Papua Sandalwood

Note Profile

Botanical

About

Papua sandalwood is the heartwood oil of Santalum macgregorii from Papua New Guinea. It is not one smell. Fourteen GC/MS-analysed samples spread continuously between three very different compositions, so what a buyer gets varies from tree to tree.

Scent Profile

Creamy_woody and dry_woody are almost level, and that is the honest answer rather than a fudge. Two suppliers of the same species flatly contradict each other on this axis: Botanica Gaia sells the oil on an 'extremely sweet and creamy-smooth drydown', while Pure Incense says the wood has 'little of the creaminess found in other sandalwoods... closer to raw, sun-warmed timber than anything sweet or milky'. The GC data says both can be true of different trees. Creamy is a shade ahead because two of the three trade sources describe oil and only one describes chips. Sweet_vanillic is the 'deep, rich vanilla/balsamic heart-note' Ultra International reports and the sweetness Botanica Gaia leads with. Floral is the facet no other published sandalwood has - Ultra opens its bench note with a 'sweet floral top-note' and calls the whole top and heart 'uniquely different from other sandalwoods'. Amber_resinous is the 'deep oriental accords' at the finish. Under the line sit a light earthy base, a faint powdery drydown, a trace of smoke from its use as incense wood, and a small lactonic reading of the creaminess.

ScentWheel

Breadthbroad

EnvelopeBase · ~24h lasting

Family Woody & Earthy, Sweet & Gourmand

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

Origin

Santalum macgregorii F. Muell., growing between 100 and 1,500 metres in Papua New Guinea and not readily available across the region. Brophy, Goldsack, Doran and Niangu examined 14 heartwood oils by GC and GC/MS (Journal of Essential Oil Research 21:3). They found three compositional extremes: one very similar to Santalum album with large amounts of alpha- and beta-santalol, one dominated by (Z)-lanceol, and one dominated by (E,E)-farnesol and the curcumenols. Their conclusion matters more than the extremes: 'chemotypes are not present; rather, there is a continuous variation'.

Usage in Perfumery

Sold as oil by small independent suppliers and as carving wood and incense chips. Attested on 10 Parfumo perfumes across 3 brands. No fragrance house publishes a reference standard for it.