Not only Alan, David, but everybody I have ever known in Jawa has used and uses synthetic sandalwood oil.
I was given the original recipe by the grandson of a famous m'ranggi back about 1977, at that time the grandson was about 35-40. He told me what to buy and where to buy it, and also told me that his grandfather used the same oils.
Apparently you can buy genuine sandalwood oil in some places in the Eastern Islands at reasonable prices, but in the places I go to I've never seen it, and would not know where to buy it.
David, that "cananga" oil that you see advertised might be ylang-ylang. In a local health food store I saw some small bottles of "canaga", and it definitely was not the kenanga that I use, additionally many years ago a friend who lives in Detroit sent me a tiny amount of "cananga" to check if it was the same as mine, it wasn't, but my daughter-in-law reckoned it was poor quality ylang-ylang.
Genuine natural kenanga --- or kenongo --- oil has very sharp piercing smell, almost takes your breath away and makes you want to sneeze. It is not really a very pleasant smell, the least you could say about it is that it is sharp.
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