Patchouli 24 (2006)
by Le Labo

A very powerful and smoky birch tar opening laced with a little tobacco. Some sweet patchouli emerges, but this remains smoky throughout and wears pretty linear from the get go. After many hours I can detect a little wood notes and some sweet fruit notes, but that isn’t until well into the dry down. This one projects well and lasts forever. I happen to like this one quite a bit.

8th February, 2012.

This Le Labo creation rocked my world. It was the reason I became perfume obsessed. It literally opened my eyes to a new way of creating fragrances. The smoky muskiness is super sexy without being formulaic. The tea, leather, and patch combo are unlike anything else I've ever smelled. Bravo!

11th January, 2012.

Patchouli 24 opens with smoke and patchouli, and although the smoke seems dominant up close, the sillage is full of patchouli. This is my favorite part of the fragrance, as the patchouli reminds me of the kind in TM's Pure Coffee. Unfortunately,this patchouli slowly fades away leaving behind a mildly pleasant smoke. And doubly unfortunately, I'm mildly allergic to this smoke as it seems to be derived from birch tar. Most peculiarly, I don't start showing symptoms of the allergy until the patchouli is gone and the only thing left is the smoke.

This might be great for someone in a metal band because of the smoke smell, but seriously, the patchouli just isn't pulling it's weight and that makes me a sad panda.

14th December, 2011.

Everybody knows Annick Menardo is a genious and Patchouli 24 is surely among her most relevant compositions but, where many of their deliveries have striked as *yummy yummy* gourmands, P24 it's more like a gourmand that nobody would dare to eat. It opens with a breathtaking smoked ham/meat note joined by leather (birch?), dark smoky tea and a rubber vibe that definitely resembles of both Lonestar Memories and Bulgari Black...but at the n-th power. Patchouli, animalic notes and vanilla make their appearance right away bringing the composition into a more comforting territory but still nowhere close being easily approachable. Leather is prominent throughout and provides a good balance to the sweeter woody/vanilla drydown.

Overall, more than a patchouli centered composition, I get P24 as a leather/vanilla fragrance with a twist and while the similar Bulgari Black is definitely more wearable, it still strikes as a sort of edulcorated version of P24 which I see as a big step forward in the same direction. Be carefull with dosage. Super projection and tenacious lasting power.

Salubrious and toxic at the same time. Definitely not for everybody.

24th November, 2011.

Nice and heavy ambery fragrance, a strange  smokey masculine oriental in the same vein of Mazzolari Lui that turns immediately out in all its smokey, leathery, animal and vanillic temperament with a sheer presence of camphor, a barely perceivable patchouli, aromatic and rubbery birch tar and styrax, a touch of medicinal and green (labdanum). The initial animal smoke is impressive and overwhelming. The medicinal whiff is a current element in the fragrances of the brand and it cooperates to exude the boisterous first complex blast that seems to express all the strength of a scent that with time fades is a sort of ancient and vintage smoky amber-patchouli a bit cozy, vanillic, incensey and rubbery. As many others underlined the patchouli is absolutely not starring and straightforward, i perceive mostly a note of camphoraceous, leathery and surupy amber with a touch of whiskey, a woodsy-mossy (labdanum) character and a notable smokey temperament. The fragrance is dark-brown, a bit incensey, aromatic and tarry, it's not too resinous because the incensey and rubbery feel of the styrax, birch tar and may be olibanum balance the vanillic and dense woodsy-smoky elements. From the contrast between resinous and dusty elements some woods appear in order to ground texture and stableness.

13rd November, 2011.

What happens when you soak a dirty leather jacket in a vat of Lapsang Souchong tea? Well, I think that the result would be similar to the opening of the perhaps misleadingly named Le Labo PATCHOULI 24. I suppose that it's because patchouli frags have flooded the market and most of them are totally (in some cases overwhelmingly) patchouli-centric that I was so very surprised to find such a heavy leather scent in a vial labeled PATCHOULI 24. I do think that there is a bit of patchouli here, but it is hidden within a zipped pocket of the Lapsang Souchong-soaked leather jacket. There is also a brief appearance of an ever-so-slight touch of booziness initially, but it smooths out rather swiftly, producing only a slight tempering of the leather by the drydown.

I gather that the leather-Lapsang Souchong effect (what many are describing as "campfire"--and perhaps that's more apt, or at least more consistent with the dirty leather jacket...) is somehow alchemically produced out of birch tar and styrax. Whatever the case may be, this composition is at least unisex, if not fully masculine. Well, unless the woman in question happens to be a biker, in which case PATCHOULI 24 would work quite nicely, I think. I should add, though, that the drydown is quite a bit softer, as though the leather has been rendered more supple by the tea infusion--or was it just the quickly slammed shot of whiskey finally kicking in?

Yet again I am impressed by the power and longevity of a Le Labo creation, but this one's not for me, although I did enjoy the Harley test ride to view the dying embers of a California wild fire at dusk.

19th September, 2011.