We are absolutely thrilled to welcome back one of the most cherished members of our HydroSoul family —Hawaiian Sandalwood.
Back and better than ever, this divine plant water is here to enchant and mesmerize, summon otherworldly luminescence, and profoundly calm and cool irritated and fiery summer skin.
The soft, silky water of the sandalwood tree is incredibly gentle and cool on the skin. The sensation can be likened to bathing in moonlight. Cooling, serene, sublime, peaceful. Like all hydrosols, it hydrates, plumps and balances pH. Its scent is redolent of sacred, ancient woods adorned with warm creamy notes. It can be almost caramel-like.
It is fantastic for skin that has perhaps seen a little too much sun, and also for skin that is prone to blemishes or breakouts.
Its nature is cooling, calming, softening and moistening.
Is there any plant more revered and sanctified than Sandalwood? Each culture that has come in contact with this sweet wood has deemed it one of the holiest of holies.
Sandalwood awakens the spirit and nourishes the soul. Its mesmerizing scent of creamy caramelized woods — and its profound ability to unify, ground, and elevate has captivated humans for thousands of years. It seems to summon, or perhaps simply awaken us to, Divine Presence. From birth and burial rituals, to the building of temples and the carving of deity statues, Sandalwood is known to thin the veils between this world and the next.
For millennia it has graced the pages of holy texts — both with its name on the page, and as the ink that scrawled the verses. The Qu’ran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Old & New Testament, the Guru Granth Sahib — sandalwood has a home in each.
It has also been traditionally used by the Aboriginal people of Australia to prepare for their adulthood rite, the Walkabout.
Sandalwood contains abundant amounts of unique compounds called santalols — a group of sesqueterpenes. Evidence suggests these compounds cross the blood brain barrier and oxygenate the pineal gland, which is also known as the Seat of the Soul. This might begin to explain why Sandalwood has always been considered a plant to support spiritual development.
The Sandalwood tree needs the support of a forest to survive. It interlaces its roots with surrounding trees and relies on its community for support. Some consider it a parasitic plant because of this connection it creates, but since no damaged is caused to the ‘host’ trees, our interpretation is something very different.
Sandalwood cannot be mono cropped. It requires community. It creates community. Sandalwood unites the forest, dissolving separation, and creating wholeness. It is said the trees growing among sandalwood also become fragrant.
Both physically and energetically, Sandalwood is deeply receptive and encourages receptivity in others. Its receptivity is why it is the perfect foundation for Attars. Attars are traditional Indian distillations that capture elusive scents like aloof flowers (jasmine, saffron, parijata, etc) and other unique aromas (like pure earth, known as miti attar) by distilling them in sandalwood oil for days on end. The end result is a divine union of fragrance — perfectly harmonized.
Sandalwood is also one of the few plants that is considered to possess qualities both meditative and transcendent, as well as sensual and aphrodisiac.
Sandalwood unites. Sandalwood brings us together, brings us closer. Closer to ourselves, closer to each other, and closer to the Divine.
