The plate: patchouli
Planche XII · PatchouliPatchouli · Pogostemon cablin

Ingredients · Woods · dry-down

Patchouli oil

Say itpuh-CHOO-lee oil

Damp earth, cocoa and red wine.

Perfumers add camphoraceous: the cool bite of a chest rub.

What it is
Oil distilled from dried, lightly fermented patchouli leaves, in Indonesia.
When you smell it
Dry-down: hours later.
What perfumers do with it
Earthy-woody pillar of chypres and orientals; adds depth, fixation and a dark, sweet richness.
Worth knowing
Its signature smell comes largely from norpatchoulenol, a trace molecule far more potent than the dominant patchoulol.
Known in
Angel (Mugler, 1992); Borneo 1834 (Serge Lutens, 2005)
Also called
Pogostemon cablin; patchouly

On the label of 57 of the 232 perfumes read so far

Named by the house, not on the label, in 49