Jo's Scent Notes: Patchouli

I am a hippie manquée. I always longed for an Afghan coat, to go barefoot (at the time, my feet were firmly encased in school lace-ups), and to lie on the grass listening to Scott Mackenzie crooning, ‘Are you going to San Francisco…?’

It was not to be. I was much too young to run away to Haight Ashbury (or even King’s Road), and my mother nixed my pleas for an Afghan coat, saying they were too smelly.

But it all came full circle, actually. Because who should I find myself happily-ever-after married to an ex-hippie-turned entrepreneur who was not only responsible for peddling much of London’s patchouli (in the early 70s he listed it on his natural food wholesale price list alongside brown rice and mung beans), and who also brought us the Afghan coat – the first to import them to the UK, direct from the artisans he’d encountered while walking what was then a very, very lightly-trodden hippie trail? (Unfortunately, just as Craig got the call from ‘Granny Takes A Trip’ to say that the Beatles had just bought four – which they went on to wear on the cover of Magical Mystery Tour – his Afghan stock had run out: he’d moved on from fashion to food. Subsequent imports were much lower quality, and stank – not of patchouli, but goat. And my outraged mother was probably right to ban those.)

I no longer long for an Afghan coat, but I have to say that patchouli is still a weak spot for me, olfactorily-speaking. And yes, I know it’s completely divisive – the Marmite of scent ingredients, though ironically, if you’re one of the ‘haters’, you’d be surprised to discover that it’s a pillar ingredient in many, many fragrances, because it helps to ‘tether’ fragrance to the skin. It’s one of the most widely-used ingredients in perfumery, while thousands of tonnes each year go into fabric conditioners.

Originally, patchouli found its way to the West layered between elegant paisley shawls dispatched from India to Paris and the rest of Europe. It had been found to keep moths and other insects at bay, fragrancing the cashmere and wool almost as a bonus. People are often surprised to discover that it’s a leaf, not a wood, because it smells just so – well, ‘woody’.

Perfumers love patchouli for its versatility. It can be dry, woody (see above), or rich and opulent. It pairs well with fresh notes like mandarin and bergamot, or with smoochy ingredients like amber, vanilla and chocolate. I’m a sucker for it in almost any incarnation, and this week, I thought I’d share some (and it is just some) of my patchouli portfolio – not least, to encourage you to experiment and (if you’re one of those patchouli naysayers) to see if there’s a patchouli style for you.

Perfumer H Patchouli/£150 for 50ml perfume. I am overdue a replenishment of this, from leading British perfumer Lyn Harris, whose work I am unswervingly devoted to. This is my ‘elegant patchouli’: earthy, without being dirty, airy and breezy while still making me feel I am firmly grounded on Planet Earth. Completely unisex, it also features black pepper, juniper, green galbanum, touches of ylang ylang and iris, with woody cedarwood alongside the patchouli.

Feeling flush, at the time, I invested in the Michael Ruh hand-blown glass bottle for this fragrance when I first bought it, when Lyn launched her Perfumer H brand, but it also comes in a 50ml spray bottle or a 100ml refill for the glass flacon. (Confession time: I think one of the reasons my supply has lasted so long is that I’ve kept the original apothecary top-up bottle in a drawer all this time, and regard the beautiful deep teal-green flacon above as an objet d’art.) NB When I bought this, it was known as ‘Patchouli H’, but has since dropped its ‘H’.

Diptyque Tempo/£153 for 75ml eau de parfum. Distinct hippie vibes for this, I get stopped ALL the time when wearing it, by people asking to know what it is. There’s a touch of ambery sweetness in the base (though Diptyque don’t admit to any amber in there), but also a freshness in the form of maté tea. (If you’re very nice to the sales consultants in a Diptyque store, they may part with a sample so you can try this before you buy – especially if, say, you’re treating yourself to a candle.) It’s another ‘grown-up’, wearable-to-a-meeting patchouli, rather than ‘party patchouli’. (And all my scarves smell of it, deliciously.)

Ostens Patchouli Heart LMR Préparation Oil. I was lucky enough to be given this by the London-based fragrance house, founded by two ace fragrance distributors (think: Diptyque, Trudon candles) who know a thing or two about scent, and set about creating their own carefully edited range based around ingredients from the world’s leading supply of natural fragrance ingredients, Grasse-based LMR Naturals.

You can’t buy the Préparation Oil on its own, but it does come as a duo with one of TWO different patchoulis on offer from the perfume house, Patchouli Heart No.I and Patchouli Heart No.2. No.2 is smoochy, sexy, velvety, soft with notes of iris and . But I personally prefer the more aromatic Patchouli No.1, which has a resinous quality (from labdanum), and gives wafts of incense; again, it’s smart, it’s sophisticated, with not a whiff of ‘old hippie’ to it.

The idea of the Préparation Oil, meanwhile, is to give the fragrances something to cling to, and to amplify them, but I like to wear it on its own – an understated but really long-lasting way to wear patchouli, and I often layer it under other scents in my wardrobe to ramp up the patchouli-ness. The two patchouli fragrances, WITH the oil, are each priced £145 (50ml eau de parfum and 9ml oil), here.

Honoré Payan Patchouli Eau de Toilette and Honoré Payan Patchouli Original Parfum. My friend and colleague Suzy Nightingale, who writes so brilliantly for The Scented Letter – the fragrance magazine I edit for The Perfume Society (sign up here for your free copy) – and who broadcasts so fabulously as one half of the ‘On The Scent’ podcast, here, put me onto this Grasse-based fragrance house, whose options are amazingly affordable.

This is patchouli at its naughtiest and most intense – earthy, chocolate-y, powerful, va-va-voom, sensual. Patchouli for OD-ing on, for going out in, for announcing your presence in a room. Each of these two scents actually reminds me very much of a boozy, intense fragrance from the boutique Reminiscence Paris, which was a huge cult hit when it swept in, trailing in the wake of the ‘Summer of Love’ wave in 1971. I flipping loved it, and I love these, which I can afford to spritz with absolute abandon (and I do, so: sorry if you’re on the train next to me and you’re not a patchouli-lover).

Even the eau de toilette is amazingly long-lasting. In terms of affordability, just as we mix high street clothes with designer, if we’re lucky, our scent wardrobes are often a similar mash-up, and I’ve definitely room for all of these patchoulis in my life. (Honoré Payan also offer a room spray and candles, which are definitely on my wishlist.)

Honoré Payan Patchouli/€8 for 50ml eau de toilette – buy here

Honoré Payan Patchouli Original/from £22.50 for 50ml parfum – buy here

Still feeling a bit Marmite-y? Well, so incredibly varied are the different interpretations, I’m pretty sure that there’s a patchouli scent for everyone, if you look (and sniff) hard enough.

Oh, and by the way? It’s absolutely fine to keep your shoes on while wearing it…