Sold out
Kupang Santal
This gorgeous sandalwood is a 2019 co-distillation of the heartwood and roots of old, wild Santalum Album trees from Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara island in Indonesia.
With a sweet, buttery, spicy, creamy, slightly lactonic and dry-woody profile, it’s reminiscent in many ways of an excellent Mysore, and yet with a more intense character and spicy/woody richness that is simply beautiful. Perfect for when a prominent sandalwood note is desired, and, overall, an exquisite distillation that I’m proud to be able to offer you.
Reviews (9)
Related products
Santal Ceylon Silk
Just like Ceylon Red, this is a wild Sri Lankan santal that has aged beautifully since it was distilled in 2021. Very much unlike CR, however, Ceylon Silk replaces those deep gourmand woody hues with a gorgeously airy and smooth butteriness throughout its olfactory journey.
Testing on the skin, its initial sharp green piney top notes after distillation have almost completely disappeared, with the oil now a lot more smooth and rounded from start to finish.
It opens up with a beautifully rich butteriness that's delicate and airy, and yet so very buttery at the same time. To me, it's quite reminiscent of Mysore's famed sandalwoods, minus the lime opening that typify oils from that region.
As the scent progresses, you might also pick up on a hint of powdery nuttiness or earthiness, especially in the later stages. This powdery earthiness is not the soily facet found in vetiver, but a much more light and airy note that reminds me of Mitti attar's delicate nuttiness.
Overall, this is a fantastic sandalwood oil that I'd very highly recommend if you're looking for a light, clean, and yet beautifully rich and buttery sandalwood oil to wear neat. I think it would also work fantastically well in almost any attar or perfume blend, providing an incredibly smooth base without overwhelming the rest of the composition.
Ruh Khus 2020
This is a beautiful example of India's famed Ruh Khus, the essential oil distilled from the roots of wild vetiver plants (Vetiveria zizanioides) in northern India.
Distilled in 2020, it now has a beautifully soft and rounded profile with almost no harsh notes, displaying a soft and yet ultra-dense character instead (much like oud and sandalwood, vetiver improves with age, the scent becoming deeper and more rounded).
Testing on my skin, it opens up with a quiet, complex and yet very smooth leathery and rooty profile - a touch more than others I've encountered - before slowly revealing its classic Ruh Khus profile: an incredibly rich bouquet of green grass along with leafy, earthy, rooty, leathery and woody notes that lasts for many hours.
Gorgeous worn neat as a standalone attar, its excellent tenacity and fixative properties also make it an exceptional base note and ingredient in natural perfumery, working well in fougères, chypres and mossy, woody and green accords amongst others.
Note:
• As with all natural materials, the scent, colour, and profile can vary slightly from batch to batch. Please note reviews include those from previous batches
Collection:Â Kannauj Chronicles
In the Kannauj Chronicles, I explore and share with you the wonderful natural oils and attars of India’s historic perfume capital, Kannauj. The oils in this collection are pure botanical extracts and attars distilled in sandalwood oil by some of Kannauj's most renowned and trusted artisans, who share our passion for distilling the highest quality of aromatics and attars.
These attars are distilled using the ancient ‘deg and bhapka’ apparatus; a traditional distilling method largely unchanged for 400 years. I hope you enjoy these breathtaking scents of nature from a bygone era, an era fast being forgotten in today's race towards modernity and industrialisation at all costs.
Patchouli, India
Botanical Name: Pogostemon cablin
Origin: India, 2022
Process: Iron-Distilled Essential Oil, Dark
Note: Base
Perfumery: Excellent fixative
This is a gorgeous iron-distilled Indian patchouli oil bursting with its characteristically sweet, warm, rich, herbaceous, spicy, minty, woody, and earthy profile that makes it so valuable in natural perfumery and perfumery at large.
Comparing this Indian distillation to the more common Indonesian one, I personally prefer the Indian variety due to its deeper and richer profile that feels more earthy, chocolaty, and almost caramel-like in its sweetness, compared with its more herbaceous, minty and fruity Indonesian counterpart that feels lighter and more top-note heavy.
An incredibly versatile oil due to its outstandingly beautiful and complex profile, patchouli is a great fixative that can find use in almost all accords, from earthy, green and forest-type blends to spicy orientals, florals, and woods. It also improves with ageing if stored correctly, and should become smoother, rounder and fuller in profile with time.
Bourbon Vetiver
This is an exceptionally beautiful Bourbon Vetiver essential oil from Reunion Islands that is rich and complex and yet ultra suave and smooth, making it gorgeous worn as an attar or as an ingredient in the natural perfumer's arsenal.
Testing on my skin, the aroma immediately oozes with the soft warmth of baked earth, clay, roots and dry soil with a touch of woods, petrichor and campfire smoke. I also detect a beautiful undercurrent of warm sweetness throughout, calling to mind labdanum, tolu balsam, sandalwood, and a variety of other resins and woods that it would pair well with.
As a heavy base note, it displays typical soft projection with incredible tenacity, lasting for many days on a paper strip. It also makes for a great study in comparison with Ruh Khus, the wild North Indian variety, which is a much more green, grassy and wet soily affair.
Overall, this is a truly beautiful vetiver oil and one that I'd definitely recommend for vetiver connoisseurs and natural perfume enthusiasts alike.
Delcan –
Great scent from this bottle of Kupang sandalwood. I decided I liked the look of this so much, I bought 4 X 3mls bottles. I was not disappointed. Beautiful oil for future musk macerations. Muhammad puts great effort into his service and the packaging is very secure and quite beautifully packaged. Arrived very quick and have since bought again from the brother… Also Muhammad is generous with his samples. So very thoughtful. Jazaka Allahu khayran ya Muhammad..
Les –
Lesley –
This is a strong smelling Sandlewood which lasts.
Saren –
Exquisite quality sandalwood. Muhammad went out his way to provide some additional samples due to some late shipping from the courier. nnCannot thank him enough for his customer care and sticking to his word. Definitely recommend his products due to quality and the brilliant customer service he provides.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
High quality sandal, a stronger version compare to Mysore sandal. Dry, woody and sweet, smells more close to high quality sandalwood incense chips.
Elise –
Deep and lovely, perfect for my husband. I love natural smells, all commercial scents and fragrances smell the same to me, so it’s wonderful to come across something that’s complex and with a beautifully slow reveal, and yet authentic and natural. This is not like the Hawaii or Australian Sandalwood, but very much the authentic Sandal that we all love. Also it’s perfect for men.
Jonathan –
love this hard-to-describe sandalwood, quite different from Mysore
Lachlan Neal –
Wild Kupang is currently the most used Sandalwood oil in my collection. A refreshing bright citrus / frankincense top note, which develops into a buttery & resinous Santal base. The quality is superb, many people couldn’t identify this from a top notch Mysore distillation. If you love Sandalwood, I’d confidently recommend you blind buy this, especially for the excellent price.
Lachlan Neal –
High quality Indonesian Santal. Fresh lime / frankincense top notes, develops into a creamy, rosy, spicy Santal woodiness. Long lasting & fulfilling to wear. Perfect for attar blending, but wears great on its own too.