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The Ingredient of the Month of February is the Sandalwood.

Sandalwood is the name of a class of fragrant woods from trees in the genus Santalum. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and unlike many other aromatic woods they retain their fragrance for decades.
Sandalwoods are hemiparasitic trees and parasite the roots of other tree species.
Sandalwood oil is widely used in perfumery, having a sweet, balsamic, woody and warm smell. It is used as a fixative for woody, floral, chypre, fougere perfumes. In preparation for distillation the billets of wood are chipped and then reduced to a powder. Most sandalwood oil is now produced by steam distillation of the powder.
The sandalwood oil is obtained from its trunk and roots, that’s why Sandalwood is harvested by toppling the entire tree instead of sawing them down at the trunk close to ground level. Only the heartwood of sandalwood, about 1/3 of the tree by weight, is strongly aromatic. Mature trees have a higher proportion of heartwood and santalols than the younger trees, this being the main reason for not harvesting at too young an age.

You can find out more in Elysee stores, where our advisors will give you more informations and where you can smell the sandalwood oil and all the perfumes from Elysee portfolio that feature it!