My Quorum story is a unique one. I last owned a bottle of Quorum in 2011. I got through 75% of it and tossed it. It wasn't that I didn't like it; I really enjoyed it. The problem was the citrus. I don't know what the 2000s formula of Quorum was comprised of, but it smelled great, except for the citrus note. That older version used a grapefruit note, which I thought was an odd choice, because if I accidentally over-applied it, the sweetness stuck out of the burley tobacco and piney woods like a sore thumb. It smelled awful. And the more the fragrance aged in bottle, the more pronounced that note became, to the point where I didn't even need to over-apply it to have the wearing experience ruined.
For that reason, I hadn't returned to this stuff, until now. To my pleasant surprise, Quorum has been reformulated. And like Halston 1-12, it has been recalibrated with mostly natural materials. The ingredients list on the box cites patchouli as the foundational material, which makes perfect sense when you think about it. Quorum smells like a dark, sweaty man whose presence is redolent of cigar smoke and dried herbal grasses, its accords drifting effortlessly across the room as though it were nothing. The multifaceted nature of the composition could be achieved with a slew of lab chems, but why bother when one good natural will do? Patchouli is so complex and dynamic that overloading the formula with it and making it the first compound material is a no-brainer. Layer on top of it a healthy dose of bergamot oil—bergamot oil—and a kiss of orange oil in lieu of fake grapefruit, and the rest of the scent, which also includes some real jasmine and ylang oils, can manage. Clove, treemoss, and green synthetics help flesh out the drydown and add even more dimension. Quorum now smells even better than it did 15 years ago.
When I say even better, I mean amazingly better. This is Quorum living its best life. Every nuance smells natural and identifiable now. I get the fizzy juice of the citrus, the brawny spiced leather of the patchouli, the tobacco with its funky shadow lingering into the far drydown 7 hours later, along with all manner of subtle evergreen resins and garrigue. The atomizer matches the cap color, which is also different from my first bottle, and a nod to how deep vintage bottles were made. The only catch is sillage: Quorum is no longer a bonafide "powerhouse," and the abundance of naturals has made it a touch more polite than it once was, but as I said, it can still cross a large space and smack someone else in the schnoz, so use responsibly. I'm happy to say I approve, and look forward to keeping bottle #2 until there's nothing left to spray.