The base accord in Morocco – a neo-retro spice souk-lite cologne with a pleasing roundedness – is all woody powdered musk warmth of the old school style : D met me in it on Saturday night and it was lovely – this suits him down to the ground.
The beginning, though, is none other than vintage Opium – this could easily work as a dupe – just less floral and sultry, dried spices rather than wet crocuses ; less balsamic – no vanilla.
Fascinating that D should be wearing a scent that reminds us both of one of his mother’s absolute classics – one that he grew up smelling as a child. Daphne has moved on from Opium and Coco now: she has gone more down the sleeker, more contemporary rose/oudh route ( though she still sometimes wears Magie Noire layered with her beloved Patchouli Santa Maria Novella ). Both of them smell great in earthy aromatics ; the Mediterranean family DNA.
The Black Narcissus 
A friend gave me on old bottle of Santa Maria Novella Patchouli the other day, the flacon with a burnished gold label. (Said he bought it at SMN in Florence!) It is thick, oily like resin, and smells absolutely amazing! I am immensely pleased!
It is incredible. ‘Difficult’ at first – then starts revealing itself.
How great to be just given a bottle like that. Treasure it !
The SMN is incredible. Opium on the right person is like nothing else. I envy those it works for. Fortunately for my dear young Opium-lusting friend Nadia, I found a perfectly intact vintage bottle, and she rocks it. Funny, too, because she’s a fair-skinned redhead. But fiery, in some ways, fiery intellectually, so maybe that’s why she can pull it off.
Always good to read you, Neil.