Discover a future beauty legend: Santo Pyor

Okay, I’m about to have a rave here, but bear with me. I’ve been in Vanuatu for the past week eating a hell of a lot of croissants, doing a little time in the sun and most excitingly, experiencing my first taste of Santo Pyor body oils and fragrances. The nation was pretty much built on the growth and trade of sandalwood, and Santo is awash in tradition and history. Highly prized for its rich aromatic properties, sandalwood is recognised and used by Europe’s top parfum houses to provide depth and character to fragrance, and as a natural fixative to preserve and prolong scent.
Found at the edge of the world, the lush and wild island of Espiritu Santo in the Vanuatu archipelago is home to one of nature’s most rare and treasured species of sandalwood, known to locals as pyor (p-yor). In the 1840’s, Vanuatu’s sandalwood was discovered by Western voyagers who came in search of the exotic essence. Today, Espiritu Santo is a boutique supplier thanks to local community harvesting and sustainable practises. To honour this exquisite essence and its local history, the creators of Santo Pyor (who include the wonderful and ridiculously clever Lucy Marr) have crafted a sophisticated collection of pure fine grade scents and body oils utilising exotic wild harvested ingredients to produce the purest line of fragrance - made from Santo Pyor, with love.
The range uses wild superior sandalwood heartwood, hand harvested by local communities from their Kastom (indigenous) land that is organic and sustainable. The purity of the sandalwood is monitored by sandalwood graders, ensuring only the highest quality oils are created, and Santo Pyor also work directly with their suppliers to ensure each product is free from pesticide and insecticide. All ingredients are pure, unadulterated and natural, meaning Santo Pyor fragrances do not contain any of the harmful elements commonly found in perfume, such as formaldehyde, pthalates, petroleum or artificial colours and fragrance compounds. They use renewable energies to cultivate and process their materials and all ingredients are sustainably harvested, produced and bought at Fair Trade prices. And last but by no means least, after exhaustive research and consultation with environmental scientists, they have chosen to use PET and glass for their packaging. PET is a modern, safe and non-leaching form of plastic, and is the most widely used and therefore recyclable plastic, ensuring nothing ends up in landfill.
Okay, so what about the range itself, as in the beauty bit? Well, I can honestly say that the oils are the best I’ve used in a long while, a perfect combination that mixes sandalwood with pure Vanuatu Fair Trade organic coconut oil, vitamin E and apricot kernel oil to provide a super nourishing, heady blend. Equally as gorgeous, Santo Pyor fragrance contains pure, concentrated sandalwood suspended in fractionated organic coconut oil, making it the perfect companion to a body slick with oil, or as a subtly sexy fragrance all on its own. Each collection comes in three distinct scents: Wild Lime Pyor, Vanilla Pyor and Sandalwood Pyor, and I was lucky enough to also pick up the newest addition to the fragrance line, Ylang Ylang Pyor, which is soon to be available also as an oil.
This brand is set to go far, taking the beauty and purity of Vanuatu to the world whilst staying true to its principles. They don’t make beauty discoveries like this every day, and I feel honoured to have been there at the beginning.
* email info@santopyor.com to find out more, or if you’re in Vanuatu I highly recommend a tripto meet the fabulous Betsy in their island boutique (pictured above), which can be found in the Cafe du Village Complex on Lini Highway in Port Vila.