Patchouly Bohème
LM Parfums (2011)

Immediately, this recalls the smeary aroma of the ladies’ communal changing room where my mother would bring me into as a little child to wait while she tried on clothes. The closed air swollen with the collective unsnapping of bras and unpeeling of pantyhose, the yeasty aroma of cooped-up underboob and flesh rolls suddenly released from their whalebone prisons, and the clouds of deodorizing talcum powders moistened by the day’s wear and tear.

At the center of all this is a balmy-greasy accord like clay or playdough spiked with the rosy-minty spikes of geranium leaf. There is an ungodly amount of tonka bean in this, its slightly roasted almond butter facet roughed up by an oily patchouli masquerading as a black leather jacket. Thanks to the strong role played by the tolu balsam, the texture of the perfume oscillates between sticky (turgid, airless, and ‘brown’) but and dusty (baby powder spliced with glints of metal). Tolu balsam is similar to benzoin (woody, vanillic, spicy) but deeper, waxier, and more medicinal, with a pronounced leathery or tobacco like effect. In Patchouly Bohème, it is as essential as the patchouli. This is a scent that catches me off guard every time I wear it, because I never anticipate the way its soft, balmy, nutty-powdery skin is just a front – a wee baby Shalimar – hiding this massively earthy, roasted leather. It is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Agree with RarePerfume, since Patchouly Boheme is a "huge" take on resinous, herbal, musky and mineral patchouli by LM Parfums. Balsams, leather and (in particular) tobacco ensure the bohemien/dandy/vaguely vintage-touch to this super tenacious musky-suedish patchouli. Opening is angular, mineral, herbal and leafy. I get a quite refined and still herbal/mineral (leathery-herbal-rooty) final wake. An excellent darkly commanding fragrance for the Lords of the scene.

I am a big patchouli fan and it all started with this perfume. It's quite something if you look how resinous is. The name could be misleading because someone would expect tons of patchouli, but I get resins, balms, herbal patchouli and dark interpretation of musk. It's gorgeous, bohemic, dandy-ish fragrance with monstruous sillage. Very mineral and herbal. Very special perfume that I wouldn't buy on blind because you need to like it.

If you're up for a straight-forward, head-shop style, classic patchouli, this is not it. Instead, people looking for a super-dark patchouli-infused, balmy fragrance, shouldn't miss the opportunity to give Patchouli Boheme a chance for any reason.

A massive oriental with deep roots in classic french perfumery. A striking combination of the darkest Tolu balsam, tonka and patchouli with leather/tobacco facets built around a woody-musky bone structure. The fragrance is extremely thick and powerful but everything is kept so masterfully in check that it never results overly sweet or unbalanced. Just like with Ambre Muscadin (the other big winner from LM Parfums), there's a strong classic-french-perfumery vibe going on throughout. It was an animalic musky presence in Ambre Muscadin and it's a bittersweet kind of chyprey vibe in Patchouli Boheme. Soothing and kind of unsettling at the same time but, most of all, obsessively good.

I think I overlooked this fragrance for way too much - don't make the same mistake. Better than most latest *Amouages*. Hands down.

Just when I thought patchouli scents couldn't surprise me that much anymore... now this is a peculiar, interesting and fascinating one. It opens with a musky, dusty, grayish mood, a pleasant sort of mint-balmy touch and a base which comprises nutty-spicy notes of tonka, then (I guess) vetiver, benzoin, and leather. I must say I disagree a bit with other reviews: I barely get the patchouli note initially, which in my opinion is quite well concealed among the abovementioned notes, to the point I had to “look” for it. What I get overall is a really intriguing, sophisticated, kind of decadent and fairly complex mixture that evokes to my imagination modest, dusty abandoned rooms, mostly for a really peculiar note or accord that makes me think of bitter leaves and grass grasping the walls and growing out from cracks on concrete soil. This note, which may likely be carnation, is really sharp, bitter, sour, dark-greenish, slightly salty-metallic, and gives a really vibrant, fascinating and memorable gloomy touch to the scent. Overall as I said Patchouli Bohème smells for a while more tending towards greenish-camphorous-woody territories of tonka, leather, woody balm, musk, with just a “raw shade” of patchouli; which however emerges soon, bringing the fragrance to a more conventional patchouli-centered blend, still with a peculiar and charming feel of chypre-sque nostalgia – pretty much like in Intrigant Patchouli by Parfumerie Générale, that in my opinion plays more or less the same “chords” around patchouli. Not saying they're identical or much similar though, as Bohème is decidedly more tobacco-leathery, and also more balmy-nutty. The drydown is perfectly great as well: utterly refined, dark, with the leather note slowly morphing into an everlasting kind of “roasted” feel (like in Cuir by Mona di Orio, no surprise the nose is the same). Basically the first work by LM Parfums I find decent and interesting – and one of the few good ones by Mona di Orio. Nice!

7-7,5/10