GUERLAIN “SANTAL ROYAL” (Arabic Unisex Fragrance)
This is the promise offered and the aura evoked by this fragrance devoted to sandalwood. By highlighting this element, Guerlain is paying clear homage to a natural raw ingredient whose divine volutes have cradled and bathed oriental civilisations since the dawn of time.While historically sandalwood has been the exclusive privilege of India and South-East Asia, it now holds a different fascination for Middle Eastern countries.Sandalwood was introduced to the kingdoms of Arabia during the period when the Arabs, expert sailors, were the masters of the oceans, connoisseurs and purveyors of spices and precious woods, like the great traveller Ibn Battuta who, over a period of thirty years, visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands. His journeys included trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa and Eastern Europe in the West, and to the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China.
However, the use of sandalwood in perfumes was rarer at first. The Arabs brought it to Europe in the Middle-Ages: the famous Cordovan leather was infused with it. Since then, worked in light touches in certain chypre and oriental scents or a number of fragrances for men, it would not be boldly evoked until 1989 and the arrival of a new era with Samsara by Guerlain, a feminine scent masterfully composed around sandalwood and jasmine.Santal Royal is a fragrance with oriental,woody and spicy notes. However, one scent – no matter how sublime and distinctive – does not make a fragrance; it must be adorned so that sandalwood’s rare and precious heart, which only offers its fragrance after 15 years, unfolds in all its fullness. Neroli, a sunshine flower that radiates with joyful cheer, and cinnamon, exuding warm and vibrant notes that are a blend of wood and spices, appear at the top. They are subsequently accompanied by an essence of roses, the queen of flowers whose precious character has the power to enchant and beautifully enhance sandalwood, and a subtle fruity accord.Other amber, leather and oud accords highlight and accentuate the essence’s elegant vibrations. Yet, beyond sandalwood’s sacred dimension, Thierry Wasser has instilled it with a more sensual facet, adding an innovative hint of musk with the Guerlain signature, allowing divine vapours and a modern unisex fragrance to live side by side.
HOW COME SANDALWOOD TAKES CENTRE STAGE, WHICH SEEMS TO BE A FIRST FOR GUERLAIN?“It may seem so, yes. While it is not part of our famous Guerlinade, it is nonetheless an essential ingredient in a number of the House’s perfumes, especially Jicky, Shalimar and Samsara. You could say that it’s a natural raw ingredient that I’m extremely interested in, because we buy a lot of it, hence our intransigence both in terms of its quality and its provenance.”
WHY SANDALWOOD?“During my travels, especially in India or Asia, in search of fine raw ingredients, I am sometimes fascinated by one of them or find one more inspiring than the others, and then I devote a fragrance to it in its honour. This was recently the case with sandalwood. Out of the woods – cedar, gaiac and agar – it is the one, through its age-old history and religious uses, that has something more distinct and captivating about it. In addition to its elegant light and woody facets, it has a certain freshness that is deep yet creamy, and it is extremely rich. Its intrinsic suppleness allows it to be freely blended with certain spicy or floral notes, to which it adds body and soul. Creating a fragrance with the sandalwood in majesty was a natural choice because it is held in high regard, especially by our Middle Eastern clients. However, this wild tree is becoming increasingly rare.”
AT GUERLAIN, YOU HAVE A STRONG COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. HOW DOES IT TRANSLATE WITH SANDALWOOD?
“Yes, that’s exactly right. For Santal Royal and some of our fragrances for women, we only use Santalum album. The essence of this precise variety used to be sourced exclusively from the Mysore forest, in Southern India. However, today there is practically none left, because of the untimely deforestation of the site, the invariable pillaging of what’s left of it and,above all, exponential demand the world over. Even though the Indian authorities are trying to protect it, the harm has been done. What’s more, the quotas are now highly regulated. Production from Mysore is therefore largely insufficient for our needs in this regard. We are now turning to other procurement sources, especially those in certain Asian countries that are able to supply us with a similar quality with the utmost transparency and legality. I cannot go into any more details on the subject, because there is a proven risk of poaching on these farms, as the costs are soaring to such an extent and access to this wonderful and highly coveted raw ingredient on the whole remains limited and complex.”
SO WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO DO?
“In order to prevent any shortages in the future, we have a project in the making. During my travels in search of natural raw ingredients, I meet responsible people who also want to provide the best while respecting nature. For five years, we have had a partnership with a forester in an Asian country that we are keeping confidential. However, sandalwood is not cultivated like a field of tulips. On average, a tree needs to have matured for over fifteen years before the essence can be extracted from the very heart of its trunk. A wild semi-parasite, it has its private life and colonises particular varieties of shrubs to feed on their roots. The surrounding flora also has its role to play in allowing it to develop at every opportunity. Certain birds help to disseminate it. In any event, it needs a natural space of its own. This observation enables us to grow it freely and respectfully in an ideal and propitious, secret place, all in good time, and subsequently to obtain a “Guerlain” sandalwood that meets our high quality standards.”
Source ” PR
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