Like steak tartare and designer logos, patchouli fragrances are something you either love or hate. If you’re in the latter camp, you might want to check out the newer, “cleaner” versions of patchouli, which smell significantly less overpowering than the heavy scents of yore, thanks to the addition of lighter notes such as fruits and flowers. Shiseido, for example, blends blue rose, grapefruit and peach with patchouli, resulting in the aptly named, calming fragrance Zen. Bond No. 9 adds patchouli to a creamy mix of sandalwood, spicy cardamom and sweet roasted almond for its softly sexy Lexington Avenue, the latest in its Andy Warhol series. Among patchouli’s biggest fans is Tom Ford, an avid user in his two years as a fragrance hawker. For his latest, he combined patchouli orpur (an amalgam of the words “origin” and “purity”) with rose, jasmine and peony to create the most ladylike patchouli-based scent ever: White Patchouli.
Revisiting the Orient
After a few years on the sidelines, spicy
orientals are back. With bases of amber, musk or sandalwood, these
potent scents call to mind ancient ruins or Moroccan markets. Mixed with
fragrant flowers, they become floral orientals, which have also returned
in full force. Calvin Klein Secret Obsession, Miller Harris Fleur
Oriental, Ralph Lauren Notorious and Lancôme Magnifique all mix various
flower notes with the spicy mainstays. Bulgari blends the night-blooming
Sambac jasmine with woody notes, giving its Jasmin Noir a nuzzlingly
sexy warmth. Those who’d rather have fewer flowers and more spice need
look no further than the four new scents from Annick Goutal: Ambre
Fetiche, Myrrhe Ardente, Musc Nomade and the smoky Encens Flamboyant,
which pairs frankincense with black pepper and rose berry.
Gender Benders
Devising a scent that appeals to both genders is harder
than you might think: CK One is considered the rare success story, and
it was launched 14 years ago. But now Salvatore Ferragamo has taken up
the challenge with Tuscan Soul, mixing fig tree wood with the lemony
Petit Grain to create a clean, zesty scent reminiscent of unisex hits
like Eau d’Hermès and Acqua di Parma. Banana Republic, on the other
hand, added cedarwood and teak to Classic, its 13-year-old original
scent for women, and rejiggered some of its ingredients to give its new
Limited Edition Classic a bolder allure. Frédéric Malle, founder of the
eponymous Editions de Parfums, observes that the fragrance world has
always experimented with notions of masculine and feminine. “Miss Dior
is more than 50 years old, and it’s full of very masculine notes,” he
says. “When perfumers want to portray classic elegance, they go into
this slightly masculine world, use those wooden notes, then dress them
up with softer things, like musk and vanilla. Estée Lauder’s new
Sensuous is a perfect example of this. The notes are mostly cedar and
sandalwood, but then they added a bit of musk and some sweeter notes.”
He likens fragrance to fashion: “Saint Laurent didn’t exactly do men’s
suits, but he changed the collars, made the lines more frail and the
pants more free-floating, and suddenly, it became a woman’s suit.”
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