Patchouli Leaves Montale

One of the best patchouli based scents that i have ever tried.

Opening is raw and earthy and takes a while to settle down.

Then join the vanilla and make it creamy and sweeter - thats the moment it remembers me of Coromandel.

Projection is huge and also the sillage and lasting power (over 12hs).

Updated January 2014

The earthy aspect of patchouli, and the warm stone-scent aspects of cistus labdanum are the thread that joins these two key players in Patchouli Leaves. Sweetness isn’t hidden, but certainly isn’t pushed to the front. I find the patch that is there exactly the viscous, hippy patch that I was looking for. But it’s perfectly matched by amber, vanilla, and musk, which might make it sound candy sweet, but it isn't. They serve to add a rounded, cushioned feel. The whole fragrance reads like patchouli on a stack of pillows.

Montale PATCHOULI LEAVES offers a lot of dark oily hippie patchouli in a luscious labdanum-amber base with just a touch of sweetness. Wearing this perfume is like wearing an old worn-out sweater that feels cozy and comfortable and even cuddly but is not something that I'd want to don in public. It seems somehow too personal and too suggestive for anywhere but home.

I cannot help chuckling at the reviewer (at another site) who said that this would be great--were it not for the patchouli! I realize that some people do have a patchouli problem, but I think that the name in this case is a sufficent red flag... Recommended for patchouli lovers and hippies, this perfume has excellent longevity and smells totally groovy!

What prevents me to loving this
is the heavy amount of amber as the opener the amber had a bit of an curdled
smell but that my only compaint.
of course you've got patchouli but it drowns in a wet saturated sea of oils
but want makes it dry is the Labdanum
with the deep fiery smokey scent plays
a part of this fragrance and the animalistic spots of Musk and the
drydown of vanilla.

Out of the vaguely familial group of ambery, vanillic patchoulis, I find Patchouli Leaves to be one of the most satisfying and comforting. The marketing copy for this boasts that the patchouli leaves for this fragrance were first soaked in vanilla extract and then left to macerate for two whole years in an oak barrel. The top notes, consisting of insanely rich but dry patchouli that has a raisin-like booziness to it, like aged cognac, suggest that this might in fact be true.

The dark, boozy patchouli is joined very quickly by a buttery, warm vanilla and amber that serve to sweeten the mix. All in all, the impression is of a warm, golden river of almost drinkable, spiced brown patchouli, boozy vanilla, and thick amber. In fact, Patchouli Leaves is easily the friendliest patchouli fragrance out there. It is mouth-wateringly good; almost gourmand in a way. The amber is slightly resinous, adding at parts a slight roughness to break up the smooth vanillic undertow and a touch of powder towards the end. This is not for people who like their patchoulis raw or as they might say, 'authentic', since the patchouli here has been shorn of its claws and stripped of its menace. But my God, it is sexy and rich and as comfortable as putting on a great big woolly sweater over your work clothes when you come in from the rain.