Inoubliable Elixir Patchouli
Réminiscence (2007)

This is my absolute favorite in the ambery patch category, and every time my wandering eye alights upon other ambery-patch scents, and I head off to explore, I return to Inoubliable Elixir with my tail between my legs. I’m going to call it right now – Inoubliable Elixir is the Joanne Woodward to my Paul Newman. So, what does the steak of patchouli scents offer that the hamburgers of the category do not?

My answer is depth. Now, the basic structure of the ambery patch template never changes that wildly. With two such heavy, rich accords – patchouli and amber – there can always be minute variations in pacing (i.e., adjusting the point in the scent’s development at which the amber turns up to dunk the patch in its much-needed bath of hot, resinous caramel) and decoration (spices, floral notes, citrus), but the crux remains that balance between the leafy earthiness of patchouli and the voluptuous sweetness of amber.

Inoubliable Elixir trounces its competitors by ensuring that its patchouli and its amber go miles deep in flavor. The patchouli is raw, pungent, and almost feral, its darkness lifted a little by a bitter, grassy vetiver, a material that sings in the same earthy register as patchouli but inhabits the surface of earth’s crust, when sunshine and water still penetrate. The basic amber accord has been thickened here with a generous dressing of both tolu balsam, a South American resin that smells simultaneously like liquidambar, crushed ‘hot’ spices like cloves and cinnamon, and melted beeswax candles, and tonka bean, which throws in its roughened, tobacco-ish, almond cream heft for good measure.

When the dirty, greenish patchouli smashes into this thick, sexy, red-gold amber, it smells like I wish my skin would smell like naturally. I wish to live in this smell, roll around in it, have my pores exude it. Mind you, I own only the original version of this and don’t know how the modern version (in the clear bottle) measures up. But if it smells anything like the stuff that comes out of my wavy gold bottle, then there is no reason to ever stray, as it is perfection. It is also, like, €45 for a 100ml bottle. Patchouli by Reminiscence is similar to Inoubliable Elixir Patchouli but much lighter (think 40% of the full whack of Inoubliable Elixir), so I like to wear that in summer.