Review of Les Absolus d'Orient Patchouli by Aljosa Antolin

Found this one at the airport. Usually, duty-free is just a place to buy a giant Toblerone and regret your life choices, but this was love at first sniff. If you like your scents woody, dark, and a bit moody, this is right in your alley. It completely skips the "damp basement" patchouli smell and goes straight for something dry, structural, and impossibly polished. The Turkish Rose shows up early, but she is wearing leather boots and has a temper. It bridges the gap between the spicy pepper and the deep woods so perfectly that you can not tell where the garden ends and the shadowy library begins. It is sophisticated, high-stakes, and slightly intimidating. It smells so much like "old money and private jets" that the gate agents gave me a free upgrade to business class just to be safe. (I wish that would happen, though).