‘Tunisian Patchouli’ – Kuumba Made

 

Such an affordable scent has made it to the top of my patchouli list. Found in health food stores and described to be able to; “warm the heart and ground the senses.” This has to be the best straight-up patchouli fragrance ever. It’s raw, earthy, alive and unapologetic. There's a captivating black liquorice/fennel haze that follows in the wake of this aroma. I’m loving the fresh aromatic patchouli with the aniseed (maybe tarragon) soft, spicy, anisic scent. It’s a lively patchouli that’s fresh, pure, rich, slightly sweet and balanced and it could almost clear your sinuses. I find it really comforting to wear to bed. I only wish that it lasted longer as apart from this, it’s perfect. This is your budget equivalent of ‘Psychedelique’.

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‘Patchouly Indonesiano’ – Farmacia SS. Annunziata

 

This is possibly the most quintessential patchouli fragrance. It’s straightforward patchouli with none of the soil/cacao/amber notes that perfumers tend to blend with it. Pure patchouli is so herbaceous, spicy, mildly sweet, uplifting and nasal-clearingly camphoraceous that it doesn’t need to be brought down by heavy/dark base notes. Simplistically powerful patchouli perfection. I’ve just found out that it’s being discontinued, so grab it if you find it.

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‘Psychedelique’ – Jovoy

 

I’m a glutton for patchouli and this is one of the greats. It starts as a powerfully strong damp patchouli that’s wet from vegetation. It smells like it’s been camping at Glastonbury festival in the U.K. summer rain, as it’s mega earthy and moist in the opening. Luckily the labdanum and amber completely dry-out the patchouli so it becomes a powdery, dry, woody scent. With such great performance and strength of scent, I love it!

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‘Patchouli Noir’ – Il Profumo

 

The opening is AMAZING! It’s an intoxicatingly sweet nectar of upbeat amber resins. The patchouli here isn’t the main player, as this is more of an amber fragrance. But my gosh, these resins are so good, I want to eat them. The florals aren’t obvious, but are enough to keep this uplifted and spiralling in a fascinating aura around me. This is not dark nor earthy like patchouli/ambers tend to be. The dry-down is an almondy amber, like a moist marzipan and honey cake. This doesn’t quite cross into category of being gourmand, but I don’t think it’s patchouli enough to have the name in its title - this is a spirited, balsamic, chewy amber. If it had more patchouli it would be closer to Mazzolari’s ‘Patchouly’. I’d describe this by likening it to Mazzolari’s ‘Patchouly’ but swapping the patchouli for sweet almond essence. It’s brilliant.

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‘Patchouli’  - Mazzolari

 

This is a beautifully resinous patchouli. After the initial boozy opening, the golden honey seeps through, like seductive drops of heaven. It’s a balsamic, chewy, salted caramel, amber patchouli that’s not too sweet as it’s so wearable due to its smoothness. I cannot stop sniffing it. This explains why bears risk getting stung in their quest for luxurious honey experiences. This is my favourite amber scent, but is it my favourite patchouli? It’s certainly a strong contender. It’s lovely!

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‘Patchouly’ - Profumum Roma

 

This one is the most luxurious, richest and highest quality patchouli on my list. ‘Patchouly’ opens as an earthy patchouli that’s sweetened with a chewy caramel undertone. It’s a richly resinous, patchouli that’s intertwined with the sweet and salty goldenness of ambergris. It’s pure fragrance indulgence, that never quite becomes gourmand no matter how much you just want to chew it. It’s patchouli dominant rather than being a soliflore, since there are many other accords are involved; there’s a strong base of amber that gives it a honeycombed sweetness. Plus I detect spices (like peppery cloves) and a resinous leather. The honeyed, salty, musky, caramel-sweet ambergris is deepened from the dry woody warmth of sandalwood. Luckily I don’t find this to be smoky nor incensy. This isn’t dirty in the sense that it’s ashy, it’s earthy like warm, summer woodland soil. The overall blend is a spicy ambergris, earthy patchouli that’s chewy like salty-sweet satin caramel on a base of rich amber. After an hour, the golden, sweet amber takes over from the patchouli, making it musky and almost nutty. This musky, dark amber heaviness in the dry-down makes me yearn for a fresher more herbal and perkier patchouli. If you like your patchouli’s dark, dirty and mysterious, then this is the one for you.

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‘Patchouli Leaves’ – Montale

 

It opens darker, moodier and earthier than ‘Psychedelique’ so I initially didn’t like is as much. ‘Psychedelique’ is a pretty, aromatic and perky patchouli, but this opens with roasted, dry (unsmoked) cigar leaves. Its mysterious, mellow and murky depth had me intrigued. The praline with balsamic ambered resin was rising on my skin and I fell in love with it. It’s an earthy, toasted, caramelised balsamic patchouli that’s also airy and aromatic. Versatile, ultra-long lasting and affordable. My only disappointment is that it’s slightly synthetic, which is why it’s ranked lower.

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‘Patchouli Nobile’ – Nobile 1942

 

This is a rich, earthy patchouli. It’s like if the earth beneath us was actually dark, moist fruit cake. It’s crumbled wedding cake against my skin with raisins, sultanas, Muscovado sugar, mixed spice and brandy that’s sprinkled with patchouli leaves and warm summer soil. I feel like I’m eating buttered malt loaf, garnished with herbaceous patchouli leaves in the potting shed. It’s very nice and a close competitor to ‘Psychedelique’.

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‘Un Patchouli’ - Obvious Parfums

A well-rounded and full bodied patchouli. It starts with a lavender/heather style herbaceous opening but then the warm resinous amber base kicks-in. It’s another balsamic patchouli that’s similar to ‘Patchouli Nobile’ by Nobile 1942.

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'Mon Patchouly' - Ramon Monegal

 

The combined notes make this fragrance predominantly aromatic. It opens with a freshly crushed, herbaceous patchouli leaf, which is made more vibrant from the yuzu and bergamot citruses whilst the mate brings bitter tea note. The dry down reveals a powdery, herbal, moss and it’s here where it most resembles Tom Ford’s ‘Patchouli Absolu’. ‘Mon Patchouly’ is the cleanest and lightest rendition of patchouli due to the huge amount of uplifting oakmoss. It leans a little masculine due to the classic men’s mossy-green-chypre style but with amazing longevity (over 9 hours on me). I would have liked even more from the patchouli, so I wouldn’t describe this as patchouli dominant. So in summation; ‘Mon Patchouly’ is a fresh spicy, aromatic, mossy chypre with a green herbal patchouli.

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‘Sticky Fingers’ – Francesca Bianchi

 

This has the best opening of all of Francesca Bianchi fragrances. It’s an animalic, edible, leathery-patchouli from a delicious dream. I keep smelling its carnal glory like it’s a dirty, sexy hippie. The dry-down doesn’t hold my attention as much as this gorgeous opening which remains fascinating for the first few hours. The dry-down lasts 8 hours + and becomes an animalic, slightly metallic musk.

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‘Patchouli’ – Santa Maria Novella

 

Such a growling opening of brandy infused brown leather boots. It quickly calms to become crushed autumn leaves with a malt scent. It’s a very malty patchouli - sweet and nutty, toasted, dry brittle caramel and dry roasted coffee beans.
I was expecting a fresh soliflor patchouli but this is a savoury, roasted barley, golden single malt patchouli.

 

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‘Richwood’ – Xerjoff

 

The opening is beautiful - the gentle patchouli softly unveils herself like a coy bride. But this stage only lasts about 4 minutes when the warmth from the (somehow sour) vanilla comes through to swamp the patchouli. It then becomes a vanilla-sandalwood (with some labdanum and musk) scent. I don’t get any obvious fruits nor florals, it’s just a very luxurious, musky, sensual sandalwood. It’s super high quality but unfortunately the rich, chemical-like vanilla is just too overbearing for me. The dry-down reminds me of Ajmal’s ‘Qafiya 1’ and I’m pretty sure that Ajmal were trying to rip-off ‘Richwood’ when they created ‘Qafiya 1’. This is far better quality obviously.

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‘Horizon’ – Oriza L. Legrand

 

I’m trapped in a patchouli-amber Groundhog Day where this now smells similar to ‘Patchouli Nobile’ by Nobile 1942 and ‘Un Patchouli’ by Obvious Parfums. In direct comparison, this is more subtle, aromatic and powdery thanks to the fresh herbal petitgrain and the sweetly tangy marmalade note. This becomes a close skin scent almost immediately. It’s nuanced, smoothly baby-soft, velvety and balanced. But for me (as beautiful as it is) this patchouli is too shy.

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‘Tempo’ – Diptyque

 

This is more about the clary sage and mate than it is about the patchouli. It’s a patchouli scent for patchouli haters as it’s kept at bay by the bitter, eucalyptus-type tea note of mate and the equally green, tea-like herbal accord of clary sage. This is not a dirty patchouli bomb, it’s an aromatic, fresh ‘n’ fuzzy, green fragrance with a slightly bitter citric tang. It disappears into my skin to the point that I just get a greeny/yellow matcha powdery fume.

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‘Noir Patchouli’ – Histoires De Parfums

 

So it’s not a patchouli dominant scent. This patchouli lurks in the background behind an almost vintage style, powdery, spicy, musky, dusty, citrus/leather. This is going to be a polarising aroma.

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‘Lui’ – Mazzolari

 

A very interesting fragrance. Whilst I can smell it’s a modern creation, there are vibes of 70’s animalic big scents. It’s along the lines of Amouage’s ‘Ubar’ and has a similar feel to Papillion’s ‘Salome’ (but no where near as fabulous). This is good though. It’s an animalic, musky amber, honeyed patchouli, powdery oriental powerhouse. Good for fans of vintage-feel statement scents with huge longevity. Just make sure that Lui’s personality is not bigger than your own.

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‘Patchouli Absolu’ – Tom Ford

 

Of all of the patchouli fragrances I’ve smelt, this is the least about patchouli. It starts as a screaming fougere like ‘Kouros’ with tons of green fuzzy herbs like bay leaves, rosemary, moss and cypriol. An hour later there’s a whiff of patchouli with leather and musk that becomes more spicy and woody. It’s so masculine that I smell like my grandad after an old-skool shave with his kabuki shaving brush and solid soap whilst he stands only wearing his white vest, y-fronts and long socks. Maybe that’s why this reminds me of Old Spice? I have yet to find an affinity with any fragrance from Tom Ford.

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‘Bond-T’ – Sammarco

 

The darkest most ferociously animalic patchouli with bitter chocolate and densely dark, musky, leathery, tobacco aromas. It’s rich, intense and intimidating and way too thick and smoky for me.
It’s the bitterest 100% raw chocolate that’s so heady in its richness. For me, the patchouli gets lost in the utterly engulfing spices and earthy notes. The bitter chocolate, smoky tobacco, funky animal musks and leathery spices leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
The juice itself is like old blood that’s browned as it’s aged. ‘Bond-T’ is sacrificial darkness. It’s an animal spray of carnal musk over a bed of chocolate and dark leathery secrets of a man with tobacco stained teeth.

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‘Costume National Homme’ – Costume National

 

A gerkin/pickle style patchouli with sweet cinnamon and nose-ticklingly spicy cloves. It’s gourmand like SJP’s ‘Stash’ but more sickly. It’s intensely obnoxious and becomes sweeter (whilst still being dry and dusty) as it develops. I feel like I’ve just done the cinnamon challenge (with the heaped powdered cinnamon on a spoon - straight into my mouth and out of my horrified nostrils) and now I’m shell-shocked and parched.

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‘Rubikona’ - Puredistance

 

This is a revolting blend of aromas which quite possibly defines “cloying”. The iris smells like Parma Violet sweets mixed with fizzy, powdery Love Hearts sweets. The citrus is souring against my skin and all-in-all it’s reminding me of ‘LouLou’ gone wrong. This is not about patchouli, this is like someone buried Cacharel’s ‘LouLou’ (after it finally died in the 90’s) in Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery and it’s returned even worse to seek revenge.