Moonlight Patchouli
Van Cleef & Arpels (2016)

Moonlight Patchouli reminds me of a very stylish mature women in Baroque paintings dressed in black velvet who is coming inside her castle from the snow.This is a fragrance for women, not girls. It just draws in your head a picture of a mature, serious lady who is classy and graceful in everything she does. It's just what you need when you're feeling on edge, dull, exhausted.

Rich and creamy, beautiful cacao leather, gorgeous really superb suede leather-lots of beautiful leather-and a glorious, velvety, soft, rich, luxurious divine rose, combined with the most beautiful patchouli. A beautiful powdery iris is the star performer though, soft, rich, and smooth, delicate, powdery, and sensuous. Feminine and alluring totally. This is a perfume you like to go to bed with...to the man of your life.

If I said this was like Le Labo's Patchouli 24, don't rush out and buy it thinking it's a bargain. They're both Patchoulis - which don't smell of patchouli; that's all they have in common.
The Labo is a dark smoky intensity of birch tar, woods and clove.
This is a load of chemicals from start to finish.
A milky rose-peony, faux coy and bitter at the same time, hairspray and no patchouli.

I get a lot of suede (leather) from this on the opening, almost ambergris like but a very clean, non animalic one.

The patchouli really shines 5 minutes after spraying, a very clean, soapy patchouli as we know it from Prada l'Homme. Moonlight Patchouli however, smells more expensive and more complete. A bit more dated too I have to say (in the opening) but it gets more modern in the dry down.

To me the heart of this scent consists of patchouli, suede leather and a sweet cocoa accord that is very reminiscent of l'Instant de Guerlain pour Homme. Finally, a subtle very natural rose comes out. Reminds of how MFK does rose, meaning it's done right (more on this later).

About an hour in, the sweet cocoa accord wanes, and you're left with a nice 'oudless' and slightly sweeter version of MFK Oud Satin Mood. Quite the twist. That's impressions of 3 other fragrances I get from it during its morphing process. And I'm not quick to compare a scent to other scents.

The perfume of the dandy.
A poetic extravaganza between male taunting, lyricism and virginal lust: a soft velvet of shy roses on an alcoholic body of patchouli, surrounded by the capricious attraction of chocolate. Simply, the perfume of the dandy: I see a decadent room full of melancholic feminine memories. And still, there is no poetry here, there is poetic grace. The perfume of an appearance of sensuality, a refined and greedy joy that combines the elegance of the iris and a subtle powder of rose, under the humble purpose of creating a simple game of carefree eroticism.
This is a musical divertimento, typical of other times: the brilliance and sadness of an easy rhythm, full of nervous and childlike beauty.

Great on my skin. A saturnine vintage rosey-chocolatey patchouli enveloped by a powdery cloud nuanced by iris, cocoa, rose, hay, a tad of saffrony frankincense and suede. Decrepit antiquarians and dodgy workshops comes ideally on mind in their secret dusty intrigues. Van Cleef&Arpels Moonlight Patchouli is like a less gassy and more pretty leathery sort of Tom Ford Noir de Noir (a scent as Histoires de Parfums Rosam jumps partially on mind as well for several of its characteristics). Cocoa, powdery iris and talky amber are almost edible and surely visceral (and animalic/erotic) in a baroquely decadent way. Talky iris masters top and central stages while a rose, complementing soft chocolatey leather, dominates the final suedish "tail". An intrigant take on leather-patchouli with a rosey richly decadent background.