The Index · Perfumer Profile
No School.
A Chair Named
After Patchouli.
Jordi Fernández taught himself, started at a family owned house in Barcelona, and is now a Vice President Perfumer at Givaudan. Somewhere along the way he ran the company's patchouli rescue programme in Sulawesi and picked up a nickname: the Master of Oud.
Perfumer Spotlight
In 2019 Spain's Fundación Academia del Perfume elected Jordi Fernández an Acádemico de Número and gave him a chair. Each chair carries the name of a raw material. His is patchouli, and once you know that, half his catalogue explains itself.
He is Catalan, from Barcelona, and he is self taught. No ISIPCA, no in house school, none of the usual doors. He started at Eurofragance, the family owned Barcelona house, and worked his way into Givaudan in 2010, where he is now a Vice President Perfumer with a palette of roughly eight hundred materials. Sixteen years in, he still splits his time between the Barcelona lab and Dubai.
Dubai is the other half of the story. Years of working in the Gulf gave him an oud, incense and musk vocabulary that very few European perfumers have from the inside, and it is why retailers started calling him the Master of Oud. Look at the list below and count how many of these are oud compositions built by a man from Barcelona.
Patchouli is the beating heart of the perfume, a unique pillar that represents the strength and power of nature.
He is not being romantic about it. After the 2008 patchouli supply crisis he led Givaudan's patchouli sustainability programme in Sulawesi, working with the growers directly. His words on that: in 2008 there was a patchouli supply crisis, and that is when we in perfumery realised how valuable it is. Not many perfumers have gone to the source of their signature material and helped rebuild the supply chain for it.
Watch for three synthetics as well. Georgywood, Akigalawood and Ambrofix turn up again and again in his work, frequently in overdose, and they are what give these fragrances their reach. Here is everything of his we currently have in 2ml.
Why They Call Him That
Five oud compositions for five houses that have almost nothing in common, and not one of them is the standard rose oud template. Maison Crivelli liked his work enough to put his name on the bottle, which almost never happens to a perfumer working for a fragrance house.
Oud Cadenza
$28.99 · 2ml · Maison Crivelli, 2024A palm grove at night, percussion and torchlight. Sold at Harrods as Maison Crivelli x Jordi Fernández, which tells you how the house rates him. Pink pepper, cinnamon bark, cardamom, ginger and saffron open onto davana, oud, candied dates, incense and cocoa butter absolute, with patchouli, leather, cistus, cacao, benzoin, tonka and maté underneath. Thirty two percent extrait and vegan.
Saffron · Candied Dates · Oud · Cocoa Butter · Leather · Maté
Baniyas
$18.99 · 2ml · Widian, 2022Herbal brightness over a narcotic woody base. From Widian's Velvet Collection. Citrus and fruit with artemisia and lavender up top, then oud, geranium and cedar, closing on oud, patchouli, sandalwood and vetiver. The aromatic opening against that base is the whole idea, and it is a more European way into the Emirati idiom than most of the category manages.
Artemisia · Lavender · Oud · Geranium · Patchouli · Vetiver
Oud Whisper
$8.99 · 2ml · Ojar, 2025Chilli and guava thrown at agarwood. Habanero, black pomegranate and guava open genuinely strange and hot, then orange blossom, sandalwood and luban frankincense, landing on leather, oud and tonka. Built for layering as part of Ojar's Oud Collection, and the cheapest bottle on this page by a distance.
Habanero · Black Pomegranate · Guava · Luban · Leather · Oud
Forbidden Words
$6.99 · 2ml · Sasva, 2022Tobacco and lime over oud and dry amber. Originally released as Alfaaz-e-Mamnooah. Lime, pink peppercorn and tobacco open sharp, oud, vanilla and cedar hold the middle, and leather, patchouli and dry amber close it. The brief was the spicy kick of the forbidden against the depth of the endless night, and at $6.99 it is the cheapest way to find out whether his oud work suits you.
Lime · Pink Peppercorn · Tobacco · Oud · Leather · Dry Amber
Outcast Blue Extrait
$14.99 · 2ml · Ex Nihilo, 2022For punks and poets, as the house puts it. Saffron and black pepper open, lily of the valley sits in the middle, and agarwood, tobacco, vetiver, sandalwood and oakmoss run the base. The extrait strips the eau de parfum back rather than piling on, which is the more interesting choice. Green, mossy and dry where most modern ouds go sweet.
Saffron · Black Pepper · Lily of the Valley · Agarwood · Tobacco · OakmossSweet, Boozy, Amber
The counterargument to the oud reputation. Six bottles built on tonka, wine, caramel and almond milk, and the same three amber woods running underneath all of them. This is the part of the catalogue that shows the range.
Tonka Hysteria
$10.99 · 2ml · d'Orsay, 2024Love at first sight, in his own words. Mandarin and pink pepper into olibanum, cinnamon, orris butter, myrrh and benzoin, then Madagascar vanilla, tonka absolute, a caramel accord, cistus, cedar and musk. He specified Orpur grade naturals, Givaudan's top tier, and says he built it as one continuous architecture rather than three separate phases. You can smell that decision.
Orris Butter · Myrrh · Madagascar Vanilla · Tonka Absolute · Caramel · Cistus
Rose Blaze
$10.99 · 2ml · d'Orsay, 2025A burning desire, built from three contrasting pairs. Bergamot, peach and pink pepper over rose absolute and iris butter, closing on sandalwood, tonka and benzoin. His framing: a story of contrasts, between light and shadow, tenderness and desire. The iris butter is what keeps the rose from turning sweet, and it is the better of his two d'Orsay extraits if you want something worn close.
Peach · Pink Pepper · Rose Absolute · Iris Butter · Sandalwood · Benzoin
Drunk Lovers Extrait Extrême
$10.99 · 2ml · BorntostandoutRed wine, brandy and wine lees, aged in clay. The darker side of passion, at fifty five to sixty two percent concentration, aged three months in traditional Korean Onggi pottery. Clary sage, wine lees and red wine open, jasmine sambac, Peru balsam, ginger, brandy and davana build the middle, and Akigalawood, tonka, leather and oud close it. Not subtle and not trying to be.
Red Wine · Wine Lees · Brandy · Davana · Akigalawood · Leather · Oud
Purple Stain
$16.99 · 2ml · Borntostandout, 2025Wine stains spreading across an old leather journal. Saffron, cinnamon bark, nutmeg, ginger and citrus open spiced, orange blossom, caramel, Peru balsam and vanilla thicken the middle, and Akigalawood, oud, patchouli, cypriol, Ambrofix and cistus concrete take it out. The whole Fernández signature in one bottle: spice, gourmand sweetness, oud and a wall of amber woods.
Saffron · Nutmeg · Caramel · Akigalawood · Cypriol · Ambrofix
Ambre Latte
$6.99 · 2ml · Essential Parfums, 2026His own description: a highly addictive overdose of my favourite amber woods wrapped in a delicious swirl of almond milk. Almond milk accord over tonka, dulce de leche and vanillin, then benzoin, Georgywood, Akigalawood, Ambrofix, sandalwood, guaiac and white musk. Eighty two percent natural origin and refillable. The clearest look at how he actually builds a base.
Almond Milk · Dulce de Leche · Georgywood · Akigalawood · Ambrofix
Lucius Maximus
$12.99 · 2ml · Fragrance Du Bois, 2026A woody gourmand pitched at ancient Rome. Pink pepper, bergamot, mandarin and bitter orange open bright, coffee, orange flower, Mahonial, cedar and Georgywood build the heart, and Madagascar vanilla, tonka, cypriol, vetiver and Akigalawood run the base. The house calls it the tension between energy and control. The coffee is the part that earns it.
Bitter Orange · Coffee · Orange Flower · Vanilla · Cypriol · AkigalawoodIncense and a Harrods Rose
The two that fit neither category, and both worth knowing about.
Encens Cuivre
$8.99 · 2ml · Ojar, 2023Frankincense, myrrh and gold. The three gifts, with vanilla standing in for the gold, which the house calls the gold of the perfumers. Elemi and rosewood open, frankincense, myrrh and patchouli hold the centre, and vanilla, ambergris and musk close it. Restrained by his standards and the best value incense on the site.
Elemi · Rosewood · Frankincense · Myrrh · Patchouli · Ambergris
Brompton Immortals Extrait
$14.99 · 2ml · Ex Nihilo, 2023A Harrods tribute built on the Egyptian legend of immortality. Saffron and pink pepper over Bulgarian rose, jasmine absolute and Lisylang, then vanilla, white musk, olibanum and patchouli. Old English tradition with new Oriental thrills, as the house has it. The saffron and rose pairing is conventional; what he does with the olibanum underneath is not.
Saffron · Bulgarian Rose · Jasmine Absolute · Olibanum · PatchouliHow to hear a perfumer
- Start with Ambre Latte at $6.99. It is the plainest statement of his base, almond milk over Georgywood, Akigalawood and Ambrofix, and once you have that in your nose you will find it under half this page.
- Then Oud Cadenza. The most expensive thing here and the one with his name on the bottle. If you only want to understand why Maison Crivelli sought him out specifically, this is the answer.
- Put Forbidden Words against Tonka Hysteria. Six ninety nine of tobacco and oud on one arm, a Madagascar vanilla and orris butter extrait on the other. Same perfumer, two years apart.
- Watch for the patchouli. He holds the patchouli chair at Spain's Academy of Perfume and ran Givaudan's replanting programme in Sulawesi after the 2008 crisis. It is in Purple Stain, Encens Cuivre, Baniyas, Outcast Blue and Oud Cadenza, and it is never there by accident.
- Everything here is a 2ml KSI hand decant, taken from an authentic bottle into an atomizer so you can wear it properly before committing. Samples are final sale. Questions before you order, email info@kaleidoscopescentindex.com.
Thirteen bottles.
One perfumer.
Everything of his we carry, in one place. If you only take three, take Ambre Latte, Oud Cadenza and Tonka Hysteria.
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