Aussie Muskbourne

While I typically use the likes of aged Mysore or vintage Timor sandalwood in EO Perfumes, I personally love quality Aussie sandalwood.

If you ask me, santalum spicatum doesn’t get enough love and tends to live under the shadow of Indian santalum album (I made an entire Youtube video discussing the different facets of sandalwood and why I prefer Aussie to most others).

Compared to the likes of Santal Royale, this batch of Australian spicatum sandalwood is less spicy, has less of that red bite, and is at least a notch less musky. And that’s exactly why you’d love it – it lets you enjoy a different shade of santalum, which ultimately makes your overall sandalwood experience all the more rewarding.

I’m always amazed at how certain aromatics are a reflection of their origins, and sandalwood is no different. It’s as if this batch captures something of Australia’s more arid desert climate compared to the more tropical jungles that host Indian or Indonesian varieties.

It’s got the creamy, earthy tone of the finest sandalwood while hitting a sweet spot just resinous and balsamic enough to give the profile plenty of depth but not veer too much into Indian album territory. It’s perhaps the less balsamic, less spicy red profile that lets it smell creamier with a dry-earthy pitch through which you can glimpse at the Outback’s desert roots feeding the heartwood.

Aussie Muskbourne gives you the best Australian sandalwood sandalwood, exalted to stir up a tenacious wave of creamy musk. 

In Royal Tibetan, there’s a fight brewing inside the bottle. The red, inherently musky tenacity of Santal Royal complements the musk – and makes the whole aroma Musk++, yet at the same time, the musk is influenced by the scent of the sandalwood.

Aussie Muskbourne, on the other hand, gives you a more pristine representation of the musk itself. The Aussie sandalwood interferes less with the soulful scent of the vintage musk grains, and acts more like a neutral carrier to showcase the musk more.

And because this batch of Aussie sandalwood neat is delectably creamy, it adds to the olfactory texture of the musk grains without taking anything away. That’s exactly what makes it such a great carrier for the Tibetan musk it was infused with.

Whether you’d like to explore how different infusions interact or want a straightforward, no-nonsense musk attar, you can’t go wrong with Aussie Muskbourne. 

As with other EO musk infusions, you’ll receive raw musk grains inside your bottle (even though this infusion itself has already been steeping for a year!) so that the signature scent of old Tibetan musk pods comes to life to give you a creamy truffly coco-earthy aroma you don’t come across easily.