Patchouli Antique Eau de Parfum

Les Nereides Patchouli Antique Eau de Parfum was the first scent this jewellery house ever put its name to, which makes it the beginning of the whole fragrance line, and it is still the most characteristic thing the company sells.

Incense opens it, dry and smoky with a cool resinous bitterness, which is an unusually serious way to begin. Patchouli then takes over and stays. It is the old fashioned kind, dark and damp and earthy, with the camphorous edge that patchouli has when it is not scrubbed clean for modern tastes, and texas cedar sits alongside it, dry and sharp and a little pencil like, giving the earth some structure.

The base is warmer than the opening suggests. Amber brings a dusty golden depth, benzoin a balsamic smoothness, vanilla a restrained sweetness that softens the whole thing without turning it into dessert, and oakmoss finishes it with a damp, faintly bitter green. The trail is earthy, smoky and quite enveloping.

The concentration tells in the longevity rather than the volume: moderate reach, settling close to the skin after the first hour and staying there all day. Autumn and winter suit it, evenings particularly, and it is worn by both sexes, with an obvious appeal to anyone who already knows they like patchouli. Those who do not will certainly not be converted by it, and there is no gentle version of this material hiding in the bottle. It dates from 2019.

Les Nereides has made hand finished, nature inspired jewellery in Nice since 1980, when Pascale Chavepeyer and Enzo Amaddeo founded it after meeting at art school in Belgium. The business is still family owned, and the perfume line that this scent opened has grown to only five in total.