Jo's Scent Notes: Guerlain L'Art et la Matière Patchouli Paris

Patchouli refuseniks, stop right here. Maybe come back in a fortnight or two when I’m writing about something more to your taste, because I know patchouli to be possibly the most divisive ingredient in perfumery. (And as you can read in an earlier column here, it’s partly my husband’s fault, as he was responsible for selling it to countless hippies in the 1970s, as per the price list for his Harmony Foods wholesale business, which you can see below.)

I, however, adore it. I have many patchouli scent ‘loves’, adorning my dressing table. But this luxurious (also, sorry, pricy) Guerlain launch is probably the most ‘perfect’ patchouli I’ve ever worn. I was introduced to it at breakfast, a few weeks ago, by Delphine Jelk, the Guerlain Perfumer who created it (and shared her moodboard for the project. It sits within the L’Art et la Matière collection, which showcases specific fragrant materials (others have included tonka, iris, neroli etc.) It’s smoochy. Sexy. Lots of tangled sheets, deep red velvet and neon lights (red lights, actually) and Parisian chic, which made me pine for that city SO badly.*

There’s almost a champagne fizz, at first spritz. That’s down to aldehydes, which are best-known via Chanel No5, helping to power that iconic fragrance out of its equally iconic bottle. Aldehydes add energy to a fragrance – and they work like a dream, here.

Patchouli Paris is very, very, very patchouli-y. Unashamedly so. But there’s a sweetness and a softness to this particular patchouli, a roundness and a smoothness, like its corners have been polished and buffed with a chamois leather. It’s still ‘dirty’, yes – it has all of patchouli’s naughtiness, and touches of ‘forest floor’ mossiness – but with a warmth that many patchoulis never muster. There are lots of musks in there, which make for compulsive sniffing on the skin, and I’m guessing a tiny touch of cocoa, too. (Chocolate and patchouli are very happy bedfellows.)

Delphine is quintessentially Parisienne herself, meanwhile: slim, chic and elegant. The assembled crew of fragrance journalists warmed to her immediately, since for many of us it was a first encounter. It’s funny how photographs can be deceptive since – from seeing Delphine’s ‘official portrait’ in the past – I’d always imagined her to be haughty and aloof. Not a bit of it.

Instead she’s warm, funny – and of course, very, very talented, having worked on fragrances for Guerlain that span blockbuster La Petite Robe Noire through to Santal Pao Rosa (another favourite of mine), via several of the perennially fresh and summery Aqua Allegoria fragrances. And actually, I think all of the journalists left the event feeling like we’d quite like her as a best friend, while definitely planning to take her up on her invitation to visit her lab, in Paris.

Guerlain Perfumer and Patchouli Paris creator, Delphine Jelk, with her moodboard for the fragrance

Bottom line: Guerlain L'Art et la Matière Patchouli Paris is, without hesitation, my favourite-ever patchouli, and that’s up against very, very tough competition.

I’m saving up for a second bottle, when this one runs out – and should Guerlain ever discontinue Paris Patchouli, I’ll be haunting eBay in the wee small hours,

Like I say, patchouli perfection.

£295 for 100ml eau de parfum – buy here

* Since the launch of Eurostar, I’ve visited Paris for work or for pleasure several times a year, pinching myself that it was barely two and a half hours, door to door, from my house. One of the MANY unfortunate legacies of COVID is that the train company has mothballed the Ashford Eurostar terminal, adding to my journey two hours to get to St. Pancras, an extra 30 minutes on the journey before we WHIZZ through Ashford Station without stopping (me literally cursing and almost crying with frustration) – and the reverse, on the way back. But for Delphine? Reckon it’s worth the hassle.