Vanille Patchouli

What a gorgeous fragrance with echoes of Shalimar in there. That would be the Peru Balsam a note they share, very lovely to find it here as Shalimar is one of my all time favourites. Lots of Peru Balsam mixed with some Patchouli and sweetened with Vanilla and a touch of Neroli. I am one very happy hippy chick. What I like about this fragrance is that it is not in your face or anyone else and very wearable during the day. Dries down to a lovely mellow skin fragrance that wafts around with the heat of your body. This is a patchouli that you can get away with in company and probably will be asked a few times "Is that Shalimar?"

Yes....No.....Yes....No....Yes? Oh, there are elements here that I love: the Age of Aquarius vibe, the bitter-sweet earthiness, the chewy tobacco-leaf effect of the patchouli-tonka combo, sweet yet grounded. Then there are stages that I find a little nauseating & grating, only for them to spin around & become beautiful again. Essentially this is vanilla-light & old-school, dirty-patchouli-oil heavy so I should love it through & through....so where's the catch? I can describe this is as "milk & lemon juice" scent. To be clear: VP smells nothing like milk & lemon juice at all. It is more symbolic of my love-hate relationship with its stages. I love milk: sweet, creamy, smooth. But Milk proteins are funny things. They normally bob around minding their own business, repelling each other with their negative charges & keepinh your milk smooth &, well, milky. But add something sour & their charges are altered so they clump together & curdle. Chill the milk & you can add the acid happily (Sicilian lemon ice cream anyone?). At room temp, they will clump slowly (bleurgh, gone of milk first thing in the morning) but heat it up & the clumping is extreme. But wait! The hideous clumpy mass that turned your stomach can be made into beautiful soft cheese: ricotta! Paneer! Delicious! And so it is with VP: I love it, I hate it! It smells delicious! It turns my stomach! Then back to "interesting" sniff...sniff...sniff. I guess you could say its a bit of a trip. VP twists your melon, man: headshop in a bottle.

This perfume is different of what I expected it to be, but it’s not bad though. It’s bold, balsamic, round vanilla perfume with too little patchouli for my taste. The note that I get mostly, after vanilla, is peru balsam. The peru balsam gives the same roundness like tolu balsam in Bal Musque for example. In that case the musk and leather are dominant, but the vibe is similar. The scent is linear, with good longevity and would be perfect for oriental vanilla lovers.

I honestly can't decided if I like it or not...I love patchouli...but for some reason I'm not sure if I like it here. I agree with sherapop about the lack there of the "oriental" that they are claiming...I think to me it smells a little masculine and cheap...I don't think I'll wear it again...just for today...I'm glad I only got a 2.5ml sample of it.

OKAY!!! Someone said I smelled like their GRANDMA!!! Uh...yeah NEVER wearing this again!!! Gave my sample to my friend...Dark Curls...she liked it.