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Pursuits: Sandalwood is the most important smell in traditional Indian perfumery

If you’ve ever been to an Indian attar shop and bought one of the traditional attars, then you may

have been in for a disappointment. Of course, the attar will have been strong and overpowering enough to haunt a lift for hours after you have left but it will also

have been curiously disappointing.

 

   Once you get past the heavy top notes you may discover that there is a certain thinness to the fragrance. Put simply, the rich smell of natural ingredients mingled in a formula composed centuries ago may be absent. Instead, all you get is the sort of scent that can clear a room in seconds. There are many reasons for this. Partly, it is that our noses, conditioned by Western perfumery, no longer appreciate such traditional Eastern notes as kewda or screw-pine. Partly it is that most Indian perfumers have gone out of business these days and that the new ones are not very good. But mainly it is because attarwallahs tend to cheat you when it comes to the sources of their ingredients.

 

   In the old days, all Indian fragrances were made from perfume oils extracted from natural sources such as rose, oud, khus and especially, sandalwood. These days perfumery has undergone a revolution because fragrance chemists have invented many synthetic scent molecules. These molecules fall into two categories. There are those that create new smells (such as calone, the lingering smell of the Issey Miyake fragrance) and allow perfumers to create brilliant new fragrances. And then, there are those which cheaply mimic the smell of natural ingredients.

 

   I am a fan of the idea of synthetic molecules. Anybody who believes otherwise does not understand what modern perfumery is about. Nor do I incline to the view that molecules that imitate natural products are necessarily bad.

 

   For instance, most of us grew up on vanillin, a synthetic substance extracted from wood pulp that is still used to flavour confectionary. (These days up-market ice-cream is made with real vanilla but this is still an exception rather than the rule.) That synthetic molecule is also used in perfumery because it costs a fraction of the real thing. You can argue that real vanilla is better than synthetic (which it is) but there is no denying that synthetic molecules have given pleasure to billions of people who don’t necessarily want to pay for the high price of the real thing. Another example is the orange squash your mother gave you as a child. I am willing to bet that the orange flavour was synthetic because real oranges would have cost too much. But did it matter? Did it stop you from enjoying the real flavour of genuine oranges when you could get them? I doubt it.

 

   Moreover, there is one other reason, apart from price, that synthetic molecules must be used to substitute natural products. For instance, musk, which is an essential ingredient of the perfumer’s art, has not been available for years. So, every single musk fragrance relies on chemical musk. Some musk fragrances (such as Kiehl’s Musk Oil) have been made with synthetic musk for as long as I can remember.

 

   But, let’s be honest, there is a problem with synthetic molecules. Unless they are used properly, they can smell shrill and odd. Great perfumers know how to recreate the smell of say, the Bulgarian rose by mingling synthetic and real smells. But in the hands of less experienced perfumers, synthetics can smell all wrong.

 

   Though I have no proof of this, my guess is that Indian attarwallahs are relying more and more on synthetic smells because a) it is cheaper and b) they think that less discerning customers won’t be able to tell the difference. I am sure that not all perfumers do this. And I am sure that even those who substitute synthetics for naturals will produce the real thing, which is hidden away in some back room, if you insist. But alas, many are content to flog synthetics while claiming that they are selling the real thing.

 

"Substitute real sandalwood with a synthetic and unless you are a fragrance genius who can compensate for the switch, you will end up with an attar that smells shrill, thin and hollow."

   This probably accounts for the disappointing nature of many of today’s Indian attars. Besides, even if you are dealing with an honest perfumer who uses the best fragrance oils for his natural attars, you are still left with a problem.

 

   Sandalwood!

 

   Those of us who have grown up with the smell of sandalwood know that it is one of the greatest fragrances in the world. The best sandalwood has always come from Mysore in India and it has been plentiful and cheap. As a result, French perfumers have traditionally relied on Indian sandalwood oil for many of their fragrances. As late as the 90s, Samsara, the Guerlain perfume was said to be comprised of 25 per cent Indian sandalwood oil. Unfortunately, thanks to the likes of Veerappan, the Indian sandalwood reserves have been severely depleted. The country is running out of sandalwood and though replanting is in progress, a tree takes 50 years to yield up the best sandalwood oil.

 

   Till there is some stability in the sandalwood market, the government has taken to auctioning sandalwood with the proviso that only Indians can bid for this product. This has led to a huge scarcity of Mysore sandalwood in the global market and a flourishing secondary market where successful Indian bidders sell their sandalwood to foreigners.

 

   The global perfume industry has been forced to look for substitutes. Some perfumers have turned to Australian sandalwood which is a completely different species. Chanel has found new sources of sandalwood in New Caledonia where the trees are nearer the Indian variety though the fragrance is not quite right.

 

   Most perfumers, however, have begun relying on synthetic sandalwood molecules. These are not difficult to procure. In 1960, a synthetic molecule called Sandela hit the market and since then, there have been many other proprietary molecules: Sandalore, Polysantol, Beta-santalol, Javanol, etc.

 

   Some of these are not bad. But none has the rich milky, rosy, woody, green fragrance of real sandalwood oil. Talented perfumers usually mix Australian sandalwood with a synthetic and then, add cedar and other fragrances to beef up the smell. Even so, I would be very suspicious of any up-market fragrance that claimed to be sandalwood-based.

 

   In the event it is not difficult to see why our own attarwallahs are failing. Sandalwood is the most important smell in traditional Indian perfumery. Substitute real sandalwood with a synthetic and unless you are a fragrance genius who can compensate for the switch, you will end up with an attar that smells shrill, thin and hollow.

 

   So, here’s my view. If you love the real smell of good Indian sandalwood, then wait for a while. There’s not a lot of the real thing out there in the market today.

 


 

CommentsComments

  • Abeer 11 Sep 2018

    100% agree with now a days perfumes has experienced an insurgency since fragrances scientific experts have concocted numerous engineered fragrance atoms. I love oud perfume for a long time but there is a much difference in Arab Fragrance Products and if you buy it from countries like US, UK and Canada the fragrance is not the same as compare to arabi oud.

Posted On: 18 Apr 2012 05:25 PM
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