Réminiscence
Réminiscence
345 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The patchouli-cedarwood collision is immediate and ungentle, a green-brown assault that smells freshly harvested, almost agricultural in its refusal to be refined. It's peppery and dense, with cedarwood adding a dry, almost pencil-like edge that prevents the patchouli from becoming murky.
Sandalwood and vetiver gradually anchor the composition into something more wearable, introducing a creeping softness that feels almost architectural in its precision. The spice accord becomes more apparent here—a gentle peppery warmth that complements rather than dominates—whilst the patchouli settles into the background with newfound elegance.
Tonka bean's creamy vanilla sweetness emerges alongside white musk's skin-like warmth, creating an almost powdery finish that's profoundly intimate. The patchouli transforms into a subtle, resinous whisper, having shed its initial green harshness to become something closer to dried earth and dark tobacco leaf.
Réminiscence's Patchouli is an uncompromising declaration: this is a fragrance that refuses to soften itself for mass appeal. Launched in 1970, it arrives as a study in earthy obstinacy, where patchouli dominates with the assertiveness of damp soil after rain, immediately joined by cedarwood's pencil-shaving crispness. There's no sweetening the proposition here—the opening reads as almost austere, a deliberate rejection of the floral-fruity conventions that dominated perfumery at the time.
What emerges as it settles is a meditation on woody-spicy restraint. Sandalwood arrives not as creamy indulgence but as a structural pillar, lending soft outline to vetiver's green, slightly bitter character. The vetiver-patchouli conversation creates a subtle friction—earthy against herbal-green, creating something that feels genuinely botanical rather than perfume-like. That 76% spicy accord manifests not as cinnamon or clove heat, but rather as the slight peppery dryness that sits within quality vetiver and cedarwood.
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Filippo Sorcinelli
4.0/5 (208)