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Sandalwood Perfume

post #1 of 7
10/22/12 at 1:45pm
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I'm creating a woody perfume based on sandalwood. I've included a number of synthetics (cedramber, kephalis, cedryl acetate etc.) as well as naturals (cedar, sandalwood, a trace of oud) but am having trouble with persistance and sillage. Does anyone have an idea of how I can amplify the sandalwood? Or the woody notes in general?
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post #2 of 7
10/22/12 at 2:42pm
Just something interesting I noticed when trying to make a monster stinker of street niffs for my sons play was that some notes actually cancel each other out rather than amplify. So 3 + 3 doesn't necessarily get you to 6...

Rather than amplifying wood with more wood, it may be worth trying to fill up the wooden keg with some wine or flowers to make that fullness. Picking up and amping on one of the wood nuances rather than the woody feel itself.

Just a thought rather than any fountain of knowledge here.
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post #3 of 7
10/22/12 at 3:13pm
+1 what mumsy said. I made a basic scent containing sandalwood and vetiver and decided to add petitgrain. Rather than adding a light citric note as I expected the petitgrain turned the sandalwood dark, broody and peppery and made it prominent. Not saying you should add petitgrain but a good illustration that things don't always go the way you expect.
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post #4 of 7
10/22/12 at 8:47pm
Mumsy's statement about certain notes cancelling themselves out is certainly true. When I'm playing around with chypre accords I get wonderful results with oak moss + labdanum, oak moss + vetiver and oak moss + methyl ionone. But when I try oak moss + ylang I get practically nothing! These two "power notes" just nullify each other!
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post #5 of 7
10/23/12 at 2:34am
For powerful Sandalwood try Javanol or, Polysantol, and to increase power try a touch of Ambrocinide. Iso E Super has great sillage although your nose quickly tires of it. This could be your problem in general; many people have trouble smelling musk and woody notes, especially Sandalwood notes. Could be that your fragrance is working but you can't smell it.

Mumsy is, of course, absolutely right. Perfumers try to get a situation where 1+1 equals much more than 2 (where an accord really works), unfortunately the opposite can happen.

Woody notes often work well with Violet (Methyl Ionone), or Moss. Or even Cistus.
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post #6 of 7
10/23/12 at 6:29am
Lots of excellent advice here already, so I'll just add another idea for a synthetic that can work well in amplifying woody notes, which is norlimbanol: you don't need much but it is extremely tenacious. There are lots of sandalwood replacers about, in addition to those David mentions you might try Ebanol, Santaliff, Sandalore or a combination of them.

I think the petitgrain idea is also very sound - in my experience it works very well with woody notes.
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post #7 of 7
10/23/12 at 7:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Peterson View Post

I'm creating a woody perfume based on sandalwood. I've included a number of synthetics (cedramber, kephalis, cedryl acetate etc.) as well as naturals (cedar, sandalwood, a trace of oud) but am having trouble with persistance and sillage. Does anyone have an idea of how I can amplify the sandalwood? Or the woody notes in general?

When you say naturals including sandalwood, what do you mean? Australian is prohibitively expensive and thus not used to my knowledge and Indian is not produced anymore. Safraleine is being used a lot though along with Polysantol.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by James Peterson View Post

I'm creating a woody perfume based on sandalwood. I've included a number of synthetics (cedramber, kephalis, cedryl acetate etc.) as well as naturals (cedar, sandalwood, a trace of oud) but am having trouble with persistance and sillage. Does anyone have an idea of how I can amplify the sandalwood? Or the woody notes in general?

When you say naturals including sandalwood, what do you mean? Australian is prohibitively expensive and thus not used to my knowledge and Indian is not produced anymore. Safraleine is being used a lot though along with Polysantol.
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