Arbolé Arbolé

Arbolé Arbolé is probably one of the most skillfully blended, minimalist, patchouli based designs I've put my nose on in modern times. I know this is a drastic statment. But for me it stands besides my favorite patchoulis Corps & Ames by Godet, spiced, dusty, milk chocolate, earthy, boozy patchouli with creamy, savory, lustfully warm sandalwood and Patchouli Antique produced by Honoré Payan for Les Néréides (Thanks for the facts @gezakolab) a raw, thick, rich, peaty, dry, cakey, vegetal, dense, black chocolatey, boozy, earthy, patchouli which I also consider my gold standard and reference for the raw note. Personally I would much prefer to wear Arbolé Arbolé, Patchouli Antique, or Corps & Ames as compared to a vintage patchouli classic like Coromandel. Sure, Coromandel is a crowd favorite deservedly, and I wouldn't argue with you if it was your favorite patchouli composition, but for me I found it too busy with other things namely vanilla and sweet resins, coming across quite sharp in its retro feel, and unpolished in my opinion for me to love it as a patchouli fragrance. Sadly, to me Richwood does it's likeness a disservice. I desire a patchouli that feels smoother on my senses made with more polish, dimension and character that remains true to the raw ingredient. The profile of Arbolé Arbolé brings to mind so many different associations through its simple use of patchouli and tonka bean. It is creamy, it is dry, it is cherried, it is boozy, it is floral, it is peaty, it is green, it is chocolatey, it is fresh, it is honeyed, it is textured, and above all it is incredibly smooth and somewhat vintage. I've never smelled richer tonka bean or patchouli since Patchouli Antique or Tauer's PHI Une Rose de Kandahar both of which this very much reminds me of. After testing all of Hiram's line I'm confident in saying they are using some of the best ingredients I've smelled in independent perfumery. Each fragrance spears no corner untouched about a particular ingredient's profile. Blending with naturals that are generally rich and heavy must be balanced very meticulously to achieve this level of transparency in the composition. With naturals alone it is nigh impossible sometimes to find balance, not only on its own but especially when taking into account the performance of Hiram Green fragrances. Slowdive and Hyde were my introductions to the house and I've never smelt anything like them or that does what they do as good as they do. There is undoubtedly some of the richest, carefully distilled natural essences in indie artisinal perfumery used in these fragrances even when comparing Hiram to the modern Artisanal Oud and attar scene that charge extremely large prices for fragrances with similar quality ingredients. Either the ingredients are excellent or the blending is excellent, honestly just both, but it really feels like this person has a very high talent for perfumery and ingredient sourcing. Arbolé Arbolé opens with a massively nutty, almondy, tonka bean that is oily, play-doh-y, creamy, musky and lactonic suggestive of the behavior of true quality tonka bean essences. To me the opening is smooth, rich and comforting wearable even for rest. Upon drying down to the mid Arbolé Arbolé smells slightly like the tonka, almond and patchouli base of Tauer's PHI Une Rose de Kandahar one of my favorite roses and one of the most well-blended modern roses I've personally smelled. The mid of Arbolé Arbolé is a finely balanced harmony of sandalwood, tonka bean and patchouli where you can catch wafts of a sparkly, glossy, cherry and oily, almond essence from tonka bean, chocolate nuances and some slight peaty, earthy, density from patchouli and milky, fluffy, dusty, slightly dried, wood facets of sandalwood and cedar. Though a very rich and dynamic profile, no ingredient ruins balance and there is always more to discover upon multiple wears. You might also get totally different notes on your skin as I've been told, like ylang ylang, peaches, heliotrope, or tuberose, Arbolé Arbolé uses very rich natural ingredients after all. Arbolé Arbolé is an atmospheric marriage of rich vanilla tonka bean having a slight cherry nuance due to its benzaldehyde content with lactonic, warm and slighty dusty sandalwood and thick, dry, earthy, boozy patchouli as the foundation. I found the tonka bean extract in Arbolé Arbolé to behave exactly like the tonka bean essence in Affinessence Vanille Bejoin and Guerlain Tonka Imperial, two +$300 fragrances. What's so incredibly unique about this composition is that at times, on me it has this phantom smell of roses or rose jam. There is an ever so soft patchouli peaty-ness at the far dry down that the sweetness from the tonka bean settles to. An extremely well done, full-bodied, minimalist fragrance that somehow feels both ancient and modern at the same time. Unisex with decent wear length and polite sillage that lingers slowly. The Spanish poem Arbolé, Arbolé... by Federico García Lorca meaning "Tree, Tree..." can be seen as a metaphorical piece. In the poem a girl picking olives is approached by Horse Riders with Andalusian ponies, then by Bull Fighters and then in the afternoon by a lone young man all asking her to accompany them back to their towns. Upon each approach she refuses to listen to them and remains like the olive tree, unmoving, rigid in her stance and married to her duties. A tree with oily, green, nutty, sweet, tonka bean, creamy, buttery, sandalwood upon an earth of smooth, rich, patchouli. It somehow makes me hungry. It will be a deep struggle for those wary of natural earthy patch, and powdery, nutty almonds. Try it and decide for yourself. 🪵🍃🫒 10/10

Having studied a little Lorca in college, I appreciate the connection here between poetry and perfume. Hiram Green's perfumes are consistently creative and high quality. The fact that they are made from all-natural ingredients is just a bonus. Arbolé (named just once according to my sample!) is more than just a tree-like scent. I expected it to simply be green and woody, but instead, it features a masterful use of patchouli, complemented by tonka bean and vanilla, with some woodiness in the background. Despite its relative simplicity and short list of notes, Arbolé is a multifaceted scent that oscillates between being earthy, dry, creamy, lush, smoky, sweet, spicy, boozy - the list goes on. Arbolé opens with an incredibly aromatic tonka bean note, softly spicy, nutty, creamy and sweet, reminiscent of Play-Doh - beautiful and comforting in equal measure. It is rare to find tonka bean featured so prominently, and especially as a top note. The patchouli follows, initially dusty and dry. The patchouli note is quite unusual here - it is not the distinctive hippie-herbal patchouli that every fragrance fan knows and loves - instead, it is greener than usual and somewhat metamorphic - it becomes increasingly lush as it develops. It marries beautifully with the tonka bean, the sweet spiciness of the latter complementing it wonderfully. A heliotrope-like note emerges, perhaps how the tonka bean smells to me as it develops, adding a hazy, powdery element to Arbolé. There is a hint of gourmand about this scent here - the vanilla-almond is almost chocolate-like, which also marries well with the patchouli. As it progresses on my skin, a woody-vanilla accord develops in the background. It is a little boozy, just the right amount of sweet, and the woody notes add depth. There is some smokiness at this stage, with an incense-like note adding colour, complementing what remains of the earthy patchouli. It fades to a smooth vanilla-amber skin scent with tonka bean remaining until the end. Sillage and longevity are moderate, and it is a transeasonal, daytime scent. An unusual, multifaceted scent that can best be summarised as patchouli-tonka bean, Arbolé is different to what I expected, and so much more interesting for that. It features oriental and chypre facets, but cannot quite be placed in either category. "Tree-like" isn't the first descriptor that comes to mind when smelling Arbolé, but it certainly applies at times. Perfectly unisex too. More wearable art from Hiram Green. 4/5.

When I smell Arbolé Arbolé, the imagery that comes to mind consists of building blocks, rounded on the edges, of all different soft-hued colors, watching Chapi Chapo and Alfie Atikins/Alfons Åberg on Pinwheel, children's film festivals (on reels), and nap time. Its sound would be triangles, recorders, a celesta and synthesized flute-toots, like the dreamy incidental music played by Johnny Costa on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It's the deepest neural pathways preserved in my middle-aged mind recalling memories from age 4 to 8. It's what I am grateful to remember, set to an olfactory soundtrack of soft talc tonka, Play-Doh heliotrope, hints of olive oil, and gentle wooden blocks caressing the nose. It is tender and bittersweet. It is wheat paste for craft time (do not eat it!), Tempera paint, "ta-ta-TEE-TEE-ta,' the Peter Pan logo that appeared on those flexi 45s that would play songs like "I Know an Old Lady" and "Incy Wincy Spider." It is trying to swing higher than an elephant's eye and imagining a city made of sand and pails, smelling a bit rosy, like rosy cheeks. It's Popcicles and icicles, Levi's and brown eyes. It's a scent sanctum of slow, gauzy green patchouli, sweetgrass, paperback lignin vanilla, Osh-Kosh overall corduroy wales. There are doll's heads and Matchbox cars and pencil sharpeners (cedar!). Arbolé eventually slows down into a lane of pale, musky sandalwood—such comfort every second of it is to me.

Enveloping, dense, deeply comforting and enchanting, a perfume for introverted pleasure. It has a soft, peach skin suede like texture. There are floury woods; velvety sandalwood and some sharp cedar. A couple of fresh olives have dropped off the tree, the balmy wind rolling them around on the parched earth, bruising them and coaxing out their creaminess. The slightly rugged, green and gorgeous patchouli is central and gives it a bit of an edge amongst lots of rich tonka and some smooth vanilla adding a little sweetness. Sometimes I think I catch a glimpse of gentle, powdery flowers (violets, heliotrope?) whispering on warm skin. This perfume is friendly, rounded, soothing and has a lot of depth. It has an ample, long and lovely dry down. This is one of my most loved and frequently worn perfumes. Arbolé Arbolé. ... She’s not bothered about what’s going on around her, she’s perfectly content in her own warm, bucolic bubble.

Now, this is a puzzle of a fragrance. Although it smells of patchouli, it's patchouli in a lush green way that I've never experienced before in a fragrance and didn't actually recognise initially. It blends with the tonka notes and sandalwood and vanilla in an incredibly nuanced harmony that's so finely blended that you can hardly recognise each individual note; it smells utterly unusual and more like descriptive words (moist, lush, green, herbal, bittersweet, dewy, etc). There's perhaps a little powdery menthol creeping in, a slight anise hint to the patchouli, a slightly medicinal counterbalance to the lingering, hard-to-place sweetness of the tonka, which remains as a key note playing off the other scents that appear as the eau de parfum dries down. It is wearable in quite an intimate way, the sillage stays close to the skin and the scent is natural and weirdly a little erotic for something so herbal.

Arbolé Arbolé is a surprisingly delicate tonka bean fragrance. From beginning to end, tonka bean is the dominant note, but it takes on Oriental nuances of cinnamon and pipe tobacco. It takes some effort to notice wood and patchouli. To me the drydown smells more like velvety amber, the kind of amber that gives off that Play-Do effect, which I personally adore. I say "velvety" because there is a powder-like effect, but it is not powdery like talcum powder, it's more of a texture. It is a warm and inviting perfume. Not too sweet, either. One spritz on each wrist lasted all day with good projection, yet the perfume never overwhelms. Arbolé Arbolé is the perfect addition to Hiram Green's incredible line. I am eager to see what he does next. Disclosure: I now stock Hiram Green at aveparfum.com, but my opinions of perfumes are always my own.

One of my most reached-for and thought-about perfumes. It shimmers off my skin and into my olfactory space in a powdery botanical mist I can't get enough of. There's a waxy, vanilla-sandalwood drydown which forms the spine on which heliotrope-lavender-patchouli spin and gyrate in fabulous harmony (heliotrope & lavender aren't in the notes but I smell them anyway). I get an edible honeyed-doll-like vibe throughout which feels innocent and light-hearted, and yet there's character and daring which unfolds for the 9+ hours it holds my attention. It does remind me of Habanita, but it's different enough to have a bottle of each. Impressive, unusual and loved. Distillation: a dreamy perfume powdered botanical mist like honeyed doll's skin

I don't know how this perfume works, but it just does. It opens up quite sweet and dry, it's definitely powdery. But it contains one of the most unique patchouli notes I've ever smelled in my short experience. A bit sour, mentholated, with a medicinal liquorice vibe under that veil of vanillic powder which some people interpret as play-doh. I would not recognize it as a patchouli at all, to be honest. The powder gets less dense, but the patch remains safely underneath. It is green only in the abstract sense and it does not remind me of trees. I feel it should smell irritating as hell, but it does not, on my skin. It just gets softer and better as it goes. Longevity is enormous. Projection is great.

I was scared of that one because I am cautious with patchouli but also vanilla (often gives me headaches) but lured by the chartreuse color. At first, I was getting every other notes people mention (olive, play doh, rose, baby oil...) and was pretty confused with Arbolé. It's not an easy one but it's growing on me. Of all the unlisted notes, the olive is the most predominant on my skin. It's not a perfume to seduce or impress, it's a personal scent. I like it. Edit Jan 28th : Now I love it! The patchouli is gorgeous, I would never have thought that I could love a patchouli scent this much!

Such luxe comfort, like a thick cashmere hoody. A powdery patchouli (which maybe shouldn't work but oh, it does) that slow dissolves over hours into a creamy sandalwood tonka. The powder keeps the patchouli from going full dirt, which keeps everything bouyant (I adore the dark end of the patchouli spectrum, but that's not what this is). Agree with the comparison below with Habanita - what the Habanita drydown does to vetiver this does to patchouli. Both easy & complex. A laid-back delicacy. Yum. Do not be fooled by the color, this is not a green scent. Soft woods, not sharp leaves.

The opening is green, crisp, and to my nose, quite masculine. Within 30 minutes, it had transformed into a soft, powdery sandalwood. I think this would be absolutely alluring on a man. It's clearly comprised of high-quality naturals, has good projection, and longevity. There's something unique about it. It reminds me of vintage men's fragrances from the mid century. I can see this on a very distinguished man who has a traditional style, a la Cary Grant or Ray Milland.

It smells like play-doh on me yet somehow manages feel luxurious at the same time, I find it very soothing. The scent is completely different on my best friend, on her it smells more woodsy, deep and complex, which at first made me a bit jealous, but I can't help but love how homely and cosy the comforting play-doh scent makes me feel. I saw someone else compare it to doll heads and I love that comparison as well.

It reminded me of some oriental chypres and perfumed deodorants from the 80s and 90s. I was given a little transparent light start, followed by two blocks: red sweet-spicy oriental and dark blue patchouli. Like a red and blue pencil, only not as ostentatious as it once was. It's a more subdued, ghostly version of the past, as if you were looking at the past through a keyhole.

My 3rd favorite from this house. My favorite is Slow Drive and 2nd favorite is Dilettante. This is good, tonka and patchouli dominant, and like all his offerings very natural smelling. I've smelled one like this before, one of my Profumum Roma fragrances. I would recommend sampling this one first before buying as it is unique and different, not suited for the mainstream.

First thought was aniseed which is not an ingredient. Then becomes the vanilla-cedar, what a beautiful duet! Powdery insense vibes but still fresh. I wouldn’t call it romantic. But summer evening strolls through a Mediterranean countryside - yes. Ah, so lovely! Another very different, pure and surprising quality scent from perfume artist Hiram Green.

This is a first impression. I realize that I'm actually smelling patchouli, tonka, and vanilla, but to me it smells like olive juice poured over play-doh. I actually love it and find it addictive and unusual in a very good way; like taking a brisk walk in the morning through a park, carrying play-doh in my hands lol.

Took me a minute to recognize this but it smells like DS & Durga Pistachio. It’s a fuller version, it’s fluffier and more powdery but it’s very similar. This is the better version in terms of quality ingredients and what I wanted Pistachio to be.

Utmost powder. The sour or green dimensions noted by other reviewers are only minimally detectable to me, at the opening. I get a nice long dry down on a vanilla-patchouli frequency. It grew on me.

I love this! It is warm and dark and soft; definitely a winter scent. It is quite strong also; I use it very sparingly and only on my more courageous days. A scent for special occasions, for me.

Not a heavy patch scent. A fresh green powdery scent, with a fantastic drydown of warm vanilla