Patchouli

What it is

Leaves from a member of the mint family, dried and fermented before distillation. The version used today is usually fractioned, with the mustiest molecules stripped out, so it no longer smells the way the raw oil did in the 1970s.

What it smells like

Earthy and dark with a sweetness that grows as it dries. The cleaned up fraction is in a large share of modern fruity and chypre blends, so many people who say they dislike patchouli are wearing it, and what they dislike is the unfractioned oil of a particular decade.

Where it sits

Which layer of the pyramid it is listed in, across every fragrance here that carries it. A base note is one you smell for hours; a top note is usually gone within the first.

What it turns up with

How much more often than the catalogue average. 1.0x would be chance, so these are the things that genuinely travel with it rather than the things that are simply common.

When it is worn

Against the average fragrance here. The line marks that average, so a bar past it means this is worn in that season or setting more than most.

Houses that use it most

Counted across the fragrances here, which reflects what we cover as much as what a house makes.

Gucci (27), Lancome (22), Armaf (21), Rasasi (21), Nishane (20), Yves Saint Laurent (20).