The Least “Patou” of the Patou’s

Patou Forever is a fragrance that is almost good. Many parts of it do work individually, but when placed together it just falls apart continually.

The start of the composition is centered around a group of fruity notes. I mainly pick up the raspberry and pineapple, but the melon only shows up later. In this composition, the fruits are sweet in a sort of rotting way. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, when paired correctly. But it is paired with crisp clean florals and a nondescript powdery-musky base.

The overall effect is that of two separate scents. One a very fresh, musky, clean laundry type scent. The other, a juicy, sweet, slightly tart rotted fruit composition. Together they fight one another tooth and nail for dominance, and neither one comes out the victor. It just never seems to settle on the skin, and instead remains chaotic for hours on end. The scent lacks the depth and complexity of other pre-P&G Patou compositions, but absolutely retains the quality of materials. That quality definitely does a lot of heavy lifting.

In short, it’s not the absolute worst fragrance I’ve ever smelt in my life. At times it is actually pretty alright. But it’s not a Patou, which makes the name even more ironic.

I will add, I have the limited edition parfum from 1998 and the EdT. The EdT is the better of the two, it lets the fruity notes shine a bit better.