Patchouli Noir

The opening of Patchouli Noir is startlingly strong, with smoke (pine tar) and pink pepper hitting hardest. The effect is a bit like having bacon and breath mints at the same time. Of course that soon dies down, ...but the aspects of smoky wood remain dominant. Beyond the smoke, complex notes of patchouli and ambergris create an abstract melange, while the sweet grace notes of ylang-ylang, tomato, tonka, etc. remain in the background, ...not asserting their identity, but making the entire complex more enticing and wearable by subtle presence. Much of it dies away within an hour or so, which is usually the main drawback of natural perfumes, ...though a smoky, ambered skin scent does pleasantly linger for a while longer.

Per usual, Fragrantica's wylin out on the note breakdown above. Blood and concrete where? Anyway, I was super excited to try this and can't help but be a little bit disappointed. I mostly get smoke and leather from this instead of a dank, dirty patchouli, which I was hoping for. It dries down nicely and gets a little warmer and more patchouli-forward, but still not in the way I had imagined. It's quite wearable despite the "noir" of it all.

Here are the correct notes - Top Notes: blood cedarwood, blood orange, pink pepper, damascenone. Middle Notes: tomato leaf, ylang ylang concrete, spikenard, nutmeg absolute. Base Notes: patchouli absolute, antique patchouli, patchouli EO, patchoulyl acetate, pine tar, ambergris, ambrettolide, cognac, coumarin.

Hey Fragrantica-It’s blood orange & blood cedarwood. Please change the notes section!!

And there’s no concrete note either. Come on people.