Patchouli Spirit

De Nicolaï

The best thing that happened at Esxence was an opportunity for a longer conversation with Patricia de Nicolaï. I went to her stand, which was manned by her son and daughter and found her sitting there, letting the next generation take care of things. I have been a devoted fan of her work since New York came out 1989. I have seen the house mature (in presentation only, the fragrances were top flight from the start) and become solidly luxurious, with a consistent look and high quality packaging, good enough to signal taste and expense but not so fancy as to suggest you're mainly playing for the bottle cap. This time at Exsence there was a definite feeling of the changing of the guard. The kids treated me with the wary politeness one reserves towards potentially tedious old farts liable to start telling war stories.

Patricia was very welcoming. She is the triple-distilled incarnation of French grande dame, not detectably snob, just immensely proper and upright. I think she likes me partly because I gush about her work and she knows this is not due to giddy influencer enthusiasm. I explained to her that her New York Intense had recently been put to work in my household. The last few months have on occasion been a little trying, and I have found the sovereign remedy: spray NYI on any fabric in the bedroom and succour will come. I believe at various times in my life New York has been like a friend providing support and reassurance. I said this to her and she told me about a fragrance I had not been aware of, a Harrods exclusive.

Patricia explained that Patchouli Spirit, as the fragrance is called, was the result of a clamor from the afición for more patchouli, and that she had dosed it to the limit of what she considered reasonable. I must here confess that I have a weird thing with patchouli. When pure I can smell it in traces, but whenever it is put in a formula it essentially disappears to my nose. Sure enough, PI does not smell like pachouli to me. I think of patchouli as being made of three parts: camphoraceous, geosmin-like earthy and a warm, almost chocolate dusty-brown cloud that alone does the work when in composition.

Patchouli Spirit is arguably the only fragrance other than New York in her lineup that has that spirit of penumbral peace I love. In composition it sits somewhere between Guelain’s Derby and New York itself, but lighter, more transparent than either. It has a lavender-tea aspect which the other two don’t, and is less oakmossy than either. In the last few years I had felt that de Nicolai fragrances had become more stark, louder and perhaps too vivid to my taste. Patchouli Spirit is in the first De Nicolaï manner, superbly comfortable and warm. In these loud times, a quiet masterpiece is exactly what the doctor ordered.