Portrait of a Lady

Patchouli is a deeply spiced, thickly herbal and immediately recognizable note - it’s “dirty hippie” reputation doesn’t do it justice. Patchouli’s scent lies somewhere between cumin’s sharp and acrid tang and nutmeg’s smooth, sweet warmth, and it can carry a fragrance or blend easily with other, spicier notes. It is ideal in heated, spicy perfumes that feature leather, smoke, resins, and lighter aromatic notes like lavender and geranium. Patchouli’s exotic strength can be an acquired taste in perfume, but it’s many moods and blends make it an endlessly fascinating note to explore in the spicy end of the scent spectrum.

A must-have in any perfumer’s arsenal, sandalwood forms the base note of countless fragrance compositions. Its milky, suave facets make for a deliciously blendable fixative that has inspired perfumers for millennia. It’s a woody and ambery note with a pervasive warmth that is both velvety-smooth and decadently creamy. Sandalwood’s mystical scent is found everywhere in perfumery. It’s luxurious, milky, tangy, and caramel-sweet aroma infuses a fragrance with deep, exotic accents. Sandalwood can also appear bright and bone-dry, and display its arid, woody side in a gorgeous and austere perfume. Sandalwood’s depth of tone and smooth, polished texture adds elegance, refinement, and mystery to any perfume - it can mimic vanilla’s deliciously sweet, butter-fat heaviness, or fade into cedar’s sharp and bitter feel. It’s also a fantastic and evocative scent on it’s own as well as in a blended fragrance. Sandalwood’s tastefully exotic lusciousness is wearable year-round by either sex, and you could spend a lifetime sampling all the different ways it can be used in perfumery.

Warm, soft and sweet, the note of incense is used as a fixative in perfumery to add a spicy, balsamic and even lemon-scented facet to amber and vanilla accords. It can evoke notes that recall myrrh or elemi, and is generally thought to evoke a deep, rich and woody aroma. Incense used as perfume is as old as time itself. Incense notes in a fragrance instantly catapult you into a realm of ancient mystery and devotion. It’s woody, spicy aridity captivates the senses while its variety of aromas could take a lifetime to smell. From High Mass blends of frankincense and myrrh, to lilting soft florals and serenely dry Asian woods, incense accords create an spiritual altar for your senses.

A rich, spicy and floral note, reminiscent of carnation and most commonly used in men’s fragrances to give a warm and sweetly aromatic quality to complex accords. Clove is particularly popular for its deep, woody tones that blend beautifully in fragrances of bergamot, citrus, lavender, earthy geranium, musk, rose or ylang-ylang.