Jubilant Pine & Patchouli

This is quite similar to Tuscan Leather without the harshness and a big dose of pine thrown in. Patchouli is definitely there, along with a leathery note and a raspberry-like note adding some tartness. I got a new bottle from eBay super cheap and consider it a win because I really like Tuscan Leather but find it too loud to wear comfortably. This has a more natural side to it with the differing notes. Recommended, if you can find it.

I saw this featured on the Fragrantica news page and immediately bought it. So this was a blind buy based on the description and their anniversary celebration in December. I am a December baby and love this time of year. Year after year, I keep searching for that perfect Christmas fragrance--especially if it has pine/fir and some red fruit. I currently use Fille en Aiguilles, which is nice, but a bit heavy and churchy. One year, I purchased Comme des Garcons, which is horrid. I threw it away. And I love Tom Ford's Plum Japonais, but it's been discontinued. So, I decided to blind buy this and give it a try, hoping I'd found my Christmas fragrance. At first, I thought this was a big mistake. The first few times I wore it I only smelled a strawberry-type of red fruit. I had wanted a pomegranate or cranberry vibe, but definitely not strawberry. The smell reminded me of the red fruit in Luxor Oud--a nice fragrance, but not Christmasy. After a few days, however, the fragrance started to grow on me. I smelled the dry down on a sweater I had been wearing and it was so Christmasy--pine, with a deep red fruit. I wear it every day now. To be honest, I wish it didn't have pachouli because there is just enough there to give that dirty feeling. But I can get past it. This fragrance is distinct enough that I don't recommend a blind buy. I think if you line up three people, each would smell a different note first. So, testing it first, especially on your skin, makes sense. Longevity is good and sillage is solid.

I will start by saying I love Molton Brown. I own 6 other full sizes of their fragrances. There’s usually something to like about most of their offerings, so this was a blind buy for me, without too much worry about it. And it is nice. I’ll be honest, there is a tiny touch of that pine-fresh clean toilet smell at first, but the patchouli tones it down enough to make it fine as a fragrance. And after 10 minutes it’s more woody and aromatic, and the patchouli adds an earthy sweetness. I don’t detect any vanilla, which would probably have made it more unisex for me, but as it is, it leans slightly too masculine for my tastes as the drydown is a resinous wood. I guess it literally smells like the wood of a freshly cut pine tree. There’s other scents I prefer to pine and patchouli mixed, but it’s a nice scent for a man for all seasons really, or for in the house in the winter.

Got a small vial of this as a gift. Christmas in a head shop! Fun, bright, very earthy and green. I love patchouli so I like this one a lot. The pine is potent. Some citrus initially. It down to less sharp version of itself but the pine and patchouli stay strong. Not an everyday fragrance, and not even one I like smelling on my own skin, but it’s lovely as a room spritz and the hand soap version would be a elevated seasonally appropriate luxury to have out for guests during the holidays.

I think this is supposed to be unisex (let me know if I’m wrong) but it just leans too masculine for me. I once wore it in a room with someone I had a big fat crush on and they started wondering aloud why the room smelled like aftershave. Humbled me. It does smell nice and I would recommend for a hippy kind of man, I feel like maybe Hozier would love this. But not for the girly girls among us. I wouldn’t have bought it if it wasn’t gifted to me. It does have decent longevity as all the Molton Brown stuff does. I think in the future I will stick to Rosa Absolute or Flora Luminarie to get my Molton Brown fix.