that lets other materials project. Its molecular weight and low vapor pressure give it extraordinary tenacity: substantivity exceeds 400 hours at full concentration, extending the perceived lifespan of a fragrance by providing a persistent woody cushion long after volatile top notes have gone. Structurally essential to amber and woody families, where it provides the creamy warmth that ambers and musks amplify. In floral compositions, it supplies the intimate skin-warmth that keeps a rose or jasmine anchored.
Fun fact
Santalum album cannot survive alone. Its roots form haustoria. Parasitic attachment organs. That penetrate the root systems of neighboring trees and extract water, nitrogen, and dissolved minerals.
Perfumes with Sandalwood(80 of 3203)
Middle East
(42)
Designer
(22)Niche
(14)