Adventures in Layering: Chocolate and Patchouli

for whatever reason, my bottle of Bisquit says "biscuit." Also, the bottle design is quite
different from any other Arte Profumi bottle. I don't know if it's an old design or a new one,
but I can only find one image online that shows a similar bottle for this fragrance. 

Though it's definitely Spring, we're still getting the occasional chilly day. For my early morning walk earlier this week it was a balmy 41F. To be very honest, I don't mind chilly mornings at all--in fact, I prefer them. And because it was going to be cool-ish all day, I wanted to wear a fragrance that was on the cozy side. But I also wanted to wear something with a good bit of patchouli in it. So I layered two of my favorites: Arte Profumi Bisquit, which smells like hot fudge, and Obvious Un Patchouli, a warm balsamic patch that is neither hippie-like nor green. They meshed beautifully, as if they were one gorgeous scent with a rich chocolate-y patchouli vibe. I kept sniffing myself all day and was happy to find it still lingering on my jacket a few days later.

Arte Profumi Bisquit

Chocolate, Cacao, Vanilla, Coffee, Bitter Orange

I've tried lots of chocolate perfumes and few have caught my fancy; so many smell like a sad plastic simulacrum of the real thing. I tried Montale Chocolate Greedy, and while that is a somewhat realistic chocolate scent, I find the drydown to be nauseating and bread-like. (Considering bread is one of my favorite foods, I'm not sure why.) Though the notes are similar to those of the Montale scent, Bisquit is much better to my nose. It smells like an Oreo that has had most of the cream scraped away, opening with a dry cocoa with a hint of bitterness and smoke in the background. It then becomes sweeter, almost like milk chocolate, but not quite lactonic. I don't smell the orange, but there's an earthiness that might be patchouli. It's quite delicious and the best chocolate scent I've found so far.

Obvious Un Patchouli

Tonka Bean, Indonesian Patchouli Leaf, Australian Sandalwood, Virginia Cedar, Cade oil, Tolu Balsam

This is a lovely middle-of-the-road patchouli fragrance. To my mind, there are multiple kinds of patch scents. Some are the earthy, "dirty hippy," sort of scent that is reviled by my husband for the bad memories they stir up of times spent with a group of people who seemed to think patchouli and pot were good substitutes for a nice shower. Others are squeaky clean and soapy, more green than earthy, like the patch notes in Gris Dior and Britney Spears Believe. The patchouli in Obvious Un Patchouli is somewhere in the middle, green but not soapy, earthy but not dirty, and surrounded by woody and resinous notes. The tonka adds a bit of sweetness and the cade a little smoke and it all adds up to create a patchouli that might be the best version of itself. 

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.