Patchouli, Dark is our fancy way of saying “Pure Dark Patchouli Oil” It’s intuitive that the title would bring up the question, “Is there light patchouli oil?” There is, but it differs dramatically from dark patchouli oil. Light patchouli oil, being lighter in color is created when patchouli oil is distilled and kept in chemically neutral vessels such as stainless steel, ceramic, glass, etc. This keeps the oil from any change. It tends to be aggressive, hot, sometimes animal-like, and with notes akin to black and or white pepper. We’re not saying it’s bad. It’s simply a preference. Dark patchouli oil is created when the oil is stored in cast iron. The essential oil reacts with the iron, darkening the color, smoothing out the more aggressive, hotter notes, leaving the sweeter, earthier scent that we more often expect from patchouli. Is it better than light patchouli? That’s purely based on opinion, so we can’t say. There are times we prefer one or the other or even a combination of the two. One of our favorite uses for dark patchouli is to put a few drops directly onto an incense stick. This will give off a powerful note of patchouli to accompany the base stick. The only key is to not get any on the very tip that flame is applied to.