Les Indemodables Patchouli Noisette courtesy of the brand
I’ve smelled a lot of patchouli-centric fragrances in my time: 60s vintage oils, modern masculines, and everything in between. I’ve often found this ancient herb (yes, it is an herb) better served as a blending note, where it can impart its warming hints of bitter chocolate, woods, turned earth — than in the spotlight. Many patchouli fragrances suggested to me that this ingredient was, on its own, a bit one-dimensional, all dried oak leaf and forest floor. But, was I wrong. Les Indemodables Patchouli Noisette is the dark-eyed patchouli I didn’t know I was waiting for.
Independent Perfumer Antoine Lie has overseen fragrance creation since 2018. Photo courtesy of Antoine Lie
Created by master and independent perfumer Antoine Lie, Patchouli Noisette is a patchouli “soliflore” that shows off the many colours of that earthy herb using hazelnut as a creative conduit. This is not your hippie head shop oil nor a traditional masculine, but a multifaceted, surprisingly intricate take on this venerable ingredient. It’s fruity, woody, loamy, nutty, creamy, peppery … and more. If you thought you’d smelled it all, think again: Les Indemodables’ new fragrance shows you don’t know patch.
I need to start with a caveat: I tried this perfume on just before heading out in record heat and didn’t at first pick up its complexity. The sludgy air unfortunately flattened out some of the facets Lie teases out of his subject. But, after an hour inside with the AC on and my olfactory thermostat readjusted, I realized Patchouli Noisette smelled radically different. There is no question patchouli lovers will adore this: Patchouli Noisette is everything you could hope for in a patch-centric perfume, with all of patch’s familiar aromas and then some. But for others, perhaps new to patchouli’s autumn leaves aura or who are put off by its hippie-dippy associations, or even just don’t get what others like about its earthy aroma, read on.
Founders Valerie and Rémi Pulvérail of Les Indemodables* and L’Atelier Français Des Matières, courtesy of the brand
This fragrance is squarely about a single thing: patchouli. Lie uses two grand cru patchoulis from Les Indemodables lab, L’Atelier Français Des Matières, one from Sri Lanka and one from Aceh, Indonesia, and combines them in generous amounts with only one other ingredient: hazelnut. The brand notes that the Italian hazelnut was extracted via a unique, sustainable plant extraction technology that is enhanced by ultrasound. The resulting fragrance has whiffs of dried cherry, brandy, bitter chocolate, wood chip, and a subtle creaminess I have never associated with patchouli.
Patchouli leaves, Wikimedia commons and hazelnuts common use collage
Les Indemodables Patchouli Noisette starts off with a boozy – yes, boozy – hit of dark cherries, some subtle but creamy nuttiness, and the woody smell of writing paper. I give it a few minutes, and notes I anticipated begin to reveal themselves: baking chocolate, fresh-turned soil, twigs. The mulchy note here is absorbing; woodier and cooler than I usually find, more like the scent of damp cedar bark – to me, one of the most heartbreaking smells in nature – than ground cover. Cherry and dark chocolate persist all the way through the composition, and I also get a slight nuttiness in the mid-section – no doubt from the hazelnut. What is curious to me is that the hazelnut extract never quite registers as what it is. That sweet, heliotrope-ish fragrance of hazelnuts is absent to my nose. Hazelnut does, however, add a deliciously nutty texture and that touch of creaminess I mentioned that gives Patchouli Noisette a roundedness I haven’t found in many patchouli perfumes before.
From time to time as I revisit the fragrance, it feels like I am turning a dark gemstone in my hand that is refracting momentary, aromatic glints of earth, tobacco, nutshell, dried fruit and wood. In the dry heat, Patchouli Noisette fairly crackles. Today, when the humidity is markedly lower, the high temperature outdoors brings out a smokiness and greenness I hadn’t noticed before, and a pinch of black pepper that livens the whole affair up.
Smooth, sophisticated and wearable, Patchouli Noisette will erase all memories of 60s flower child in your mind. It may just be the patchouli to end all patches.
Notes: Patchouli essences Grand Cru Indonesia and Sri Lanka; Hazelnut Grand Cru Piedmont Italy
Disclaimer: Sample of Les Indemodables Patchouli Noisette kindly sent by Indigo Perfumery. My opinions, as always, are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
*Note: Indemodable means (from French) timeless and classic.
Les Indemodables’ new green extraction technology has resulted in the formation of a new company, Eden Ecosystem. Read about it here.
Les Indemodables Patchouli Noisette courtesy of the brand
Thanks to the generosity of Les Indemodables, we have a 50 ml bottle of Patchouli Noisette for one registered reader in the EU and if you live in the USA thanks to the generosity of Indigo Perfumery, we have a 50 ml bottle of Les Indemodables Patchouli Noisette for one registered reader in the U.S. There is only one winner. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what strikes you about Patchouli Noisette based on Lauryn’s review, where you live and whether you have tried any Les Indemodables fragrances. Draw closes 8/2/2023.
Please read Lauryn’s review of Ambre Supreme here, Havane Vanille here Cuir de Chine here and Iris Perle here.
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