MAHISURU GOLD RESERVE - 2018 Mysore Sandalwood oil [Santalum album]

In the world of sandalwood oils, "Mysore" is the established benchmark for classical Sandalwood profiles, and the most in-demand. Distilled from South Indian Santalum album, it denotes a specific olfactive profile with different individual nuances and personalities within that profile family depending on the raw material, the distillation apparatus and method, the curing, etc.

This present oil is sweetly woody with delicate flowery and fruity notes peeping around, and a surprising but delicious mineral note. The robe is deep golden.

It offers excellent longevity and performs better and better as the hours pass (compared to many sandalwood oils which fade afer the opening hour)

Here is a review by a natural perfumer with a very seasoned nose :

This oil really showcases the paradox of sandalwood because the opening is quite gentle, appealing, neutral and sweet woody (with no strong still notes, no overblown butter or shavings notes, no rubbery or lily-like notes) but the oil has very good long performance. In fact it was kind of striking, I applied a pretty small swipe yesterday and for the rest of the day I was smelling quite tangible classic engaging addictive sandalwood aroma, and I was repeatedly surprised at the presence and tenacity of the base notes and dry down - this is the hallmark of a really nice sandalwood oil.

It is an oil perfect for a long daily wear, or for layering / upperscale blending.

The heartwood used in this traditional copper hydro distillation comes from south Karnataka and has been distilled by a craft master in Northern India, using traditional techniques. This current batch was distilled in 2018 and has been cured to full bodied maturity.

The ancient Mysore Kingdom in South Karnataka had its center at Mahishapura, the name later became Mahisūru (a name which the royal family still uses) and then Mysuru, the current name of the city. Mysore is the anglicized version.

A new batch (April 2022) of oil from the same artisan, produced with similar quality raw material, is currently curing and will be listed here in a few years (long curing transcends such oils), probably after this one runs out of stock.