Australian sandalwood chips are essential to Amouage Essences, now in craft at the Manufacture.

Australian sandalwood chips are among the key ingredients in the Amouage Essences. Used to infuse the concentrate of each creation, this natural material offers unique characteristics that the production team continues to explore at the Amouage Manufacture in Muscat. For the Amouage Essences, Australian sandalwood chips were used to infuse the ethanol used for the composition. During maceration, the chips released microparticulate wood dust, which resulted in a perfume concentrate which required multiple filtration steps. Outlands, for instance, underwent up to six filtration cycles to achieve full removal of suspended dust and meet clarity specifications. To address this, Amouage initiated a controlled quality improvement study aimed at optimising the maceration and filtration workflow. The objective was to reduce particulate generation, increase filtration efficiency, and ultimately enhance batch consistency and overall product quality. The first sandalwood experiment involved two key modifications: - the use of larger sandalwood chips, and - an initial cleaning step using compressed air to remove any loose surface impurities. The treated chips were then introduced into ethanol and allowed to infuse at a controlled temperature, with the concentrate monitored daily to assess clarity, particulate presence, and overall infusion quality. The second experiment followed a similar structure: - larger sandalwood chips were again selected, but the cleaning stage was carried out