For what it's worth, the patchouli EO that I have and that I made my dear friend's soap for her sister with is high quality Aged, Dark Patchouli EO from Liberty Naturals. My friend's sister absolutely
loved it, but to me, my hubby and son, it smelled like mold/mould, regardless. It could be that the scent receptors in your nose are similar ours- i.e., just not compatible with some naturally present component in patchouli that presents itself as smelling of mold/mould to our noses.
This^^^
When we were researching new markets we looked into jasmine, patchouli etc and the components that make them smell ' amazing' not everyone has. Jasmine can either smell floral and musky or like pee or vomit - it just depends on how your nose perceives it.
I find it's the same kind of thing with jasmine eo.....to me, it smells like a beautiful flower, but for others, it smells like cat pee. That's because of the naturally present indole in jasmine. Cat pee is also high in indole, and there are some folks whose scent receptors in their noses are so highly sensitive to indole that all they can smell is cat pee when taking a sniff of jasmine.
IrishLass