A LOVE LETTER TO PATCHOULI

The ultimate hippy note has shaken off its flower-power reputation to become one of perfumery’s most sophisticated ingredients, says enthusiast Bethan Cole

The ultimate hippie fragrance is back

‘Ihad a single bed in the corner. It was covered with an Indian cotton bedspread from Kensington Market. I bought patchouli oil there, too, and my mother thought it was the smell of drugs. I recorded John Peel’s radio show on to cassettes.’ In V&A fashion curator Claire Wilcox’s beautifully written memoir Patch Work (Bloomsbury Publishing), she transports us straight back to the late-1960s and 1970s of her teenage bedroom with the waft of patchouli.

Cut to 1987. I am at a 15-year-old’s party in rural Shropshire. Gothic-rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees plays on the stereo as ethereal girls drift by in paisley tassel skirts and Dr Martens boots, their hair crimped and backcombed. One has a cobweb inked on her cheek, in black liquid liner.

I smell powdery sandalwood incense and – there it is again – the musky, undergrowth smell of patchouli oil.

Patchouli has a long and venerable history. The Pharaoh King Tut was buried with 10 gallons of the stuff, and it was traded for gold by early European traders, pound for pound. It has also been used in Ayurvedic medicine

for centuries. ‘In aromatherapy, it is antifungal and anti-inflammatory, and a powerful sedative and antidepressant,’ says spiritual wellness expert and aromatherapist Michelle Roques-o’neil. ‘Its sensual, optimistic fragrance also makes it a very seductive scent that is helpful for loss of libido, promoting inner confidence.’

Today, around 1,700 tonnes of patchouli is used by the perfumery industry per year, and with every brand – from niche to luxe – bringing the ingredient to the forefront of their most covetable creations, it’s fast becoming the ‘new’ note to know. But why now, some 45 to 50 years after its hippy and biker heyday, and over 30 years after its vogue among teenage goths? According to Bee Shapiro, founder of hot New York fragrance brand Ellis Brooklyn, it’s to do with a post-pandemic spirit of liberation and environmentalism. ‘Patchouli is such a free-spirited, boho kind of scent and I think it’s inevitable we’d be in that kind of mood after the year we have all been through,’ she says. ‘Patchouli offers this freeness but also an earthy beauty that brings us all back to nature.’ Shapiro’s Raven Eau de Parfum, has patchouli with peony and rhubarb.

NEW NOTES

Emmanuelle Moeglin, founder and creator of Experimental Perfume Club, points out that an appetite for patchouli is the next logical step after recent trends for rich and pungent ouds and then woody notes: ‘The demand for stronger and more woody fragrances has been on the rise in the last decade; patchouli brings a smokey, leathery and tobacco-like effect.’

The new patchouli fragrances have a wider and more nuanced range than the Kensington Market smells of yore, with perfumers recognising that patchouli is a multifaceted note that travels from damp earth to a sort of lush chocolatey bloom. ‘What patchouli has gained from technology in the last 20 years is a “fractionising” technique, whereby the top note can be chopped off,’ says Geza Schoen of Escentric Molecules. ‘So borneol and camphor (two medicinal-smelling compounds found in patchouli oil) can be thrown out so that you are left with the beautiful woody, balsamic kind of dry note that patchouli offers.’ Schoen’s Escentric Molecules M+ Molecule 01 + Patchouli has a dark, sharp, leathery air. Yú Parfums Edition I – Chapter III, £120, has a powdery sophistication and Dolce & Gabbana’s incredibly luxe Velvet Black Patchouli Eau de Parfum creates a Black Forest gateau cloud of plush, cocoa-rich scent.

HIDDEN DEPTHS

Patchouli has also been used as a base note in some of the most popular eau de parfums of the last 30 years. Think of Thierry Mugler’s gourmand classic Angel, Chanel’s enduringly popular Coco Mademoiselle, Giorgio Armani’s cassis and candyfloss Sì Intense, Tom Ford’s delectable noir Black Orchid and Paco Rabanne’s Lady Million. All of them set patchouli against lighter gourmand, floral and fruit notes.

‘Patchouli is like the deepest bass chord in music,’ says blogger, author and perfume expert Neil Chapman. ‘You hear it without realising. Yet if you were to remove it, you would notice that the music sounds somewhat tinny.’

Part of the art of the perfumer is to dose patchouli in the perfume’s formula at just the right amount: too little and it barely registers, too much and it will overwhelm the mix. ‘Like most deep and dark leathery, woody and ambery notes, patchouli becomes stronger as it macerates,’ observes Moeglin, who uses just a jot in her lush and powdery Amber Iris Eau de Parfum. ‘It can be overdosed by mistake, but most perfumers use minute amounts – unless they are looking to make it a highlight of their formula.’

So what kind of woman wears patchouli now: quintessentially sophisticated, but also a little arty or bohemian? ‘The person I envisage is unapologetically elegant and audacious,’ says Rodrigo Flores-roux, creator of Dolce & Gabbana’s chocolatey masterpiece. ‘Not a shy individual, but a “more is more” kind of girl – or guy.’ As free-spirited as the note itself, then, and still with a modicum of ability to shock and rock. For which my inner teen will be forever grateful.