Patchouli Oil Crisis

First came the new Volkswagen Beetle with its $15,000 price tag. Now another cornerstone of ‘60s chic is draining wallets.

Costs are soaring for patchouli oil, the pungent, earthy scent that drifted onto the scene during the hippie heyday of the Grateful Dead, love beads and reefer madness.

Today, patchouli still lingers as a popular bohemian fragrance, and traces are found in everything from Giorgio perfume to sensual massage oils to Gillette Foamy shaving cream.

Fragrance suppliers and retailers blame the price surge on the recent turmoil in Indonesia, which produces most of the world’s patchouli supply. Stinging drought, wildfires and economic strife have stunted production, and buyers have scrambled to snap up reserves.

“It’s skyrocketed. It’s astronomically up from what it was just four months ago,� said George Derby, who has been selling oils and potions for 37 years at his “occult supply shop� in Hollywood, Panpipes Magickal Marketplace. “There’s only one guy, in Jordan, who I know can get the really good patchouli--the high-grade patchouli, the stuff that the old-time hippies are into.�

Six months ago, Derby sold one-eighth-ounce vials of the oil for $3.75 apiece. Now, they go for $9.99. Supplies are so tight that Derby hides his cache of patchouli in a drawer, reserving it for “the regulars.�

The oil is extracted from fermented leaves of the patchouli plant, which grows mostly on the Indonesian islands and also is found in China, India and throughout Asia. American companies imported 730,000 pounds of the oil in 1997, with more than 75% coming from Indonesia, Department of Agriculture figures show.

Patchouli prices started to climb two years ago when farmers pared back production to boost market prices, said Paul Austin of Mount Olive, N.J.-based Quest International, a fine-fragrance manufacturer that created Tommy Girl, Joop! Night Flight and Liz Claiborne’s Liz Sport.

When drought gripped the country last year, patchouli production shriveled even more and continued to drop when brush fires swept across parched prairie and forest lands. Topping it all was the recent crash of the Asian markets and the political rebellion that toppled Indonesian President Suharto.

Two years ago, the price for patchouli oil was $25 a kilogram. In recent months, it’s been as high as $150, Austin said. A 55-gallon drum of the oil costs about $30,000, he said.

Still, most of the patchouli-scented items in most bathroom medicine cabinets haven’t been affected by this unique oil crisis.

Gillette Co. uses patchouli in many of its men’s toiletries, but it hasn’t been forced to increase prices, said spokeswoman Leslie Card in Boston.

“We’ve not experienced any problems at this time, but we are obviously very aware of the cost increase,� Card said.

Fragrance wholesalers are feeling the pinch, however. The price hike also is squeezing aromatherapy boutiques, which use patchouli and other natural oils in the perfumes, lotions and incense sold as therapeutic elixirs for improving the body, mind and spirit.

Julie Wiederhold, owner of Healthy Skin Care in Sherman Oaks, sells pure patchouli oil as a simple perfume and uses liberal doses in her Love Potion No. 4, swearing the musky aroma works as a steely aphrodisiac that “keeps you in the mood for 72 hours.�

“I’ve seen the price triple over the past three months, but people still are coming in to buy it,� Wiederhold said. “A lot of the old hippies like it, and it’s real popular with the Deadheads.�

Not that disciples of the late Jerry Garcia are the only ones who know a good thing when they smell it.

Among those hawking patchouli’s carnal allure is Ralph Lauren Fragrances. In publicity for Romance, its new patchouli-laced women’s perfume due out this fall, Ralph Lauren boasts that the oil is said to “clear and balance the mind, sharpen the wits and heighten sensual experience.�

“People either love it or hate it. There’s no in-between,� said Josje Gradney, owner of ScentsAbilities, an aromatherapy shop in Studio City. “I’ve had times when I’ve been out of patchouli and people have gone into withdrawal.�

Belmay West in Van Nuys, which supplies fine fragrances for use in some of the best-known perfumes as well as popular shampoos and other everyday personal products, says it’s wary about switching from patchouli to similar, less expensive oils.

Doing so might alter a product’s aroma, and in the fragrance business, consistency is critical, said Neal Harris, Belmay’s chief operating officer.

“Consumers end up paying the price,� Harris said. “I guess it kind of illustrates how the economy in one small area of the world can affect even the smallest product somewhere.�

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Times librarian Ron Weaver contributed to this story.