Patchouli is the most rehabilitated note in perfumery. The head-shop association is decades out of date: modern patchouli is cleaned up, fractionated and used as a dark, earthy-chocolatey anchor in some of the most elegant scents on the shelf. It brings depth, a damp-earth coolness, and enormous staying power; a patchouli base is usually still there the next morning. Coco Mademoiselle built the template, bright citrus-rose over polished patchouli, Angel weaponized it under candy, and Acqua di Giò Profumo uses it to give sea air a shadow. If you think you hate patchouli, you probably hate 1970s patchouli; try Coco Mademoiselle on skin before you write off one of perfumery's best bass lines.