Patchouli Fragonard 2011

Yes. The best perfume is useless if the sprayer falls apart after two uses. In an attempt to free the precious liquid from its prison, I initially tried in vain to put the broken parts back together. Then I fumbled with the mechanism; for minutes, nothing happened. With a sudden, small breach, about three ml then shot out spontaneously and ran down my hand. Now nothing works again. If I fumble long enough and contort myself sufficiently, the next splash might pour behind my earlobe or at least into my neckline.

But why fight with the sprayer? I don't even want the scent anymore. It was, in the truest, literal sense, a bitter disappointment for my eagerly beating patchouli heart. I really like patchouli!
I'm quite uncomplicated in this regard: it can be subtle, but it doesn't have to be. For me, it can even smell intoxicatingly like the Seventies and hippie sit-ins; I would be in patchouli heaven, taking it all as a welcome time travel, seeing it as art!

Well. I didn't expect that one could rob patchouli of its warmth, that one could essentially strip it of its true soul, no matter how intense it is. Fragonard has managed that: respect!

Patchouli by Fragonard has a clear patchouli scent immediately upon spraying (I could spray twice before the mechanism failed), but it is, despite the strong scent, somehow stripped of itself. I only find a very weak top note of bitter orange and petitgrain, which seem rather unnatural to me. The top note quickly disappears, and I only smell sad patchouli, drained by Dementors, and a lot of sandalwood. Where does that come from? That shouldn't even be in there. So, the sandalwood component, whatever it may have originated from, smells quite nice and natural. The usual base note suspects, musk and cedar, provide warmth and bitterness. A tonka bean might have passed by some months ago. I like all the ingredients, but in this combination, without anything floral and with the weak top note, it develops a very, very masculine and unfortunately flat flair for me. That's too masculine for me. However, I don't want to complain about that, as it shouldn't necessarily be a feminine scent.

I must complain about the disenchanting, cool, and lifeless patchouli.
About the lack of depth, the lack of development.
And about the bottle.

My first scathing review. What a shame.