Patchouli

Nowadays the art of perfumery seems to be easy seeing the large numbers of scents that are released every day. I find a lot them focused much on the opening and the first minutes of the scent as if they were composed only to trick the customer into a quick buy. Obviously an effective way for a company to make quick money. You launch an enormous load of scents of which you know wont last but will sell for a moment for no other reason then that they are new and therefor perceived exciting. Fooled by marketing the buyer however is now left with yet another impuls buy. One that was only useful for that short moment of euphoria in the shop. Soon interest is lost because of the lack of genuinity, personality, artistry, beauty and so this new exciting scent is collecting dust untill you throw it out. There is a reason why perfume shops at airports, from a money making point of view, do so well. People are excited and under time pressure, easily tricked into buying something. Shamefully dishonest really that it became as so many other things this way. Personally it feels I often have to dig through a whole lot of screaming bullshit to get to the thing that is real and actually is worth my attention and money. However the gems are still there and my recent purchase of Patchouli by Lorenzo Villoresi is certainly one of those. It was not perse love at first sight. Patchouli is a difficult one. It has enormous character. It is unruly. It has spikes and it stings. Raw patchouli oil is not easy if not impossible to wear as a perfume. To make it wearable you have to tame or round those spikes a bit. You can do this in different ways. I have seen it done with the addition of a hefty dose of vanilla or recently they managed to fine extract the patchouli to it’s hart, cutting away all the spikes. You can do that and as a supporting note in eg Benjoin Bohème/Diptyque this is probably appropriate. Allthough, if you want true patchouli and you want to name your perfume “Patchouli” then I like to get the whole experience. Not a rose without its thorns and not a cat undone with its nails and teeth. Encaged patchouli is boring. Anything encaged is sad and boring. Lorenzo Villoresi created a Patchouli that stays true to the raw material. It is made wearable with some lavender which brings a little sweetness (on my skin). The tiny dose of benjoin is just enough to calm the patchouli a little bit.

This is absolutely gorgeous. I have loved patchouli since I first smelled it as a teen. All hippie connotations aside, I think it is a fascinating, complex, earthy magical aroma that shape shifts as time goes by. Thus, I have been looking for a fragrance that captures that rawness, while adding a little something to elevate and elongate the visceral charms of patchouli. Enter Lorenzo Villoresi Patchouli. It takes a very natural patchouli, and adds little twinkles of balance through it's lifespan that add a warmth and spice to it, without adding any vanilla or sweetness that I tend to detest in other patchoulis. The wet, earthy, primal brilliance of patchouli is there from beginning to end, but the other notes come and go beautifully as during the different stages. Never do any of the notes outshine the patchouli base, but only complement it...it is very well blended to my nose in that way. After I got a sample of this, I immediately got a full bottle from a discounter. Somewhat to my disappointment the full bottle seems a bit more watered down than my sample. It is still lovely, but it seems I have to do 5-6 sprays to get the same performance from my sample. At the less than $100 USD I paid for it for 100ml, still a deal in my book, and the scent is still captured in my full bottle. Just a curious question if the full bottle is a different formulation, or if it suffered from poor storage, or maybe it needs to time to age. Unclear. Either way, the sample and full bottle don't project a ton after the first hour or two on me. However, the same fantastic scent stays with me closely for a full day. It smells nice enough that it could disappear completely after an hour, and I would just respray to transport myself to a different time/place. This is the magic of this fragrance to me: It takes my imagination to places past, present, and future. Like a stream of light pooling through the dusty recesses of my mind.

For those who really enjoy a savory patchouli. To my taste patchouli smells best wrapped in a woody, bitter, herbal, acrid, smokey, incense ensemble. It's frustrating to have my favorite note smothered in syrupy sweetness just to accommodate those who don't like the patchouli note's real earthiness. I had to read the notes here to detect lavender but then smelled it again and could pick it out, but it's a subtle feature here in the opening, but becomes more detectable in the dry down. A bitter, herbal, acrid, minty-benzoin it what distinguishes this from other patchouli forward offerings. I had been looking for a long time for a replacement for my signature scent--Tom Ford Patchouli Absolu, which is uniquely fantastic, but also uniquely priced, especially now as a discontinued collector's item. The Tom Ford Brand was always overpriced but I tolerated that because he made my 2 favorite scents--Patchouli Absolu and Tobacco Oud--but it was always aggravating to buy. I don't mind paying for artistic creation but fancy brand hype is stupid to pay for. I am very happy to have this one. Which I like for similar reasons as Patchouli Absolu. And in fact I really like it's differences. It's sharper, more bitter. Thanks to the creator for making somethings so tasteful, distinctive, and comfortably masculine, at a decent price. It would smell good on a woman too. I just mean that I would never wear something flowery or sweet or something for a club-going young man and this suits me as an older man with distinctive tastes. It has elevated to my daily signature scent. And something I can afford to use that often without feeling guilt about a personal indulgence, adding to the happiness of wearing it.

Many times the law of less is more is fulfilled and this patchwork of Villoresi attests that this is so. The fragrance revolves in its entirety to this beautiful note of perfumery, monolithic in appearance, but rich in nuances, it never ceases to amaze me every time I spray it on my wrists and think: "This really smells spectacular, this patchwork is a round composition, it is perfectly elaborated and also has the right measure in its evolution without boredom, without shrillness, since the chromatic richness of the note is recreated and left over by itself . Start with undeclared citrus nuances and a subtle lavender to which spicy notes are added, preparing the soil of the seductive patchouli, the sensation is warm, earthy, deep, full-bodied, which takes you directly to explore the feeling of a lot of oriental woods, woods accompanied by balsamic touches, sweet, smoked facets, and a musk that enhances even more the wonderful roundness of the composition. I find it inspiring and I feel as if the forest is beating, as if I breathed in a subtle way, as if a soft grip of earth were installed in my nostrils and offered me the most poetic of that feeling of the note. Villoresi has good fragrances, but none has seduced my senses as much as this "simple" and so forceful Patchouli. Rating: 9.2

When I try to place Lorenzo Villoresi in my mental board of fragrances I always have it easy to find its own spot as "quality fragrances, premium ingredients, very classic themes done with a high dose of elegance". His one-ingredient named frags (Sandalo, Patchouli, Vetiver) are my best samples when showing friends, i.e. "ok, this is what a good patchouli is". Of course Lorenzo blends with other things and my fellows here have done a super job describing so, but the first impact is "oosh this is the pure thing!!" in a grand manner. So back to this fragrance, you need to love patchouli without "but..." to like this as it is a true picture of this wonderful plant. Very unisex (know you'll be perceived as a film star with this, it is very diva/o style) and timeless although it has an amount of classisism that people who only like modern trends will be too challenged to wear. I would definitely be so happy if more people chose these jewels... I personally prefer Mazzolari's stellar Patchouli although I would definitely reach for this more often.. the Mazzolari is a precious tiger hard to tame.