Indonesian Sandalwood

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Santalum album from Timor, lifted and waxy

Scent Profile

Creamy_woody dominates, the soft warm sandalwood body all three vendors lead with. Behind it a real dry_woody presence that one distiller describes as polished and waxed wood rather than raw timber, which is more structure than the generic note is scored for. A sweet_vanillic balsamic sweetness runs through both, and there is enough resin behind it to register as amber_resinous. Two of the three sources add a lift that the others do not: a bright, uplifting opening, more lifted than the same vendor's Sri Lankan oil. That lift is the whole reason this term exists and there is no facet in the 32 that carries it.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeBase · ~30h lasting

Family Woody & Earthy

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

Santalum album grown in Indonesia, mainly in East Nusa Tenggara and on Timor. This is inside the species' likely native range, so the tree is the same one that gives Mysore sandalwood, not a substitute species like the Australian S. spicatum. Indonesian oil is steam distilled from heartwood and sold as a named commercial origin by producers such as FP Aromatics. Indian material still commands a higher price on its alpha-santalol content.

Usage in Perfumery

A base note and a fixative, used where a formula wants sandalwood without the price of Mysore. Vendors position it as the brighter, more open-topped sandalwood, so it suits compositions that need the wood to be legible in the first hour rather than only in the drydown. 39 mentions across 28 brands on Parfumo, which is wide use for an origin-qualified term.