Shakti Sandal Wood Oil Distillers & Perfumers

Our place is located on Pt. Shiv Dulare Lal Mishra Marg, right along Ajay Pal Road. If you walk down the street, you can usually smell the wood and the oils before you even see the building. It’s a very distinct scent that stays with you all day. We’ve been distilling and making perfumes here for a long time. The process hasn't changed much over the years. We use old methods because that’s what we know works for the oils. It’s not a fast job. Distilling takes patience and a lot of watching over the equipment. The workshop is often warm from the heat used in the extraction. We spend our days measuring out liquids and filling bottles by hand. It’s a bit messy sometimes, with spills and oily rags lying around. The street outside is always active, but inside it’s a different kind of busy. We have regulars who have been coming to us for decades to get their sandal wood oil. They know we don’t use any fancy packaging or big advertisements. We just focus on the product itself. Sometimes the supply of raw wood is hard to get, so things can get a bit stressed. But we just keep going. The labels are stuck on by hand, and sometimes they aren't perfectly straight, but the oil inside is what matters. It's a traditional trade and we’re just the people keeping it alive on Ajay Pal Road.