Posted by Robin
on
10 January 2013
Patchouli haters — I used to be a card carrying member of the club — are probably not so numerous as they once were. Some of us perfumistas were undoubtedly desensitized by frequent exposure over time. But it’s also true that there’s just not so much to hate any more, now that “patchouli” invariably means a patchouli fraction, in which all the difficult bits have been removed via the wonders of modern science; these days, as often as not patchouli is virtually indistinguishable from other dry woody notes.1 If you were born long after the days of head shop patchouli oils (and have somehow managed to bypass Thierry Mugler Angel and its many spawn) and your only exposure to patchouli came from recently launched department store fragrances, you might wonder what all the fuss was ever about.
Atelier Cologne’s latest, Mistral Patchouli, belongs to this brave new world of patchouli. It’s not just that it’s a relatively sheer fragrance, in keeping with the brand’s concept of the “magical freshness of cologne coupled with the lasting power of eau de parfum”, but that there’s nothing earthy or musty or heavy or otherwise demanding about the patchouli…
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Posted by Kevin
on
30 June 2010
Reminiscence Patchouli Pour Homme is not a strange, cocoa-sprinkled, cramp-inducing patchouli fragrance like Serge Lutens Borneo 1834 (whenever I smell Borneo 1834 my stomach begins to ache). Patchouli Pour Homme is certainly not a loud, “crude” type of patchouli perfume favored by provincial nouveaux riches. (See Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, where the prissy, aristocratic Leonid Andreyevitch Gaev enters a room, sniffs the air, and complains: “It smells of patchouli in here.” Someone’s wearing cheap perfume…and it’s none other than peasant-turned-entrepreneur Ermolai Alexeyevitch Lopakhin!) Patchouli Pour Homme is also not the variety of oily, overbearing patchouli used by old-time hippies to scent their greasy hair and beards or their sweaty leather boots. Patchouli Pour Homme is a staid patchouli fragrance.
Reminiscence Patchouli Pour Homme contains mandarin, lime, geranium, cedar, patchouli, labdanum, tonka bean, tolu balm, white musk, and benzoin. Patchouli Pour Homme opens with warm lime and geranium leaf; quickly other notes pop: ‘fossilized’ cedar (almost too “dry” to detect), sheer labdanum, well-behaved and CLEAN patchouli…
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Posted by Robin
on
28 May 2009
Most perfumistas have a note, or maybe two or three or ten, that they simply can’t bring themselves to appreciate. I have a few. I don’t love mimosa or heliotrope, although I don’t really hate them either. I can live without angelica, and anything more than a pinch of cumin is too much. I’m not fond of melon-y aquatics or very clean musks. My one true bête noire, though, has always been patchouli. Six years ago, a perfume with enough patchouli that even an amateur such as I could smell it was pretty much out of the question — which basically ruled out the entire oriental fragrance family. In the years since, I’ve mostly come to terms with patchouli, that is, I would no longer say that I hate it, and oriental perfumes are no longer verboten. I still wouldn’t say I loved patchouli though, and a fragrance that actually has the word patchouli in the name isn’t one I’m going to be rushing out to try.
The Osmoz booklet from the Les coulisses du parfum, Vol III, Legendary woods & resins kit describes patchouli as “woody • camphory • green • earthy • mossy • mildewy”. All of that sounds good to me, even the mildewy part — I think of oakmoss as mildewy, and it’s one of my favorite smells in the world. But there’s something about the particular way that patchouli is mildewy, in combination with the richness and the sweetness, that just doesn’t work for me. You’d think that newer, cleaner (molecularly modified) versions of patchouli would work better for me, but they don’t always — they usually wipe out much of the earthy part, which to me is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater…
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Posted by Robin
on
16 May 2009
Reminiscence has launched Eau de Patchouli, a new variation on their popular Patchouli fragrance for women, originally launched in 1970 (and also see: Elixir Patchouli).
Eau de Patchouli is an oriental caress, woody and ethereal. The intensity of patchouli is first mixed with Sandalwood and Cedar from India…
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Posted by Robin
on
27 August 2008
Tom Ford's latest fragrance is White Patchouli, which seeks to reinvent the patchouli of the 1960s:
With its sensuous core of patchouli, Tom Ford White Patchouli perfectly captures the myth of a generation. Surrounded by sleek wood notes, tempered by elegant white flowers, this modern fragrance with retro-classic influences is a sophisticated interpretation of bohemian chic.
Got that? If you put the emphasis on the chic part and downplay the bohemian part, you've pretty much got the picture.
White Patchouli starts a little loud, but it isn't quite so in-your-face (or nearly as sweet) as Black Orchid, and it quiets pretty quickly, in fact, it verges on subdued after an hour or so. Subdued, from Tom Ford? What is the world coming to…
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