I’m a fan of Opus Oils, that crazy group of Hollywood Kids with the cheeky packaging holding seriously good juice. Wild Child is their ode to Patchouli, created for The Summer of Patchouli Love 2011 event hosted by Monica Miller of Perfume Pharmer.
I happen to really love a great patchouli, though I consider it one of those notes that it’s hard to get done right. All of us of a certain age have I’m sure less than fond memories of it done wrong: g-dawful headshoppy oils that were used well into the 80’s in my Western Massachusetts hometown (they very well could still be in use, I fled as soon as the ink was dry on the diploma) And then there’s Angel..
Wild Child manages to flirt with that 60’s hippy ethos with its patch, but never full on goes into the whole “I don’t bathe. I just apply more oil” thing that I find gagging in cheap patch. Maybe it’s the coconut, maybe it’s the berries but this seems a little more Euro to me: it makes me think of T-Rex and boys and girls at the beach at Cadiz around 1972, smelling of suntan lotion, tropical drinks and tanned flesh that’s a little sweaty from dancing by the bonfire to a transistor radio. On a winter day when the temps in Los Angeles barely break 50 is a lovely little breath of summer..
Notes: From Opus Oils Website
Top Notes of Saffron, Cabreuva, Blood Cedarwood, Peach Tree Leaf, Clementine, Yellow Mandarin & Wild Orange
Middle Notes of Honey, Milk Accord, Black Currant Bud, Tuberose & Peach Accord
Base Notes of Aged Dark Patchouli, Sandalwood, Ambergris, Dark Amber, Vetiver & Vanilla
Available in several sizes and products from their website. I received my sample from them directly.
Note: I wanted to put in a video of “Bang a Gong” from YouTube but WordPress su^&S as much as Blogger, which wouldn’t even let me log in yesterday to post on PST. Damned Internets.. So the link is here. Enjoy..
Loved Marc Bolan…T.Rex was my first concert!!! This scent smells intriguing :-)
I haven’t tried this one yet and I’m wondering why they heck not? Those notes sound amazing.
I hope you’ll like it..
Which did you “test?”
(Available in both Alcohol & Fractionated Coconut Oil. Please specify… )
Thank you!
Mine was in alcohol.
Hi, Tom. Thanks for not one, but two, earworms today (but I like ’em both)! I rarely can do patchouli, save for Coromandel’s -elegant treatment of it, but this one sounds worth a try …
I gave myself earworms too! But it could be worse..
I’d love to give Coromandel a try! Can you point me to a good site for a sample? Thanks!
I am old enough to have heard the T Rex version on the Oldies (KRTH 101) or Classic Rock (KMET, KLOS)stations, so I recognized that Mr Palmers’ version was a cover when I heard it at Madame Wong’s West.
And I quite like patchouli, but I can never tell which kind is going to be appealing to me. Sometimes I like that headshop vibe, sometimes I like the cleaner versions…it seems to depend on what else it’s combined with.
Give this one a whirl..
That song came ROARING back into my head and is here for the foreseeable future. gee, thanks! :-w
but I am grateful to, at last, learn what the hell they were saying in the second stanza. As a young’un I never could figure out the hub cap diamond star halo and the cloak full of eagles.
:-< I miss those days... xo >-)
I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean either. Or for that matter if it’s a good pr bad thing? A body like a car? Huh? What kind of car? Corvette or Buick?
Musette-
To quote from Mr. Bolan-‘you’re dirty, sweet and you’re my GURL!’
😡
It’s been a while since I felt like a youngun’ but this post managed to make me feel like a silly young thing, so thanks for that! :) As an 80s teen I have no hippie associations with patchouli, PLUS I had no idea that Power Station’s Bang a Gong was a cover. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alFlaMC2b3c
(I know, I know, it’s embarassing. Still, you have to admit Robert Palmer is pretty cool.)
Opus Oils is now officially being added to my lemming spreadsheet.
I have to admit I heard the Robert Palmer one first as well- I was clubbing when Power Station was out and practically in diapers when Marc Bolan was shaking it. I like the earlier version though..