Sandalwood
During the past five years I was searching for the perfect fragrance, the perfect combination of warm and earthy, woody and herbal notes, something that makes me feel as if I'm in a beautiful forest, even though I'm not right now.
From mainstream perfumes through various niche perfumes I found many interesting fragrances, but none that really captivated me.
By now, all mainstream perfumes seem like a joke to me. A 150€ perfume still mostly smells like synthetic perfume and not much else.
When I came to India this year and discovered that Mysore had been the origin of the finest Sandalwood oil in the world, I thought that this could possibly be the end of my search.
I roamed through the city, searching for the best Sandalwood oil but eventually discovered that it had been exploited terribly in the past decades and there was barely any left.
Most of the Sandalwood oil sold in the city was synthetic and although not exactly bad, it generally disappointed me with its bland simplicity.
So I went online and ordered some natural essential oils, among them a few samples of Sandalwood Oil. I liked it, but not as much as the Vetiver Oils, which are also quite a bit cheaper.
I ended up combining Vetiver oil from South India with Cedarwood oil from Nepal, and in combination I liked them much more than the Sandalwood oil.