The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Sånd was the second fragrance released by ånd in 2020, designed around the Australian Sandalwood known as Dutjahn. Simon Constantine built the composition around this ethically harvested wood from the Gibson Desert in Western Australia, where Wongi and Martu Aboriginal land guardians have worked with producer Dutjahn to revitalize degraded farmland. The process harvests only standing deadwood, leaving living trees untouched. That commitment to restraint, to taking only what the land freely gives, became the fragrance's quiet foundation.
The real question the composition asks is what happens when you lead with banana. It's not a common choice in perfumery. Most fragrances that use tropical fruits treat them as accents, background sweetness. Here, the banana opens bright and almost candied, demanding attention. The cardamom and black pepper don't soften it so much as complicate it, adding warmth and dry spice that pull the sweetness toward something more grounded. The tension between tropical and resinous is where Sånd lives, and the perfumer handles it with an unusual lightness of touch.
The evolution
The banana opens the composition like a flash of warmth, sweet and almost overripe in the first minute. Then the cardamom announces itself, that slightly medicinal spice cutting through the tropical sweetness and redirecting the fragrance toward something warmer, more resinous. Black pepper adds a dry, clean heat. The transition from fruit to spice takes about twenty minutes and it happens smoothly, without any jarring gap. By the second hour, the Australian sandalwood has established itself as the base, creamy and close. The benzoin adds a vanilla-adjacent sweetness without sweetness itself, and the labdanum brings a dry, almost leathery depth that keeps everything intimate. The drydown is where Sånd earns its name. It doesn't project much. It wants to be close, to stay within arm's reach. On fabric, the sandalwood can last into a full workday. On skin, expect the longevity to trend shorter, closer to four or five hours, but the final drydown is warm and present. Come back the next morning and there's still something there, a woody ghost that hasn't quite left.
Cultural impact
The banana note in Sånd has generated genuine disagreement among wearers. Some find it surprising and compelling. Others take longer to come around. That polarization is part of the appeal for those seeking something outside the expected. The ethical sourcing of Australian Sandalwood from restored desert land adds another dimension for wearers who care about what goes into what they wear.
