Rarely does a single-note theme work as perfectly as Mazzolari’s Patchouly. White honey is paired with Indonesian patchouli and warm far Eastern spices to create a fragrance that maintains the earthy green qualities I’ve come to love about patchouli, without the harshness that often keeps me from truly loving patchouli scents.
Though I’m unable to find an olfactory pyramid, reliable sources and my own sniffer reveal the strong presence of amber in the base with perhaps a touch of vetiver…
Montale is a Paris-based perfumer with two lines: an oudh line based on the precious oudh (or agar) wood frequently used in Middle Eastern fragrances, and a regular perfume line. That is the extent of what I have been able to learn about Montale — if you know more, please comment! Montale’s description of Patchouli Leaves is as follows:
Beautiful Patchouli leaves macerated for two years in the trunk of the oak tree combine with vanilla, amber and white musk on a base of Cystus ladaniferus from Tibet.
Cistus ladaniferus is the variety of rockrose commonly used to make labdanum.
As anyone who has been reading this blog regularly already knows, I am not a big fan of patchouli. That said, if I had to wear patchouli, this would be the perfume I would choose. That is not because it is light on the patchouli, because truly, it isn’t. It is just such a lovely, well balanced rendition. It has a pronounced earthy undertone — really, it smells a lot like warm, wet dirt, especially in the early stages — and I am catching lots of tree bark as well…
Another corpse flower has bloomed at Western Illinois U, & they're expecting 2 more... http://t.co/oRnROz6j (& they've got live video)