Tom Ford White Patchouli

Tom Ford has been one of my loves ever since I first heard of him when he started designing for Gucci (that was years ago) so I had to smell his new scent White Patchouli. Thoughts of patchouli make me think of head shops and dirty hippies, so I really wasn’t all that interested in this scent but I heard many good things about it on other blogs and on Makeup Alley. In other words, I was told that it didn’t smell like the traditional patchouli and was very well imagined by Ford. So with trepidation, I decided to give it a try at Sephora.

My first thought was that it is really light when applied and the reviews were correct in that it didn’t smell like a strong whiff of head shop. It smelled semi floral but even I was not that into the scent of it and normally, I love anything floral. I was just rather “meh” on the scent but I was happy that it didn’t reek of hippies.

I couldn’t really get many of the individual notes out of this when I tried it on so I decided to get on the Sephora site later on and see what they said about it. Here is their description, “With it sensuous core of patchouli, Tom Ford White Patchouli perfectly captures the myth of its generation. Sleek woods blend with the essence of elegant white flowers to create this modern retro-class fragrance that embodies a sophisticated interpretation of bohemian chic. Citrus and coriander top notes capture attention with their sleek freshness and unfold into a floral trio, revealing intoxicating jasmine, refined muguet, and sensual rose absolute. An alluring base of patchouli oprur delivers rich depth and mingles with tempering sandalwood, rich incense, and golden amber for a compelling, seductive appeal.” To follow this up, here are the notes also - peony, mandarin, bergamot, jasmine, rose absolute, coriander, amberette seed, sandalwood, incense, golden amber.

I am rather surprised to see rose listed as one of the notes in this fragrance because I normally love rose fragrances and they are strong smelling on my skin. But it also is not a dominant note in this fragrance and the patchouli and incense seem to take over for me. Also, I am not bohemian chic in any way, shape, or form. This may just not be a fragrance for me. However, this did make me smell Black Orchid at the same time to compare them and we may have a winner with that scent…

photo courtesy of Sephora