Sandalwood Oil New Caledonia
New Caledonian sandalwood oil is woody, milky, smoky and dry. It has warm, spicy notes reminiscent of the ylang-ylang flower. The olfactory notes of New Caledonian sandalwood are very similar to those of Album. It is easy to use and goes with everything, and like musks, it coats, adding softness and roundness.
The essential oil of sandalwood often accompanies other woody notes, but also the vanilla or balsamic notes of oriental perfumes. It enhances opulent florals such as rose or jasmine.
Santalum austrocaledonicum is native to New Caledonia and Vanuatu. It is a medium-sized tree with bushy foliage and panicles of small white flowers as inflorescences. Santalum austrocaledonicum is a hemiparasite, using suckers and rootlets from its roots to parasitise and sap from surrounding plants. In the forest it usually lives in symbiosis with the false Gaïac, Acacia spirobis.
In order for a tree to be felled, it is hammered by the forest ranger. He identifies the trees to be felled by analysing various criteria such as the circumference of the trunk, the thickness of the sapwood and the general condition of the tree. They are then deboned and left to dry until they lose 20% of their weight. The wood is then split, cut into pieces and then into chips before being processed into essential oil by distillation.
Overexploited for years by sandalwood traders, it was not until the 1980s that conservation and management of the species began to be considered in Caledonia. In 1988, the government of New Caledonia introduced the first cutting quotas and controls.
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