Kattugla

I had a sample of Iris de Nuit in EN's fresh Heeley package today - and without knowing Goldie's comment, I came up with exactly the same associations. Girls scent, room spray, one-dimensional.
After half an hour to an hour I would at best still assume a certain Lolita charm, because the ambergris makes the whole thing very sensual and almost a bit lascivious - but otherwise the fragrance is also too simple for me.
What I like about the Heeley fragrances is basically the clear statement, but here it does not reach me, although I understand the concern

It slowly turns out that I obviously have a weakness for Heeley fragrances: I like the clear announcement, the variations on the main theme, where there is always something unexpected playing along... there is simply no fuss about it. And the rest is skillful.
Vetiver Veritas enters the arena like a lumberjack: he is clearly standing in the log cabin door, shining all over his face, bringing half a forest with him and rumbling a loud "MOIN! And then he sits down at your table and begins to tell you quiet stories, you talk about delicious recipes, listen to Joni Mitchell's "Mingus" together...

I like that clear vetiver scent. I searched for a long time for a for me portable variant of the topic and found it here. For me not as old-fashioned as Guerlain's classics, but rounder, clearer, more communicative. Vetiver is very prominent here, but gets a polish by a colouring that is quite surprising for me: lavender leaves. Not the usual fragrance square from the sleeping aids, but the fine, balsamic sweetness of grated lavender leaves - that's great! I hardly notice the mint, nor the grapefruit of the base, but the scent sounds like warm, charred wood to me - not smoky, but deep and dark. And this even after a long working day after 9 hours.

I found my second direct hit here, the bottle comes right next to the "Cardinal" on the shelf

I love the green classic from Guerlain hot and intimate - not necessarily about me, more so in general. Vetiver I just like.
So I was full of hope to have found something in the scent of Josier that I would rather walk around in the wild myself. Thanks to Greeni07 and a bottling I could now test it extensively.

On my skin the scent starts with green grapefruit. Not so much with the fruit itself, but rather with what rises into my nose when I rub the skin - a fine, clear freshness that is not too intrusive and does not slip into the acidity on the skin, that promises more. I look forward to herbaceous, woody things.
Cedar and pepper take my beloved Vetiver by the hand, enter the arena with a fanfare and could be...
...they don't.

Just when the fragrance could become really green, clear and strong in character, something very kitschy comes to the fore - I suspect violets. My grandmother had on her toilet table in the bedroom (exactly, this mirror triptych from the 50s, Gelsenkirchen baroque) violet fragrance oil, right next to the bottle 4711, that occurred to me spontaneously.

I can't get that association out of the bouquet either. Whenever the fragrance is about to get the hang of what the pyramid in the base promises, the perfume goblin pants up again, retrieves the kitschy bouquet of violets for the dozenth time, shines at me and expects to finally be praised for it. Nope.

The attempt was nice, Mr. Josier, but you couldn't convince me. ;-)

Some years ago I had to do with jewellery and gemstones for a long time, also there I was always interested in the special, not everyday ones, if there is such a thing, just the "niche jewels". ;-)
One of the stones I liked most at that time (and still today) was the iolite: a deep dark blue little miracle, which gets its uniqueness from the fact that - if you turn the cut stone 90° against the light refraction axis - it suddenly looks water clear, grey and transparent. All blue gone. Viewed from another angle: everything blue again.
PR's Patchouly reminded me of this stone almost immediately. Not so much because of the color (the scent is for me rather a warm orange to copper color), but because of the "iridescence" of the components.

I (avowed Patchouli fan) was warned because of my mixed experience with Etro's variation of the theme and also here the first seconds after spraying on were full of biting earthiness, which has nothing, but also nothing of the esoteric scent in my memory.
But it doesn't stay that way, because the earth quickly envelops itself with warmth and sweetness - I even suspected Bourbon vanilla when I first sniffed it - and it stays that way.

Until the olfactory nerves (that's supposed to happen over the course of a day, in real life) have to deal with something else in between. For example with the pizza on the table, with the fabric softener in the other person's sweater, with the porcini mushroom just found in the forest...
...washed! - and already "Patchouly" blinks and changes shape. Sometimes the ambry sweetness becomes dominant, then the eponym pushes himself back into the foreground, even flowery notes I think I have already noticed (more precisely: iris) - it is simply to be mistaken. Whenever I think I've finally caught the scent, it's different again. Exciting!
I don't perceive a linear scent, but a gemstone shimmering, which after eight to nine hours, although in the direction of sweet-warm, but is still present.

I thank Greeni07 very much for the bottling, it was really worth it. :-)

While reading the comments, I am sometimes astonished to see where the people gathered here have ended up in the world. I have never been further south than in Ulm in my (but already a little longer) life, so I have to pass with flowery and colourful Mediterranean associations.
Nevertheless, Vicolo Fiori finds a key in me, just disregards my aversion to flowery-fruity girls' stuff, rushes up mandariny-delicately and then sits down very carefully, quietly but consistently, to spread out a green and apricot-coloured, cool waterfall of silk embroidered with blossoms.
This is one of the few fragrances I'd like to wrap myself in. All around.

I hadn't expected that at all.

I got the little sample packed - together with three other Etros - when I bought "Patchouly". And the first one for quite a while - because it was not what I wanted - punished with disrespect.
That's the way it is with the expectations, she sometimes blinds herself to the treasures off the beaten track.

I still haven't figured out exactly what it is that makes Vicolo Fiori so irresistible to me. At first, the fragrance starts very loudly with mandarin, but it is only there to outwit me, because otherwise the delicate and idiosyncratic leading actress would hardly have a chance with me. The mandarin becomes quiet very quickly and makes room for Madame with a curtsey. I like her melon, I sniff her out too, peach (there probably comes the delicate apricot association of the fragrance) as well, the selection of flowers shouldn't be a bit sweeter or rosier, it's just right.
After a while, the fragrance becomes a little "square" (I don't know how else to describe it, maybe some people understand me, lavender is the epitome of the olfactory square for me, for example) - but that fits quite well, because otherwise the silky impression would simply flutter away without counterpoint.
The Sillage remains quite body-hugging, but that fits, because the fragrance invites. It still does - warmer and less bloody - after 6 hours.

Conclusion: Vicolo Fiori would have been - purely after the pyramid - neither bought nor specifically bottled. I'd have missed a little treasure.