Patchouli

Patchouli has a reputation it does not deserve. The oil that soaked the sixties was crude and unrefined; the patchouli I use is something else, a fractionated oil with the damp earth lifted away, leaving a sweet, dark, woody heart that smells of old libraries and warm skin. It is the most quietly luxurious base note in my palette.

What patchouli is

Patchouli oil is steam distilled from the dried, lightly fermented leaves of Pogostemon cablin, a bushy herb of the mint family grown in the tropics. The leaves are harvested, dried in the shade and left to rest for a few days before distillation, which is what develops the oil's depth. The oil is built on patchoulol, with a rich supporting cast of earthy and woody molecules. Ours is a fractionated patchouli, distilled a second time so that the heavier earthy and camphoraceous fractions are removed and the sweet, woody, chocolate like heart remains.

Where our patchouli comes from

Ours comes from Indonesia, which produces the great majority of the world's patchouli, from smallholder plantings on the volcanic islands of Sumatra and Sulawesi. The hot, wet Indonesian climate and rich volcanic soil grow leaves with a high oil content and the full sweet, woody character that patchouli from other origins only approaches. The oil is distilled locally, often in village stills, and the best of it is then fractionated in Europe. It is patchouli at its most refined, and it still carries the memory of the islands.

How patchouli smells

Sweet and woody, with far less earth than the whole oil. There is a dark, dry sweetness like cocoa and old wood, a faint camphor coolness, and a warm, slightly wine like depth that lasts on skin for a full day.

Patchouli in our chapters

• IIParadis de BleuThe Leaves · in the base

  In Paradis de Bleu it is the dark leaf at the bottom of the green chapter, the base that turns leaves into forest floor.

• VChérie OudThe Trunk · in the base

  In Chérie Oud it sits beneath the vanilla and tonka, the dry woody shadow that keeps the sweetness of the trunk from cloying.

• VIImpériale OudThe First Root · in the base

  In Impériale Oud it deepens the oud and the rose, the woody sweetness that ties the first root together.

• VIIIRoyale OudThe Taproot · in the base

  In Royale Oud it is one of many roots in the taproot chapter, the sweet dark wood among the resins.

A note from the atelier

I would not build a base without patchouli any more than I would build a house without a floor. In its fractionated form it is the quietest and most reliable material I know.

Questions about patchouli