Floris Sandalwood — In Search of Mysore

 

I’ve spent years searching for a true sandalwood soliflore-  a fragrance that does justice to Mysore, one that places sandalwood front and center, unadorned and unapologetic. 

Don’t get me wrong: there are many great fragrances with sandalwood. Égoïste, Samsara, Santal Noble - all excellent in their own right. But none of them are really about sandalwood.

Égoïste is a study in spices.
Samsara revolves around jasmine, rose, and ylang-ylang.
Santal Noble is, at heart, a patchouli fragrance.

In all of these, sandalwood is just another player in the orchestra - important, yes, but never the soloist.

And then there is Floris Sandalwood.

This is it. A true sandalwood soliflore. There are supporting notes - violet, iris, perhaps a touch of jasmine — but they seem to know their place. They hover briefly, add a little polish, and then quietly step aside. After an hour or so, all that remains is sandalwood: creamy, dry, meditative Mysore, glowing from the skin.

Finding it, however, is another matter entirely.

You can’t simply walk into Floris and buy this anymore. The current offerings - Santal and Sandalwood - are not the same fragrance. To find the real thing, you’ll need to scour eBay or flea markets, and even then, there are no guarantees. I own two deep-vintage bottles: one is exactly as described above - magical. The other is… fine. A reminder that even legends can fade.

But when you find that bottle, the one that sings?
You’ll understand why the search was worth it.