Pure sandalwood shave creams?
- Thread starter bajya
- Start date
I love Proraso Red and sandalwood in general. My wife however can't stand it. So therefore I seldom use anything with the sandalwood scent.
Sandalwood Essential Oil is called Santalum album and grows in places like India. It is extremely expensive and as such will typically not be found in products like shaving cream. Instead a fragrance oil is created for that purpose and can include many additional notes in it so no two products are going to smell alike! Also, Santalum album is a base note and does not carry as well as middle notes and top notes do. A company that makes shaving cream with a "Sandalwood" scent may also make a "Sandalwood" cologne which does include Santalum album but again, it will most often contain other middle notes and top notes that compliment the Sandalwood scent! Unless a Sandalwood product contains only Santalum album, it will never smell exactly the same as an identical product from a different company!
I can see the expense. On Amazon, it's selling for $43 for 5ml, $61 for 10ml, and $151 for 1oz. It sounds like the kind of thing that might be a great ingredient in roll-your-own pre-shave oil. I currently do that with lavender essential oil and lemon essential oil.
Good points, except that santalum album refers to the Indian species of Sandal-wood trees, not the oil itself. The oil is referred to as Sandalwood/santalum album oil or S.A.O., or East Indian Sandalwood oil or E.I.S.O., to distinguish it from West Indian Sandalwood oil, aka Amyris or amyris balsamifera or other sub-species.
The Sandal-wood trees naturally growing in the Mysore province of India have been considered as producing the highest quality oil. This is usually referred to as Sandal Mysore oil, Mysore Sandalwood oil, Santalum album Mysore Oil, &etc.
Consequently, this natural resource has been unsustainably over-harvested to the point that the price for the oil has increased over 100 times from its mid-70's price of $35 per kilo. To-day, it's harvest and export are controlled by the Indian government, but poaching smuggling and corruption are rife.
The best oil comes from the heartwood of mature (30 year-old+) trees, which are now nigh impossible to find, despite India's re-planting efforts. Thus, younger and younger trees are used, the oil is adulterated/cut with other sub-species, or a sub-species oil is fraudulently labelled as Mysore.
This santalum album tree grows in other parts of India and also in the Ceylon region and parts of Indonesia, but it is being depleted everywhere at an alarming rate. Sri Lanka now prohibits export. Indonesian exports are minimal. The I.U.C.N. has classified the species in these regions as "vulnerable."
Other sub-species exist and are used for oil or fragrances, and can legally be called Sandalwood, santalum spicatum in Australia for instance. Others include African Sandal-woods, known as Muhuhu or Osyris.
The cost of Indian Sandalwood oil to-day makes it prohibitive for use in fragrances or cosmetics. Hence, cheaper sub-species are sometimes employed, but the move now is toward synthetics.
Sandalwood fragrances by most major producers are now utilising synthetics, sometimes augmented with some real sub-species oil.
Creed was the only major producer still using real Indian Sandalwood oil, last I checked.
Finally, to second your point, even fragrances simply called "Sandalwood" are always made up of a "bouquet" of notes and most contain little or no Sandalwood oil at all. Thus, different brands of Sandalwood fragrances are going to smell markedly different.
Yes, you can D.I.Y. with essential oil and unscented deodorant, per-shave oil, shaving cream, even make your own after-shave or cologne. But as a monolithic scent, it's probably not going to be all that great.
Sorry, but perfumers and those of us who work with Essential Oils very regularly refer to them by their names without always adding "Essential Oil"at the end. We know and understand their origins and all of their wonderful details!
Haslinger Sandlhoz smells more subtle, yet very similar to Proraso Red. It's Haslinger, so performance is always rock solid.
Nancy Boy Sandalwood, subtle with excellent cushioning. Not sure if it meets the criteria for pure Sandalwood, but I enjoy it along with TOBS and Proraso red tube cream. On another thread someone asked about this. I captured the info from their website.
Awesome post. Thanks!
Just to note that Australian Album (from root-stock of Mysore S. Album) is commercially available.
Wet Shaving Products (WSP) has great pure sandalwood scent and they just came out with creams.
I would like to add that I have been enjoying TOBS Sandalwood hard soap as of late.....but I detect no hints of sandalwood essential oil whatsoever. It's more of a floral powder resting on a gentle bed of patchouli. Very complex scent that lingers for hours afterwards. It's very nice and the performance and post-shave feel are top notch IMHO.
Not a cream, but this soap has 3 kinds of sandalwood and NO other scent ingredients...
I'm surprised Doug didn't put Bay Rum in it. Just a joke of course, but he does love BR. Seriously, I have really been getting into his aftershaves lately and he seems like a good guy, too.
Sir, try the NEW Proraso Super Formula Red. It is much, much better than the previous version.
I like TOBS Sandalwood.
It’s a great cream!
It’s a great cream!
IF your looking for essential oil only shaving products, check out tallow and steel or the more expensive Sebum Gold line. The Tallow and steel scents are hit or miss with most people, and usually the sebum is out of most peoples price range. I just got a used Sebum Purple soap and I am really liking it.
If you really want pure natural sandalwood oil scent it won’t be cheap. All the commercial sandalwood creams and soaps will use iso e super - a creamy, cedar synthetic sandalwood scent. Perfectly fine but not EO. I make my own sandalwood cream using either AOS or Xpec unscented bade with Mysore sandalwood EO well mixed in. The scent is excellent but it is an expensive option. I do the same for a couple of other scents where the EO prices mean that the commercial creams will use only synthetics.
