# Honest question, now: why douse yourself in patchouli oil? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952 "2007-05-13T19:18:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/1 "2007-05-13T19:18:46Z")
The other day Mrs. RickJay and I went to Indigo (a Canadian bookstore chain, like Borders.) As I was walking down the aisle I passed by a couple… well, no, I couldn’t pass by them. I had to pass around them, because the stench of patchouli oil coming off them was so thick and pungent that it was almost visible to the eye. It was no less disgusting than if they had been sprayed by a skunk. They did not appear homeless or poor, or unable to afford soap and water. They were not really old (old people lose their sense of smell and often don’t realize how much perfume they’re wearing.) They looked like an ordinary young couple - maybe a teensy bit on the granola-eating side, but not outrageously. But they smelled amazingly, almost deliberately rank. I can’t imagine you could have been in an enclosed space with them. This isn’t the first time I have smelled people who apparently decided to smell awful by drenching themselves in patchouli oil. It’s a very distinct scent and it smells pretty bad, but if you’re weird and like it, gosh, why immerse yourself in it? So an honest question: Why do so many people - and I’ve smelled a lot of them - deliberately make themselves smell horrible by dousing themselves in patchouli oil? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/2 "2007-05-13T19:30:33Z")
I Was A Teenage Goth. Back in the eighties, Goths of the female persuasion slapped patchouli about their person with reckless abandon. It certainly wasn’t to cover up body odour, perhaps to mask the smell of smoke (hash, maybe)? ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/3 "2007-05-13T19:33:16Z")
I think that Patchouli must smell different to them than it does to those that find it repellent. My husband and I despise each others favorite fragrances. Heck, he got this body wash stuff that for all the world to me smells like rancid cat piss. I mean it is FUNKY. Nasty! Obviously, it doesn’t smell like rancid cat piss to HIM (I hope). Patchouli is a very, very strong scent and it doesn’t fade away very easily. I think if you were to douse yourself in the same amount of something else, it would not smell as strong. I know this is General Questions and I haven’t given you any facts at all. But it does strike me similar to people who like cilantro and people who don’t. I prefer to think of it like they don’t know how offensive it is to some people, rather than thinking they prefer to be so overwhelmingly repulsive that by sheer smell alone, they can offend. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/4 "2007-05-13T20:16:04Z")
Standing 100 feet away or so, where you can only get a faint wiff of the stuff, it doesn’t smell bad at all. It’s when the person has thoroughly bathed themselves in it that it becomes foul smelling. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/5 "2007-05-13T21:15:32Z")
Perhaps they were carrying a bottle of it, & the bottle broke. They may have just tried to bluff their way through the remainder of the shopping trip. ---
**Author:** ![Kneepants\_Erasmus\_the\_Humanist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/54ee81/32.png) [@Kneepants\_Erasmus\_the\_Humanist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kneepants_Erasmus_the_Humanist)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/6 "2007-05-13T22:27:31Z")
Just an opinion, maybe unwanted in GQ…but I love the smell of patchouli. I’ve got a lotion I wear all of the time. Too much of anything, though, is no good. Oh, and I guess I also would be a bit on the “granola-eating side”. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/7 "2007-05-13T23:30:49Z")
**Struan** nailed it. Patchouli was always used back in the day as the primo coverup for the smell of pot and hash. ---
**Author:** ![henrijohns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@henrijohns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/henrijohns)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/8 "2007-05-14T00:47:21Z")
And it was never effective for that, since it would get noticed faster that the actual smoke. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/9 "2007-05-14T01:54:24Z")
Is it that different from the regular/square/norm women and men who really like their perfume/ cologne and have no idea how strong it smells? I think once people start wearing a scent a lot they stop noticing it, and add more until they can smell themselves again and its a vicious cycle (god, some college boys on a Friday night ready to head to the clubs? Smell like 60-year-old women, I swear. Yeah, an “Axe” through my nostrils! You go, swinger!). Then they sit next to you on the plane and your eyes water. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/10 "2007-05-14T01:56:50Z")
[QUOTE=capybara] Then they sit next to you on the plane and your eyes water. [/QUOTE] Consider yourself fortunate, I spend the next 24 or so hours with an intense headache, stuffed up sinuses, unable to think, nauseated and confined to bed. But hey, it’s a free country, they can incapacitate me if they want to. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/11 "2007-05-14T02:57:26Z")
[QUOTE=capybara] Is it that different from the regular/square/norm women and men who really like their perfume/ cologne and have no idea how strong it smells? [/QUOTE] Very much so. I’m as bothered as anyone by people who pour on the Axe and Chanel No. 5, but again, that’s usually either 1. Old people, who just don’t realize what they’re doing, and 2. People who put on a bit too much. The patchouli thing, though… I mean, it was incredible. You really had to be there to appreciate the overpowering nature of it; it was worse, much worse, than any Drakkar Noir offender I’ve ever smelled in the worst bar. And the effect was not to overpower with a perfumey smell, but to give the olfactory impression of filth and rot. Honestly, this was a big bookstore - it’s like a Borders, gotta be 4000 square feet - and the smell occupied half the store. And this isn’t the first time I’ve had this experience. I KNOW why people overdo it with Axe and Drakker Noir and whatnot; usually they’re old coots with no sense of smell, or they’re drunk. But the patchouli oil. Why? I’d rather smell pot. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/12 "2007-05-14T03:47:43Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] \ The patchouli thing, though… I mean, it was incredible. You really had to be there to appreciate the overpowering nature of it; it was worse, much worse, than any Drakkar Noir offender I’ve ever smelled in the worst bar.\ Honestly, this was a big bookstore - it’s like a Borders, gotta be 4000 square feet - and the smell occupied half the store. And this isn’t the first time I’ve had this experience. [/QUOTE] Exclamation is that bad for me, so maybe it’s that you dislike patchouli that much? 😕 I can smell a person wearing Exclamation at the entrance of a large store, and they can be at a far end of it. I get a headache and my nose imitates a faucet from it. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/13 "2007-05-14T04:04:58Z")
Trust me:I lived in Eugene for 2 years. I know overpowering patchoulli. I’d rather have that than the plonk-fumes from Macy’s in the room. ---
**Author:** ![exastris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b38774/32.png) [@exastris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/exastris)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/14 "2007-05-14T06:46:19Z")
I wear patchouli. I can tell you, getting the balance right between wearing enough so that you can still smell it on yourself and not wearing so much as to kill nearby plants is difficult. My nose gets accustomed to it very quickly (I mean within minutes of putting it on), then I get random whiffs of it throughout the day. It’s very easy to see how someone can continue to put more on, thinking that it has worn off, rather than realizing their nose has become saturated. IMO, that is the issue. FWIW, I try to remember this and only put a dab on. Just once in the morning, no more. I promise. It wasn’t me. Really. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/15 "2007-05-14T06:52:52Z")
To be rebellious? The stuff is pretty synonymous with the idea of “hippies”, and some people find that notion romantic. ---
**Author:** ![Aangelica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2007, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/16 "2007-05-15T02:55:59Z")
Patchouli is weird. For starters, it is the single most fabric-persistent fragrance I’ve ever run across. I’ve actually washed garments that had patchouli on them - as in sent them through a full wash cycle with detergent, bleach, dryer sheets and all - that still had the scent on them when they came out of the dryer. I had a roommate in college who favored patchouli (over my objections - mostly because I’m allergic to most perfumes and aromas), and when we broke household at graduation, I eventually had to throw away the soft furniature. The smell _would not_ come out. Also, as **exastris** mentioned, it’s an aroma that “fades out” of your notice quite quickly if you’re wearing it (and like the aroma). Like the phenomena you get with a person who wears the same perfume all the time - it takes more and more quantity for them to realize the same sensory feedback, so after a while they’re marinating in it and \*to themselves \* still smell like it’s barely there. Patchouli (at least in my experience of people who prefer it) is on a vastly more accelerated desensitization for people who wear it. So my hypothesis is that your couple in the bookstore were habitual wearers who had it sunk into their clothing, and probably _thought_ they had only a light scenting of it on them. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2007, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/17 "2007-05-15T03:26:22Z")
[QUOTE=Aangelica] Patchouli is weird. [/QUOTE] Agreed. I came here to make a joke about HAI KARATE only to discover it has it’s own [Wiki page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hai_Karate). Other than that, I got nothin’. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/18 "2007-05-16T20:39:56Z")
[QUOTE=Zabali\_Clawbane] Exclamation is that bad for me, so maybe it’s that you dislike patchouli that much? [/QUOTE] I’d guess that might be true - and it’s certainly the case that some people pick up some smells more than others - except that there were dozens of people in the store and anyone who came within ten yards of these people were visibly disgusted and had to walk away. It wasn’t just me. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/19 "2007-05-16T21:03:20Z")
The thing is, in my experience sweat makes patchouli quite volatile. Perhaps the people in the bookstore were hot or distressed in some way? Was it a sexy aisle you were perusing? 😉 I wear it but I don’t douse myself in it. I wear it because, among other things, even after a day in the pastures and I’m fonky as hell, she’ll bury her face in my neck and snort me like a line of freaking cocaine. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952/20 "2007-05-16T21:35:27Z")
Could the bookstore have been selling patchouli oils, candles or incense? :dubious: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honest-question-now-why-douse-yourself-in-patchouli-oil/403952.md?page=2)