Ode To Psyche

If gentle fluidity gold & silver had a sexy, nonbinary child. I rock with this hard.

I can see where the patchouli is in this but it doesn't jump out at me quite as much as it seems to on others - for me I'm mainly getting the cedar and cashmere perfume-y woodiness (not in a negative way!) with the pink pepper and juniper giving it a bit of cool sparkliness at the top. This is definitely less of an evocative/transportative "experience" of a niche perfume and more just liquid that is designed to make you smell good but it is excellent at its job and this is a fantastic woody fragrance. Performance seems pretty huge as well. People who dislike heavy aromachems and a lot of the tropes of modern perfumery will HATE this, fair warning.

I try to keep an open mind to patchouli, but I can only really enjoy it when it's a background note that's meant to add earthyness in a humble way. It is, however, a main note in Ode to Psyche, and for that reason impossible to enjoy for me; I avoided smelling myself on the day I tried it on, and whenever I caught a whiff I got upset by how powdery it was. The composition and notes feel like they should up my alley, but I wasn't able to smell any musk, amber, nor spices.

Seconding what someone else said about patchouli sadly drowning out the other notes. I love patchouli but this is giving heavy stank mixed with junipery aldehydes. Pink pepper is my favorite top note across all perfumes but I can barely find a thread of it here. Not an ugly fragrance but disappointing nonetheless for me. Also slightly more masculine than unisex leaning. I might’ve a better appreciation had I smelled this on my husband.

I keep waiting for a fragrance called Amor & Psyche from the book and movie Perfume. There probably is one.