Patchouli Part 3 - New Perfume Creations - Giveaway

For my dear readers who would like to participate in this ongoing festival of patchouli by trying some of the  engaging perfumes specially created for this event, I have three silver toned flacons,  Numbers 2, 6 and 8, as  provided by Monica Miller the Perfume Pharmer, and the originating perfumers, as give-aways.

If you send me an email at indieperfumesatgmaildotcom, with a note as to your patchouli experiences, past or present, I will put you into the draw for next Tuesday, July 5th. So there will be something a little extra to celebrate for three of you, after the fireworks holiday.  I will attempt to calibrate which flacon will go to each of the three winners based upon the comment and some affinity to the three described here.

I do not yet have the perfumer list matched to the numbers, but as to my own impressions, I can tell you #6 will surprise most anyone who thinks patchouli is always ultra relaxed and dreamy.   It is surprisingly sparkling, a bright  citrus-y top-noted patchouli perfume, with the inherent depth of patchouli underpinning the effervescence, and a bridge of something like  cut hay between the two.  It reminds me of biting into a crunchy apple with a fragrant skin, cool rain evaporating from the earth and clean hair.  It has energy and light to burn.  It eventually dries down to a subtle softness that somehow still retains a good touch of the champagne high.

Number 8 is the opposite of 6, it has a tobacco depth to it, references to bark, smoke, butter and leather.  Round and full bodied, this patchouli is married to vetiver or some such dry and sunny partner; all holding close to the skin.  This one is something you might want your idealized masculine presences to smell like, or as Thomas Hardy used to say "he smelt like autumn's very brother".

Number 2 is one of my top three picks out of the thirteen.  It's rich round patchouli has a milky coffee caramel tone with woods and possibly sandalwood entwined in the vapors of a very characteristic patchouli.
 All notes are mellowed and unified by something like the golden syrup of Renaissance background light, falling on a landscape of open fields of grasses dried in the sun.  By this I mean that some scents from nature seem to retain the effect of the leaves/plant materials standing in the sun for hours, which then emanate this energy back to you as they exhale as perfume on the skin. This one participates in the classic sensuality of patchouli, and the natural power of the fragrance's hypnotic relaxation effect comes through fully from start to finish.  I think it's wonderful for the end of a stressful day. It dries down to a gentle powdery beauty still hinting of wood/sandalwood/with a touch of clean musk. The very end goes fully meditative and calming.

These are all completely natural, and as such, hold close to the skin and somehow seem to impart a therapeutically beneficial aura.  I get a feeling of direct contact with nature, working in concert with especially skillful human intentions and intelligence.  I believe I get an intimation of the essence of India itself with the experience of this level of patchouli artistry.

For those readers who have read many of the other descriptions on the participating sites, and who would like to obtain a full set of the perfumes, Monica has put together some complete coffrets, nicely packaged.  Please visit the Perfume Pharmer site for more information.

Please go to the Perfume Pharmer site for a full list of participating perfumers and writers with direct links to many other postings about patchouli; the thirteen perfumes and general spirited great cheer created by the inhalation of vast amounts of patchouli of great quality and artistry.  There is also a photo of the flacon for the giveaway.

Above paisley on corduroy from a vintage clothing store on Etsy, Violet Folklore.
Above detail of Giotto's St. Francis of Assisi cycle
Above detail of a painted elephant face at Manhandled Threads, see the story on the festival of elephants in India.

Patchouli Part 2 - New Perfume Creations

Monica Miller the PerfumePharmer, organized an incredibly voluptuous experience via the mails by sending a number of us helplessly enthralled perfume-aholics a slew of blind-labeled original all-natural perfumes, composed of at least 25% patchouli, and  asking us to pick three favorites. 

It is an ongoing festival of patchouli, and the perfumers participating are among the finest of natural perfumers, but even so, everything was labeled strictly by number alone.  Interesting too, how the color of the liquids varied, from gold to reddish amber. I felt like a character in a fairy story set an impossible task.  Among the 13 were so many beauties of surprising variety it felt like trying to pick Ms./Mr. America from a classroom full perfectly beautiful teenagers. Each one is beautiful in their own way.

So what can you do in such a situation except go with your personal predilections? I went with the brunette style of perfume beauty because it suits me the most.  To my mind brunette beauty covers a wide field.  It can mean you want to bring out the inner Ava Gardner, crossed with some wild pre-Raphaelite artist/model type of lady, or alternatively the elegance and restraint of an Audrey Hepburn ballerina persona.  It was incredibly hard to choose because there were so many that were outstanding in this type alone. Because I had to decide, the three I picked were dark, deep, and rich versions of patchouli that were so beautiful they all reached into realms similar to those of sandalwood and aoud, but perhaps those ingredients were also present in the ones I chose.  Which were #2, 3 and 14. (I know, one number short deliberately because 6 and 9 are hard to tell apart graphically).

This effort to rehabilitate the reputation of patchouli more than succeeded with me, and others too as this project presented at one time a wide range of styles and treatments showcasing alternate sides of an element that has a reputation of overpowering all others.  These were all compositions that were identifiably and definitely patchouli predominating but with the balance and detail of true perfumes.

Good patchouli is dreamy.  One of the most intense ways you can get the full experience is to try it on a day of warm and overcast humidity.  Hence the Summer of Love theme, calling both to the past and the present.  During the week, after a couple of rainstorms, with some sun peaking out to partly dry the streets and reviewing the full range of the patchoulis I was sent, this atmosphere expanded them like clouds around me. Later days of dryer sun and heat called certain more astringent aspects up to the front.  It is also very true you become more aware of how your mood and state of mind affects your perception of a perfume when you don’t know who made it or exactly what’s in it from a provided list of notes.

Be that as it may, #2 has an expansive, celestial quality arising from a soothing depth.  There is a soft powdered precious wood aspect after the initial strength of the hypnotic liqueur burns off.

#3  a heavy sunlight thickly dappled on dry hay, a little herbaceous, with a wild edge to it, perhaps the warm fur of an animal lying down beside you.  Sun on dark hair or fur, is what I mean.

#14 has a sacred hint to it, like myrrh mixed into amber and a reference to a bit of fine sueded leather.

There are more than three that I loved and I will get into them next.  It will be very interesting to find out if there are any that show up in the top three repeatedly and who the perfumers are for my favorites.

There will be a giveaway in the next posting, so come back and be sure to keep an open mind toward all perfume elements, especially patchouli.  You never know what a material can be until it passes through the mind and touch of a perfumer with a real feeling for it.

For more posts and links to others on these perfumes, please see the Perfume Pharmer.

Pix above, Ava Gardner in her heyday, Audrey Hepburn too, and Jane Morris by DG Rossetti, check the live links for more information.

Patchouli Part 1 - Vintage

Patchouli is a scent associated with times past.  I love the old associations.

As we know, the ancient Indian arts of perfumery often combined the beneficial with the beautiful.  Patchouli is a perfect material for hot humid climates because it naturally repels the abundant numbers of insects that such weather attracts.  Insects will naturally look to devour the fine wool carpets and silk clothing hand woven and embroidered with artistry and care. It was proved by observation that certain grasses and woods were distasteful to destructive insects, and the use of patchouli and vetiver and others woven into window screens and stuffed into upholstery and beds used the action of wind pressure and the pressure of the human body to release the essences and protect the home environment from insects.

The Europeans of the Victorian era loved the magnificently large hand-made Indian shawls, which were perfect for use as cloaks for crinolines, and highly scented with patchouli.  The scent protected the cloth from being eaten away by moths, and I imagine them packed with layers of patchouli leaves in the tight holds of ships, to make the long trip by sail half way around the world through varying climates.  The patchouli imparted its scent to the fine wool, giving the fabric its stamp of Indian authenticity, and the ladies wrapped themselves in this scented warmth in the cold seasons of the North.

As a perfume element it is soft warm and dark, with a hypnotic, sedative effect.  The aromatherapists say it should be used cautiously because it can be sensually over-stimulating and cause breathlessness.   At the same time it is beneficial for the skin because it balances oils and dryness and is antiseptic and soothing. The intensely sensual effect can always be balanced by a citric tang such as grapefruit.

The Victorians were drawn to a sense of complex ornament sensed through half darkness. The dimness could give room for the personal touches of imagination.  So it is with patchouli, a soft dark sensual perfume that inclines towards the imagination of the wearer.  As a tenacious base it holds other notes to greater length and in this way so lends itself as an expressive medium for the personality of contemporary perfumers.  As a basenote, its tenacity will influence and last through all the other elements it combines with.

The English, because of their long colonization of India, imported so many Indian artifacts and materials that their qualities became incorporated into the spirit of British aesthetics.   After the end of the colonial era, and a space of time, the young of the sixties rediscovered many of the artifacts of Victorian England, and through that association came back to India. Patchouli answered a craving for sensuality whose tenaciousness could withstand hard use to  enhance the experience of both chemical and natural sensual experiences.

Then also, the  U.S. opened itself to a pop cultural British Invasion, and along with that came the styles of scent, patchouli becoming the most identified with the sixties and early seventies. 

Recently I was so fortunate as to have the opportunity to try a sample of truly vintage patchouli, given as a gift by Mandy Aftel, who collects fine perfume materials, to a friend (Deana Sidney of the gorgeous lostpastpemembered) who shared a little with me.  It was incredibly smooth and deep, both soothing and exciting in its beauty.  I believe it was between 50 and 100 years old, and NFS (not for sale).  Certain scent substances will improve with age, as fine wine does, especially if it is of fine quality to begin with.

Monica Miller of PerfumePharmer has put together a special event, with more than a dozen modern perfumes based primarily (at least 25%) on patchouli, and sent them out to be blind tested and appreciated by perfume writers, acting as the proverbial patch-test bunnies.  Next time I will give some impressions of these modern interpretations of patchouli.

Paisleys above, from My Stuff & No Sense, from a fashion post on the use of paisley in modern couture.