Profumum Patchouly Perfume Review

Profumum Roma Patchouly Eau de Parfum is for those who love a darker, earthier patchouli with cocoa powder that softens and sweetens as the amber and sandalwood strengthen over time. The drydown was mostly patchouli-amber with darker, more resinous sweetness and a touch of spice. The notes are:

• top notes: patchouli
• heart notes: amber
• base notes: sandalwood

It opened with spiced amber and patchouli where the patchouli came to the forefront and left it lightly spiced, earthy, and chocolaty–a dark, slightly bitter chocolate. Patchouly shifted from being more or less camphorous over the next hour, but it was always more reminiscent of unsweetened cocoa. It lost some of its camphorous quality after an hour as the amber strengthened by a few degrees, but the dark patchouli remained the star.

Sandalwood crept in after three hours of wear, just barely in my range of detection, so the composition continued to be earthy cocoa with amber and sandalwood filling in the background. There was little progression until the drydown, where the amber intensified against the patchouli, warming it and adding a little spice and sweeter undertones but retained a fair amount of earthiness even as the hours wore on.

Application

For testing, I used half of a 1ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise. 

Longevity

It lasted for five hours until it was a skin-scent and about eight hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate with the sillage dropping faster than the projection within the first hour of wear.

Personal Thoughts

Soliflores, like Patchouly, are excellent for perfume education on how certain notes play out, and this was one I was eager to try. Compared to something like Jovoy Psychedelique, I found this to have a stronger cocoa factor that toned down the loamier qualities of the darker patchouli note. If Profumum Roma wasn’t incredibly expensive, this would definitely be high on my list of patchouli scents to buy, but I’d like to test more from their catalog before committing!

Available Sizes

• 100ml for $275
• 18ml for $93 (harder to find size in the US)
• 0.7ml sample for $6

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent
• Jovoy Paris