When is patchouli not patchouli? When Tom Ford puts his name on the bottle.

I´ve made no secret of my stormy relationship with patchouli, and I don´t think we’ll ever achieve the sort of détente that will allow me to completely embrace the full-on sweaty, stinking glory of it. But, I do appreciate it when it´s done right. Tom Ford seems to do everything right; including direct movies. I am dying to see “A Single Man”, mostly because I love Colin Firth, but mainly because Tom Ford is one of those individuals for whom whatever he touches turns to gold. Does vicarious proximity to someone like that result in a reversal of fortune? God, I hope so.  Hang on…I need to check the movie listings.

Here´s some important criteria I consider before wearing a scent containing patchouli:

• The fragrance in question must not contain fruit. See my recent review of Ricci Ricci by Nina Ricci. “Fruitchouli” should be outlawed, thereby banning all sales of Angel, Bond No. 9 Bryant Park and any other scent that dares to smell like fruit and two week old laundry.

• Patchouli must be paired with things that are inherently complimentary, like vanilla, amber, labdanum, tonka; stuff that sweetens it up, but doesn´t make it smell like chocolate cake served with a potting soil coulis. The one exception to this would be Profumum Patchouly, which is quite possibly the dirtiest patchouli scent out there.  The listing of four harmless notes – patchouli, amber, sandalwood and incense should mean it would smell good, right? WRONG. This stuff is a “two weeks since my last shower, haven´t done laundry in months, poured a sack of ground cumin over my head, lost my stick of deodorant, atomic body odour bomb”. One spritz of this in a crowded gym would clear the place out for days.

• Those who want respect, give respect; these are the scents containing patchouli deserving of accolades (in my opinion): Chanel Coromandel, Le Labo Patchouli 24, Etat Libre d´Orange Nombril Immense, and the scent du jour, Purple Patchouli. There are a few others, but in the interest of staying focused, I´ll stop here.

Purple Patchouli was love-at-first-sniff for me. And that´s saying something, considering the first time I smelled it was at Bergdorf Goodman during the 2007 Sniffapalooza Spring Fling. It´s very easy to overwhelm your sense of smell at the big Sniffapalooza events, but Purple Patchouli left such an impression on me, that I bought a bottle of Tobacco Vanille instead. I fell for Tobacco Vanille because I sampled it on my skin. I only sniffed Purple Patchouli, and rationalized that it was one of those, “smells great in the bottle, but goes all hideous once it hits your skin” scents. As we all know, the first impression isn´t always the correct impression.  It was over the summer that I went back to Bergdorf´s to give it another shot, bee-lining for the bottle and trying it on without anything else on my skin to alter my perception.  Now, I sheepishly admit it was the second impression that totally won me over.

This is yet another scent I find challenging to articulate. I´ve recognized a pattern, here: the more well done a scent is, the more trouble I seem to have putting what I like about it into words. I had this issue last week when I wrote about Andy Warhol Silver Factory, and I´m experiencing it again now. Tom Ford has pretty much changed the landscape of fashion over the last two decades and is still finding ways to reinvent himself. Even though he is an American, he doesn´t fit into the same category as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. That can be said about his fashions, as well as his fragrances and accessories. Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein have something for everyone, but Tom Ford has managed to hang on to a certain aesthetic which clearly states his wares are not for the masses. That includes his fragrances. The Private Blends are not widely available, and are expensive to boot, but there is something special about them. Love them or hate them, they are exquisitely crafted scents. It would be impossible to love or even like them all, considering there are now 20, including the White Musk Collection and the latest Private Blend, Bois Marocain.  And, it takes a certain degree of confidence and good, old fashioned cojones to even consider trotting out a line of that many scents. After all, he´s not Guerlain, Caron, or even Annick Goutal.

What I love most about Purple Patchouli is that it doesn´t smell like any one of its individual notes. According to TomFord.com, the notes are Orchid Accord, citrus notes, Noir Leather, Signature Patchouli Accord, exotic spices, amber, patchouli, Peru Balsam and Vetiver. My skin pulls out a lot of citrus and orchid, some slight spice, the balsam and vetiver. I get no leather whatsoever, and nothing that I could accurately describe as patchouli. This is the ultimate no-patchouli, patchouli, but it definitely has that devil-may-care, headshoppy quality that makes it fun and easy to wear. I´m sticking with that description, but there´s a little voice inside me whispering, “This stuff smells exactly like Erno Laszlo Light Controlling Lotion”. Since I haven´t used that product on my face in close to 20 years, I´m telling my little voice to shut the @#$& up.

Disclosure: The bottle of Purple Patchouli reviewed in this essay is from my own collection. The term “fruitchouli” was coined by Melissa, a frequent Posse commentator, and a real sweetheart.

First, I am in need of someone in Greece to help me with a small project.   Click on contact us over on the left if you are a someone who could/would help or know someone that can help!  I just need someone that could get a package that they’ll only ship within Greece, and would reship it to me, of course with my paying for the shipping costs and any little favors I can do in return.

Second – winners of the Tom Ford Musk sample set are: : Lora and Sue and Billy D.  Just click the contact Us on the left, send me your address, remind me what you won, and I’ll get these mailed out to you!

This will be annoying perfume house creation day.  Nothing gets people a more irritated than Tom Ford and Guerlain’s prices on their more exclusive scents, and I’m right in the front of that line.

After grousing last week that I only got some of the new Tom Ford musk samples from BG, this week the Grey Vetiver and PB Arabian Wood showed up from the lovely people at BG, Jhanie and Raquel S., along with three more of the musks I already had.  Hey, are you guys reading? *blowing kisses* Love your work, ya’ll rock, seriously and everyone should call you at the Tom ford Beauty Counter and buy product from you – 212-872-2813 – even if it’s for other stuff in the store.  Seriously, this kind of great service, and I know they do it for a bunch of customers, not just because I write for a blog, is spectacular and should be rewarded.

Tom Ford Grey Vetiver is going to at least be in their more mainline scents, with White Patchouli and Black Orchid, and will be $85 for 50 mls, and I’m guessing probably about $120(?). Notes of grapefruit, orange flower, sage, nutmeg, orris, pimiento, amber woods and oak moss make up grey vetiver, along with, I assume, vetiver.  It’s not a heavily earthy vetiver, leaning more to the “banker” vetiver – an elegant, restrained take on vetiver, but it’s still pretty darn wonderful as it is.  There’s some really nice spiciness with this and a touch of rootiness coming in with the iris  after a more traditional fougere’ish open. On my skin, I’d really say it tends to be more masculine because of the more traditional men’s fougere notes.  I think that’s just more my expectation or sense of masculine scents than it actually is.  A woman could very easily wear this, and I’m sure I will!  It’s got a great length to it, lasting for several hours and smelling even better, less fougere’ish, more vetiver and spice, which is the cool aspect of this scent.

It’s a great vetiver scent.  I don’t find it incredibly ground-breaking, but it is a great take on vetiver, especially the spicy aspects that get played up more after it’s been on a while.  Tom Ford will sell a billion of these -  I’ll absolutely guarantee that – and it will become a men’s classic.  Again, not because it’s ground-breaking, but because it is well-made, easy to wear, easy to like right out of the bottle, and holds your interest as you wear it without driving you to distraction trying to figure it out. And it smells great.  AND it’s not $180 for 50 mls, it’s just $85.  I’m never wrong on this stuff, so you heard it here first.

Arabian Wood, also from Tom Ford, has notes of lavender, Bulgarian rose, freesia, orange blossom, galbanum, bergamot, rose de mai, ylang ylang, rose absolute, jasmine, gardenia, honey, orris, patchouli, cedar, oak moss, sandalwood, tonka bean and amber.  It was exclusive in Kuwait before it released generally to the rest of the world. I don’t know why I was thinking this would be highly oud’ish and middle eastern. It’s just not.  It’s a fairly well rounded fougere with some great floral notes that don’t take up too much space and a sharp’ish base that’s interesting – green sharpish, definitely the galbanum.  The woody parts of it are more green wood and continue to lean that way all through the drydown, though much of the sharpishness blends in nicely.  They have an interesting taken on dealing with the wood, and it seems almost Dior’like on me.  I still don’t think the name really suits it very well.

Then I made the mistake of throwing some Kilian Pure Oud up next to it, which prompted a phone call to Luckyscent to order another bottle, but I asked them instead if they thought this was going to go in wider release, and the answer was — MAYBE!! Not sure on the refill situation yet, but they’re going to check and get back to me.

Now for the most annoying scent created this year, Guerlain’s Mon Precieux Nectar.  62 bottles were made and sold at 6k Euro, I believe, apiece.  You do get 1000 mls of pure parfum and a great Baccarat fountain.  Well, one showed up on eBay – Ha, take that on exclusivity, Guerlain! we lowly perfume minions always find a way – and it sold for about half the price, which a bunch of us reckless fools went together on and split it about 30-40 ways to get the darn thing bought.   I know many of you were opposed to this ridiculous, opulent Guerlain display, but there is something about breaking that exclusive system or bringing a perfume into the hands of some ordinary perfumistas without having to fork over that kind of dough individually that just makes my little cracker heart glad.

For those of you that hate the Sylvaine Delacourte trajectory Guerlain’s been on and who hated Quend Vient la Pluie, you will be happy to know that you don’t need this one.  Notes of petitgrain, bitter almond, jasmine, orange blossom, sensual woods, incense, vanilla and white musk are the notes.  Word for this – gourmand, indulgent. plump and plush. Grain de Musc reviewed it and she’s pretty spot on.  I’ve really liked what Sylvaine has done. I like the old school Guerlain too, but I find the La Matieres and Double Vanille much more to my everyday wearing and liking than L’heuere Bleue and Jicky.  Fine, you can boo and jeer if you will. I admire those fragrances very much, but they just aren’t things I can or will wear every day. I could happily wear the La Matieres or Quand Vient or Nectar or Double Vanille every day, if necessary, and be quite content. They are full-on comfort scents, all round edges, warm, inviting. They call you in to get closer, not make you back up and wonder what in the world is that smell.  Mon Precieux Nectar is very much like that.  It opens a little sweet, vanilla and almond enveloping you.  If it stayed that sweet, it would be a problem, but it doesn’t.  It gives way to a more lush woody floral quality overlaying the gourmands that just feels like velvet to the  nose.  The incense is a bit player in this scent, but I certainly pick up on it as it dries down,  as well as the petitgrain, and the gourmand qualities continue to diminish, leaving a more ephemeral, beautiful scent that’s much more interesting than the big gourmand open.  The white musk gives it a nice, soft base to land on.  Not a skanky musk in the least, just a plush one.  I think it’s beautiful, but I like this kind of scent a lot, so there you have it.

The price point is ridiculous, even considering you’re getting 1000 ml of pure parfum.  It’s for collectors and the idol rich, but as much as I want to protest this silliness and make Guerlain sell to us in smaller quantities without all the hoopla, I’ll still give in and try to find a way to get ahold of them.

Now, for my happy fools that love to bust Guerlain exclusivity vats, how do we get our hands on the Habit Rouge extrait?  Thoughts? BG has it, as does the Guerlain boutique. I don’t even know how much it is or how much you get in a bottle, but it seems like enough of us should be stupid enough to try and get some, right?

For those of you that still would like a taste of the Nectar, I will give out four small samples of it to four lucky commenters.

Patty

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!!!

There is an SA or manager at the Tom Ford counter at Bergdorf Goodman that has some serious skills.  Every time there is a new launch of a Tom Ford product, out of the blue, a sample of it hits my desk.  I know she does it to others too, and it never fails to just thrill me – whether I like the fragrance or not doesn’t matter, this is a person in sales who truly gets how you sell something.  I got all the new ones except the Suede thing. Isn’t there a Grey Vetiver one too that’s around?  Anyway, I was predisposed to finding lots to like in them just because I’m so darn happy when something I didn’t ask for and really wanted to try lands in my mailbox.

Tom’s fragrances and I don’t always get along. White Patchouli was a mess for me, and I did like Black Orchid when lots of people hated it.  I like a lot of his Private Blend scents, but about the same number of them leave me cold.  I didn’t really like his city exclusive thing because I don’t think his scents are so great or oroginal that he could have the level of exclusivity that  Le Labo does.  Plus, Le Labo is a pretty small line with much smaller sales targets to hit for a launch – and a much smaller advertising budget they have to live up to – plus I think their scents are just scads better, and I’m much more motivated to hunt them down and call in all sorts of favors to get ahold of them. Tom’s – eh, I can wait.

The new musk series he has intrigued me because I’m thinking with his smutty, shirtless, smoldering eyes persona, how could he not do musk in a sensual, bite my lip sort of way.  Well, yeah.

Urban musk has notes of ambrette seed absolute extra, white pepper CO2, cumin, white honey, jasmine sambac, black plum, Tonkin musk headspace and benzoin Laos orpur.  I don’t even know what a lot of that is. The ambrette is pretty prominent from the moment it leaves the spray chute, and me no likey the open that much.  There’s a weird almost tanginess to it.  And plastic?  Kinda, yeah.  I’m not a fan on the open, but as it dries down, I do like it more as the honey and spice comes out to play and the musk makes an appearance.  It becomes much more smooth and well rounded and quite nice, but I wouldn’t really call it earthy or sensual musk, not what I was expecting.  It’s much more soft and cuddly, which I think is what he was going for, and the Urban succeeds in capturing that.  It’s nice, really!  I’m still just a little befuddled, but only by my own expectations.  Of the three, Urban is my favorite. It’s very easy to wear, not an overpowering musk, but also not one that stands out as unique or different.

Pure musk I was prepared to love. I mean, right?  Notes of bergamot, pepper, ylang-ylang orpur, jasmine, lily of the valley, orris butter, orris absolute, jasmine sambac, tonka, benzoin tears and beeswax.  Again, the tangy thing on the open, which I could have lived with, until it morphed into Clean? I swear.  I haven’t smelled any of the Clean fragrances in years, but that’s what I get, or at least some aspect of it just has that window wiper smell that the Clean fragrances have that used to make my stomach churn.  I can’t get beyond that. Even in the longer drydown, it’s there.  If someone else has smelled this, tell me if it’s me or the perfume.  Hate it.  Seriously.

Jasmine Musk is probably my favorite of the three on the open.  Notes of ylang ylang, jasmine, patchouli, orris, vanilla, sandalwood, vetiver, cistus, amber and musk.  This is closer to the straight-up musk I was thinking I’d get. The jasmine is far from indolic to my nose, so it doesn’t go to the more feral, smutty scent I was thinking/hoping/praying it would be.  It’s a fairly standard musk with some floral  and vanilla notes. Well done, soft, but nothing I’m doing backflips over.

I’d wear the Jasmine and Urban Musk happily and like them, but I don’t get the angle they’re going for here to differentiate this in a market that has some pretty great musks already.

Did we cover the cost?  $180 for 50 mls.  That’s the deal-breaker for me.  There’s nothing that special about them that could persuade me to shell out that kind of dough for some pretty average musks.  Narciso Rodriguez does a great musk for less than half that price.  I think they’ll probably wind up doing great, though, because love him or hate him, Tom Ford sells stuff with his name on it.

Hey, my little samples were free, so you know what that means!  You can see if you agree with me or if this is your next new Holy Grail.  Just drop a comment and be entered to win a samples set of these. I think I have enough in my little vials to do like two sample sets.

Tom Ford scents, hate ‘em or love ‘em?  I fully expect all the Tom Ford hatahs to show up.  I’m pretty indifferent to him, except I do like to look at him.

Patty

Has it been over a year now since the Tom Ford Private Blends first showed up?  Well, they keep adding scents, the newest is Champaca Absolute.  Now, right off the bat, I am predisposed to loving this as I love Champaca, but Tom Ford does annoy me beyond belief.

First let’s go to the marketing material to get our notes:  “Tom Ford has always been partial to the color white for the indelible impression it makes in everything from fashion and decor to flowers.  Now, with this new floral oriental composition, he has created his homage to the eternal, seductive power of white.  An ‘olfactive millefeulli.’  It reveals many layers of complexity starting with the opening notes of Tokajii wine and cognac to the sensuous heart of champaca absolute to the final warm notes of vanilla bean, amber and sandalwood.”  I’ll not pull any other “Tom Ford is a God” quotes from it.

It starts off a little sweet, I guess the booze notes, but my nose isn’t registering them as much as booze notes as odd-sweet’ish, but not a sweet I don’t like - a pretty floral sweetness that’s elegant with a wild undercurrent, playing in what I think of as a funkier Tom Ford base.   Compared to the other Tom Ford Private Blend’s, it’s a nice departure into a white floral rather than some of the weirder and heavier scents he’s done.   

But I’m still going to Ormonde Jayne’s Champaca as my favorite champaca of all time – it just has a timeless beauty and elegance and sillage to it that charms me completely -  but Tom Ford’s Champaca one has some interest beyond just a straight-up champaca to recommend it, and I think it will find more than a few fans.

My question today, now that we have lived with the Tom Fords for a while, including his White Patchouli (which I won’t even review, I detest it so much), what is our opinion, and do you have favorites, or do you just give Tom a complete miss?

Patty

Tom Ford Italian Cypress is big salty, earthy cypress.  It feels very masculine, but I think women who like strong wood scents will be quite taken with this.  I can’t find a list of notes on it, except it mentions wood resins and scents of Italy, whatever that means.  I’ve put it next to CdG Hinoki, and they’re not close on the open. The Italian Cypress is greener wood, not as sweet.  It’s not so much rich as it is … um, fierce?  There’s something that feels like ocean breezes in it, but it doesn’t strike me as being marine or aquatic, mostly a little salty and earthy.  In the drydown, it does veer more to Hinoki as Hinoki loses that sweeter aspect that it has on the open.  There are similarities between the two that become more apparent on the drydown.  I think those who like the drydown of CdG Hinoki will find a friend in Tom Ford’s Italian Cypress.  Tom Ford’s seems to lean more into an earthy quality where Hinoki is more incensey or smoke.

Another gem that a lovely friend picked up while in Italy is the second perfume put out by the same people who put out The Party in Manhattan – The Ten Party.  These two could not be more different. Where Manhattan wants to shock and offend in an understated way, The Ten Party bubbles up and just laughs at you and all your seriousness.  Notes of bergamot, provenà§al lavender, lemon from Sicily, cumin essence, petitgrain from Paraguay, pink peppercorns, tarragon, jasmine, clove, maté absolute, incense essence, cedar wood, Indonesian patchouli, oak moss, white musks accords.  It’s like bubbling woods filled with champagne. Bergamot provides all the laughter over the wood nymphs flitting around in the trees.  I don’t get a lot of the spice notes in a way that they bite me on the nose, they seem to just frolic in the background nicely adding interest, but not pronounced. I very much like this in the same way I adore Santa Maria Novella’s Eva.  It has that same joy.  And for some reason… I think it would layer pretty beautifully with The Party in Manhattan.  One of those understated perfumes that grow on you and you wind up reaching for very often.

Now for a very serious question.  For the cooks out there, what is you most beloved tool/pan/thing you have in your kitchen?  I’ve got the big All Clad stainless steel pan that is terrific, and I’ve got a Le Creuset cast iron Dutch oven on the way.  What else do I really have to have?  We learned how to handmake pasta at class, so I’m stoked to try out my skills there. Whoever said that it’s easy to love someone that makes handmade ravioli was bang-on right.  What else is essential in the kitchen?

Patty