Best Of
7 Perfumes That Smell Like Patchouli
Patchouli is in far more perfumes than admit to it. These seven put it where you can smell it, from sugary to earthy. Start with Diptyque Tempo for patchouli on its own, Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady for the rose-and-patchouli classic, and Mugler Angel for the perfume that made patchouli sweet.
Why Doesn’t Modern Patchouli Smell Like a Head Shop?
Because perfumers clean it up. Raw patchouli oil, distilled from the dried leaves of Pogostemon cablin, is heavy and earthy, with a damp, cellar-like side and a camphor edge. Its main molecule, patchoulol, is woody and dark; a tiny amount of a second one, norpatchoulenol, gives it the unmistakable patchouli smell.
Suppliers now sell fractionated patchouli, sometimes called patchouli heart, with the earthiest and most camphorous parts distilled out. What’s left is cleaner, drier and woodier, almost like dark chocolate. That’s the patchouli in most modern chypres and gourmands, and it’s why a perfume can be built on patchouli without smelling of the 1970s. Our patchouli oil guide has more on the raw material.
| Perfume | The patchouli | What’s with it |
|---|---|---|
| Diptyque Tempo | Several kinds, up front | Maté, clary sage, violet |
| Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady | Under a huge rose | Raspberry, cinnamon, incense |
| Mugler Angel | Under sugar | Praline, red fruits, vanilla |
| Chanel Coco Mademoiselle EDP | Clean, under citrus and flowers | Orange, rose, jasmine, vetiver |
| Tom Ford Black Orchid | Dark and earthy | Truffle, plum, rum, ylang-ylang |
| Lancôme La Vie Est Belle | Under iris and praline | Iris, vanilla, spun sugar |
| Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia | Quiet, in the base | Pear, freesia, rose |
7 Patchouli Perfumes
Diptyque Tempo
Diptyque’s Tempo is the patchouli perfume for people who want patchouli. Diptyque uses three different extracts of it, with maté, clary sage and violet. Maté is a South American tea, grassy and a little roasted, and with sage it makes the patchouli smell green and dry instead of sweet. One wearer describes it moving from damp forest floor to earth and chocolate, which is patchouli’s whole range in one bottle.
Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady
Dominique Ropion’s Portrait of a Lady (2010) puts a very large dose of Turkish rose on top of a patchouli-heavy base, with raspberry, cinnamon and clove to bridge them, and incense, sandalwood and amber underneath. Rose and patchouli is an old pairing: the earth makes the rose smell darker and more grown-up, and the rose stops the patchouli from smelling like soil. This is not a quiet scent.
Mugler Angel
Angel (1992), by Olivier Cresp and Yves de Chirin, is often credited as the first modern gourmand, and it’s a patchouli perfume underneath the candy. Mugler lists bergamot, praline and patchouli leaf, with red fruits and vanilla. The trick is the contrast: the praline is so sweet that it would be sickly on its own, and the patchouli pulls it down into something darker and stranger, like chocolate with soil on it.
Chanel Coco Mademoiselle EDP
Coco Mademoiselle (2001) is the clean-patchouli chypre most people know. Chanel describes orange, jasmine and rose over patchouli and vetiver. The citrus and flowers come first and the patchouli waits underneath, dry and polished, which is why it reads as fresh rather than earthy. Use the original EDP: the EDT and Intense are different compositions.
Tom Ford Black Orchid
Black Orchid lists black truffle, ylang-ylang, black orchid, black plum, rum and patchouli. Truffle is the surprise: earthy and slightly savoury, it agrees with the patchouli rather than fighting it, and the plum and rum make the whole thing boozy and dark. It’s the moodiest patchouli here.
Lancôme La Vie Est Belle
La Vie Est Belle is iris, patchouli, vanilla and spun sugar. It follows Angel’s idea, sweet and gourmand with patchouli under the sugar, but iris makes it powdery and softer. Where Angel is chocolate and soil, this is a cake dusted with cocoa.
Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia
English Pear & Freesia is Williams pear, freesia and rose, with patchouli at the base. It’s the lightest perfume here, and the patchouli is there to give the fruit something to stand on, not to be noticed. If you think you dislike patchouli, start here: you may find you’ve been wearing it all along. English Pear & Sweet Pea is a different fragrance.
Where Next?
Patchouli and oud often share a base, and our oud list has several. For the sweeter side of Angel and La Vie Est Belle, the vanilla list goes further.
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