Farmacia SS. Annunziata: Patchouly Indonesiano

Call me silly but I have an urge to make the world better. (1) It's demonstrated in various ways but regarding perfumery, I'm spreading the glory of several of those who are not known and who in my opinion deserve it. (2)
Lately, I've travelled a bit and met several other perfumistas and on that occasion, I got a test pack with me, to have them smell what I have. Some of well-known but harder to find fragrances... and then those of which nobody had heard before I hammered it to their heads and noses.

Patchouly Indonesiano is one of those hidden treasures. It's a soliflor, and it's patchouli. Now, people hear the name and expect another variation on the wet soil theme as in Encre Noire by Lalique or something neatly oriental as in Coromandel by Chanel.
Nope. No wet soil, no fruity-oriental variation with decadent undertones. This one will hit your nose and keep you entertained for two days with colourful images of tigers and parrots and snakes in a jungle full of interesting flora, trees that would make terribly expensive furniture and, admittedly, wet soil.
Two days; the stuff is rather difficult to wash off. And, it develops all the time. It starts as very strong bitter, the one kept at the back of the liquor cabinet only for the worst cases of sick stomach but very soon, it smoothens into honey and herbs. Lots of honey, for that matter, and for some unknown reason, cucumber. After a while, the cucumber recedes a bit but the metallic, adstringent tone remains for long.
I wondered for long what the scent reminds me of - cucumber and honey and spices, that's Le De by Givenchy, eau de toilette in the old version, damn. Extrait is pure honey and flowers but EdT has the cucumber-metallic-spicy tone too.
After a few hours, metallic cucumber gives way to an expensive pharmacy. It is not a medicinal scent in the way of Knize Ten, which smells of sweet cough pastilles and rubber gloves, Patchouly Indonesiano is herbs that would kill any parasite up to the size of a weasel. (3)

To sum it up, this is a fragrance that takes no hostages. Imagine yourself drinking a bitter in which the last few remaining specimens ofgentiana verna root was soaked while sitting at a fireplace in which bits of a cupboard made of expensive tropical woods are burning. No hostages, I said.


Notes for Patchouly Indonesiano:
Top notes: Indonesian patchouli
Middle notes: Indonesian patchouli
Base notes: Indonesian patchouli

It is available only as extrait, 100 ml for 95 euros at Farmacia Santissima Annunziata at Via de' Servi in Florence and possibly somewhere in the internetz.

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(1) How long will it take until some commenter who knows me well makes a snarky remark that my favourite method is kicking people's shins?
(2) For the perfumes, not for the information value of their websites.
(3) Yes, if you ask, then I do think that it might be better prevention of moths than mothballs. In fact, anything is better than mothballs, anything smells better than mothballs. And this strong shit would probably not only kill them but make them want to be born in another universe.

Farmacia SS. Annunziata: Hyle

"Primary matter, vital scent, salt of Life.

Top notes: lemon, bergamot, myrtle
Middle notes: lavender, ginger, ozone notes
Base notes: oamkoss notes, juniper wood, patchouli"

So says the brochure. Another bag of sticky goo - I must say that I prefer the good ole vials. The first impression is pretty pungent bergamot but in a while, the scent develops; as with Chia, the citruses are not very prominent and they only stick out from time to time. In a while, the scent gets very sweet and sort of minty, I suspect the myrtle (not a common ingredient, I'd say, outside the incensey realm of fragrances). It totally doesn't develop in a linear way, there's a sinus curve of notes appearing and receding. At first, I would say that the citruses are done with in the first five minutes, giving way to mint hard candies and another while later, the fresh and pungent scent changes to slightly soapy - it's maybe my impression only but I often read citruses as soap. After yet another while, myrtle, ginger and juniper wood overflow everything only to give way to ozone and lavender and citruses again... and o it goes forever
Now, something has been kicking my shin for quite a while, some long buried impression... this smell reminds me of my childhood holidays in today's Croatia - sunlit coast (the perceptible saltiness of bergamot and ozone combine) with wild lavender and junipers and dry grass and pine needles and the pungency of salty breeze, in the happy time when I didn't have any allergies to mar my joy of being outside in the sun. And, that indefinable sort of soap that probably isn't produced anymore and which places the impression to sometime 25 years ago, not here and now, among cypresses and lemons of Tuscany. It's rather cloudy and grey in Tuscany at the moment and this fragrance brings sun. Lots of it, and those rugged clouds and clear blue sky that look so good on landscape photographs.
Hyle is marketed in 100ml bottles of eau de parfum; I would add a bottle of alcohol and dilute it to lots of cologne to pour all over. Irreverent, maybe, but very suitable for hot summer.

Farmacia SS. Annunziata: Chia

Farmacia SS. Annunziata doesn't have a decent and informative website - what a pity. When I got a bottle of the fantastic Patchouly Indonesiano, the pharmacist gave me a handful of samples; I planned to go through them for quite some time but kept delaying it for various reasons but I decided to deal with the backlog of tasks. After all, surprisingly enough, things get done when one works on them.

So, the first sample I took from the pile was Chia.
The brochure I got in the pharmacy gives a brief description and the notes thusly:
Moon, the lunar aroma, perfume from another planet.
Top notes: Almond, orange
Middle notes: rose, boiled sugar*, hazelnut
Base notes: vanilla, amber, oakmoss
The samples are in the form of gel so the first impression was Awful goo! Ick, but then I smelled the scent. At the beginning, it was very weak - orange in the top notes is barely perceptible. Very soon, the sugar note becomes prominent, along with the hazelnuts. On a closer inspection - while sniffing my hand - I could smell both the pungent orange and the soapy note of rose but the general sweetness is very pervading. I can smell a touch of cocoa but that's maybe due to the hazelnut and sugar notes. It actually says zucchero filato, whatever it may mean, but it reminded me of my great-grandma who used to make sugar toppings by boiling sugar in water and it was of the right consistence when the thing wouldn't drip from the spoon but make 'threads' - then, one would add flavourings (lemon juice or rose water, usually) and pour on the cake.
After an hour or so, the floral notes disappear and the scent is just sweet - nuts in caramel, I'd say. Oddly enough, the very end is floral again.
Totally a gourmet scent - I don't know about oakmoss and amber but the rest is perfectly well edible. It's perfectly wearable, though, since the fragrance keeps close to the skin so no need to worry that some miserable cake-deprived dieter will gnaw into your arm on the bus.