Review: 100 Year Old Mysore Sandalwood

[jfrater]

So it's review time! I purchased a quantity of a recently distilled oil extracted from an 80-100 year old sandalwood tree oil from Aroma Sublime. The product arrived quickly and well packaged and with a very generous free sample of frangipani pure premium oil and Zen One which is a low temperature extraction of a 100 year old santalum album tree from a 600 year old zen garden in Japan. I briefly review them at the bottom.

But first the main course: 100 year old Golden Bough Sandalwood Mysore. Upon applying it to the skin it has an immediate presence. I have had the pleasure of sampling many sandalwood oils over the years and this is definitely amongst the very best. This opening is the distinct nutty-creamy aroma that distinguishes sandalwood from other woods. It is the "heart" so to speak of the odour profile. Indian sandalwood oils that are not from Mysore tend to have the least of this note with more of a generic woodiness and often some unwanted notes, but Mysore oil always has that extra volume and typically fewer or none of those unwanted notes.

As it dries down the oil remains true to its nature and continues to be present. It is a very long and slow fade - not a sudden drop off as certain elements of the oil vanish faster than others. Hours after applying you can still tell this is a luxury sandalwood.

Sandalwood oil improves with proper prolonged storage so aged sandalwood oil has a premium price. This Golden Bough oil has undergone three agings. The first is the tree itself, 100 years old with the maker selecting the best parts to distill. The chosen wood is then dry aged by Aroma Sublime for five years and distilled in a very slow and low temperature process. This distillation took place in 2016 so the oil is now also aged an additional 7 years. This is sandalwood oil that has potentially been on earth since 1911: St Pius X was Pope and George V was King of England and Emperor of India, and William Taft was president of America.

This oil is incredibly precious. It costs $238 for 2.5ml of this treasure.

Fragipani pure: when I applied this to the skin and sniffed my heart skipped a beat. This is an incredibly beautiful and complex oil. It smells of flowers, and woods and dessert wine. I even get hints of candy. What an wonderful oil. This transported me to a time in my youth for some unknown reason. When an essential oil moves you, it is an essential oil worth owning. It is $318 for 2.5ml. Incidentally, it takes 17.5kg of flowers to make that 2.5ml of oil. This is white frangipani.

Zen One: what a curious fellow this is! This is a decidedly cedar-like sandalwood. It may be from santalum album but its opening notes are very much those of a rich and long aged cedarwood Virginia oil. As it dries you begin to get sweet resinous and slightly syrupy notes from it. It would make a wonderful accompaniment to to the frangipani oil actually. The longer this oil sits on your skin, the more it begins to turn into sandalwood with the classic earthy sandal tones. This is an extremely elegant and lovely oil. $238 for 2.5ml.

 

[Emanuel76]

My Santalum Album is aged 5 years (since then I have it), but it's still underwhelming. It's not something to die for. Just smooth oily wood.
Until I bought it I had the impression that I would levitate after I'll smell it, thousands of rainbows will furrow the sky, the expansion of the universe will stop. It was so praised everywhere.

 

[jfrater]

My Santalum Album is aged 5 years (since then I have it), but it's still underwhelming. It's not something to die for. Just smooth oily wood.
Until I bought it I had the impression that I would levitate after I'll smell it, thousands of rainbows will furrow the sky, the expansion of the universe will stop. It was so praised everywhere.

Is it from Mysore or at least India? To me the Australian stuff is completely uninteresting - even though it is the same breed. There's something in the soil in Mysore!

 

[Emanuel76]

Is it from Mysore or at least India? To me the Australian stuff is completely uninteresting - even though it is the same breed. There's something in the soil in Mysore!

It's from India, but I don't know if from the Mysore region.

 

[RomanB]

My Santalum Album is aged 5 years (since then I have it), but it's still underwhelming. It's not something to die for. Just smooth oily wood.
Until I bought it I had the impression that I would levitate after I'll smell it, thousands of rainbows will furrow the sky, the expansion of the universe will stop. It was so praised everywhere.

I think that professionals shouldn't really fall to marketing.

Consumers of perfumes don't know really anything about ingredients or approaches used for their composition. Instead of knowledge they rely only on marketing. Marketologists created a whole parallel world of descriptions for consumers.

As a professional you know that no wonders happen. Yes, there are nice materials, but if you will always have their specimens at hand and sniff them from time to time, you'll learn how to perceive them neutrally, at their real value. Narcissus absolute is nice, tuberose too, but they are not unicorn tears, just materials to use. Expensive ones, but your consumers really don't care, because as a marketologist you will never sell anything "cheap", everything will be "sublime", "finest" and "right from a Galapagos' unicorn's eye".

That being said, sandalwood is totally overvalued. It is just a nice and complex natural, with several classes of synthetic substances which closely approach its different facets.

 

[Mando]

I have a late 00s Mysore Sandalwood purchased from Eden Botanicals. It is sublime.
No aroma chemical comes close to it’s beauty.
I rarely use the oil I have since I only have a 1/4 ounce of it. If I do use it, I rather wear it. There is nothing that compares to it.
Most persons are only acquainted with a chemical version of it. It really does take maturity to appreciate it, like most things in life, I’ve learned.

 

[parker25mv]

80-100 year old sandalwood tree oil from Aroma Sublime. The product arrived quickly and well packaged and with a very generous free sample of frangipani pure premium oil and Zen One which is a low temperature extraction of a 100 year old santalum album tree from a 600 year old zen garden in Japan.

The origins of this tree almost sound too good to be true.
It is true that the Japanese are obsessed with sandalwood, and theoretically sandalwood trees should be able grow in Japan, from what I am aware of, sandalwood trees can only grow in the extreme South of Japan, in U.S. Department of Agriculture designated "zone 10". (That means it's probably not going to be found growing in areas like Kyoto or Tokyo, although all the modern city development in Tokyo has actually altered the local climate so that the city area falls into zone 10) Sandalwood trees also typically don't grow very well without a "host" tree planted nearby, of a particular species. So I would think it unusual to find a sandalwood tree in a Japanese garden, though not impossible.

I personally would be a bit skeptical about such claims.
The site that you bought or sourced your oil from does have a picture of a map, with a pinpoint marker that appears to lie in Oita, on Kyushu, Japan's southernmost major island. However, Oita is more on the north side of the island, rather than the south, and thus falls more into zone 9b.
The site where you got your oil also has a picture that I recognize as Shoganji Zen retreat, located just a little east from Oita. They have some garden grounds. Shoganji is located right near the coast, so that does seem to bode well for the possibility of a sandalwood tree being able to survive there (being located right near a large body of water helps moderate temperatures and prevents it from getting too cold). Oita is a very ancient city and has at least three Buddhist temples nearby, though not as large or impressive as those found in other parts of Japan.

If it means anything to you, I did try doing a search on the Japanese internet, for Shoganji (正願寺), sandalwood (白檀), tree (木) and Oita (大分).
I was hoping to perhaps find a picture of tree they cut down, but no such luck. (I had to specify Oita because apparently there is another more popular temple also named Shoganji in a different part of Japan that dominated the search results)

This Japanese blog says about sandalwood trees: "Although natural growth is considered impossible in Japan due to climatic reasons, it can be seen in several botanical gardens. In Tokyo, it is grown in a greenhouse at the Koishikawa Botanical Garden ..."
Mushashino Works

Oil sourced from a 100-year-old tree is extremely rare to find on the commercial market these days. The best quality of oil is said to come from trees older than 70 years.

None of the synthetics really match the real beauty of genuine (Santalum album) sandalwood oil.

 

[Andy the frenchy]

My Santalum Album is aged 5 years (since then I have it), but it's still underwhelming. It's not something to die for. Just smooth oily wood. [...]

Tried a pure oil once, supposedly a great one (that's all the info I had). I was underwhelmed as well.

[...] That being said, sandalwood is totally overvalued. It is just a nice and complex natural, with several classes of synthetic substances which closely approach its different facets.

Sandalwood-centric fragrances are the absolute best sellers in the luxury segment, as per the opinions of 3 different SA's I talked to during my last trip to Paris. Every brands try to moneytize on it. Mainstream/niche brands by selling 'sandalwood' frags with no sandalwood in it, and indies possibly using it (as well as other substitutes or other cheap sandalwood oils) and always stating 'it's the best/the precious MySore/the purest/the largest amount' sandalwood oil ever used, catering to a handful of buyers who buy that marketing speech, with more often than not quite disappointing results. No house is innocent in that game of selling pseudo-exclusivity, or at least, much overselling it. Nor the oil sellers who sell to professionals.

 

[Mando]

I feel my mind drifting away now….

 

[Mr.P]

The method of extraction is pretty important in terms of the complexity of the end product. If all you’ve experienced are very simple bland sandalwood oils, you have probably only smelled steam distilled oils, and likely from plantation wood.

Sandalwood hydrodistilled the “old way” in copper degs can really be a very fine, complex, multilayered perfume in itself. These distillations are done slowly over a period of up to two weeks and apparently some chemistry occurs this way that doesn’t when quickly distilled with pressurized steam.

Sandalwood of good quality is pretty much my favorite thing to smell. To attempt to improve on good Sandalwood is pure hubris.

If you should be lucky enough to stumble upon some top shelf oil, and have the presence of mind to appreciate it for what it is, you will be lucky indeed.

 

[Emanuel76]

Well, it's definitely a good one. It's like an emollient for the nostrils. But I expected more.
Its texture is nice.
It has a fatal flaw. Besides being expensive, it is relatively weak. It probably needs a lot in a perfume. Expensive and weak it's a no-no.
No nuttiness and sweetness whatsoever.
It has a mild pencil shavings odor, a bit peppery, aldehydic orange peel impression, slightly shampooy, and above all oily/creamy. Just a tiny bit heady. Smooth.
On skin, after 8-10 hours it is gone.

Once I received in a package a piece of wood in a zippered bag. I ignored it for a while. After I smelled it and liked it, I would have wanted to ask by mail what sort of wood is this, but I didn't remember from whom I had received it.
I never thought a wood could be so fragrant. It's spicy, sweet, woody. Strong smelling even now. And I've had it for at least a year.
Lovely!

​

 

[Culpa Ire]

There's something in the soil in Mysore!

Human blood…? Perhaps mixed in with some sweat and tears and a touch of gunpowder.

 

[grabuge]

I have a late 00s Mysore Sandalwood...

Hello, what does '00s' mean exactly?

 

[parker25mv]

Hello, what does '00s' mean exactly?

It means 2000s, within the first decade after the year 2000.
(like 90s means 1990s)

 

[Mando]

Hello, what does '00s' mean exactly?

The aughts (American English) or noughties (British English) are terms referring to the decade 2000 to 2009. These arise from the words aught and nought respectively, both meaning zero

 

[Dorje123]

Sandalwood isn't something that most immediately appreciate. To use a cliché, it's like wine... it takes some experience and learning, or training the palate, to really understand and appreciate. I'm not trying to be snobby but I suppose it can't really be helped in this case, it's just the way it is.

 

[ScentAle]

While i dont like so much Indian sandalwood, i love the Hawaiian sandalwood, stronger and great presence. Did you ever tried that Jamie?

 

[jfrater]

While i dont like so much Indian sandalwood, i love the Hawaiian sandalwood, stronger and great presence. Did you ever tried that Jamie?

I did try it a long time ago - I think it was from Edent Botanicals so I'm not sure who the supplier was (Biolandes didn't own them at that time). I wasn't hugely fond of it - I actually preferred the New Caledonian they had at the time.

 

[Emanuel76]

Sandalwood isn't something that most immediately appreciate. To use a cliché, it's like wine... it takes some experience and learning, or training the palate, to really understand and appreciate. I'm not trying to be snobby but I suppose it can't really be helped in this case, it's just the way it is.

Well, it smells like a false dilemma.

2. Not all wines/sandalwoods are good.
Even the OP wrote in the initial post he tested a lot o sandalwoods and this is one of the best, which implies the other sandalwoods are not equally good, which also implies that you have to search a lot before you will find a very good one, which also implies it's OK not get very excited right away, until you search a lot and find the sandalwood which really deserves praise.
So, you don't have to worship the Indian/Mysore Sandalwood just because it's called Indian/Mysore Sandalwood. Unless...

3. It's just a metter of personal preference.

4. Easy suggestible.

5. Romanticizing.

6. The desire to be part of a (special) group.

7. Indian/Mysore Sandalwood it's not as extraordinary as some claim.

And maybe there are more.

 

[thesacredsaguaro]

Tony Bolton (rip) was such a worthy addition to the Oud community. It’s cool to see him help pass on his knowledge to Pierre and his wife Tha. I haven’t tried this oil only because it’s on the rather high end for sandal oils. The post initially had me thinking you were talking about an actual 100 year old oil and it felt a little misleading until I read the post and realized the exact oil you’re talking about.

This is also the first time I’m really seeing perfumers downplay the beauty of sandalwood oil but sometimes I wonder if that’s because they haven’t smelled the good stuff. But then again it really all comes down to preference and I respect that. It’s just that in my experience Sandalwood oil is incredible and one of the few raw materials that I wear and burn in my daily life.

Fun fact about Mysore just about everything called Mysore isn’t actually grown in Mysore. So I definitely understand the romanticizing aspect there. Sandalwood doesn’t have to be grown in Mysore to be great. I have a rather “cheap“ oil from sinking grade wood distilled in Sri Lanka sold by Jinkoh Store awhile back that was only $160 for 3ml’s so I rarely if ever pay over that price. Tabeer Oud sold Mysore Royale which was 6 grams for around $180 and is made from actual government issued sinking grade sandalwood from Mysore but since he’s actually Indian and has family that works in the factory in Mysore I think his ability to procure this stuff is easier than most westerners will be able to.


The frangipani oil is incredible though and one of my favorite florals to work with. I purchased some back when Tony was still alive along with some of his Oud oils. Definitely top notch stuff and the frangipani oil is to die for.