Patchouli has had many eras. It’s been a marker of luxury circa the 19th century, a fixture of the hippie era, and, if you’d asked me before Choulie launched, a note best left in the past. But my sentiment, which is frankly shared by many, is exactly what inspired founder Alison Cayne to craft a line of fragranced body oils centered around the complexity of this often-disliked note. “I've always felt it deserved a better reputation,” she tells me. “It's been fashionable, unfashionable, dismissed, and rediscovered. It brings out the best in everything around it, often without getting much of the credit.”

With the launch of Choulie—the current collection is comprised of five distinct body oils — the founder seeks to bring about a patchouli renaissance. The brand uses the highest quality patchouli oil—not the synthetic, cheap oil that gave the note its less-than-stellar reputation—and treats it like a base note, not the star.…