Top 10 Vetiver Perfumes
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Vetiver essential oil is known at “The Oil of Tranquility.” It has a grounding, earthy, rooty scent that refuses to be ignored. The scent is noted for enhancing concentration among those who work primarily in the mind instead of with the body.
The standard bearers, Guerlain and Givenchy, gave the working man an austere vetiver scent to maintain the sense of composure needed to compete in modern business. Wildly successful in the 1960’s and 1970’s, vetiver fell out of favor in the commercial perfume trade for decades, to be reentered into the collective memory with the intense entry of Lalique’s Encre Noire in 2006. This is not the scent for a working person putting cologne on out of habit. It grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you with damp, earthy, smoky balanced against the brighter green, spice, and citrus of vetiver’s lighter side, all before laying you down in a gentle bed of musk and transparent woods. This is the dark side of vetiver.
On the light side, Creed’s Original Vetiver can almost, almost make you forget that you wanted to smell vetiver in your bright, happy cologne. It succeeds by actually pulling the vetiver note through with a deft blend.
There are enough scents that are moving in intriguing directions (Sel de Vetiver) but still have some kinks to work out that we expect another round of refinement and experimentation to bubble up from the indie houses.
David Monniaux CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Encre Noire, or ‘black ink,’ released in 2006, has a gothic reputation that is surprising for such an austere composition. The cypress opening provides a unique terpenic/resinous wood note. The blend of the cleaner, brighter, spicy and freshly bitter citrus of the Haitian vetiver with the rooty, woody, smoky balsamic vetiver Bourbon creates the tension that drives this winner. This vetiver blend is intense, but much smoother and less smoky than could be achieved with vetiver from Java and any number of smoke materials. Underneath, the Iso E Super and a blend of modern musks, likely Cashmeran from the name, create a dry, soft, and not sweet skin scent that blends delightfully with the finishing notes of the vetiver. Flankers like the Encre Noire Sport retain the same strong vetiver presence while brightening up the opening with more citrus.
Top Notes: Cypress wood
Heart Notes: Haitian vetiver, Vetiver bourbon
Base notes: Musk, Cashmere wood
If you walked into the vetiver store and ran smack into Encre Noire only to recoil in horror, turn around 180 degrees and Original Vetiver would be all the way at the other end of the store. This is dry, elegant, floral citrus with an accent of green ginger. Haitian vetiver, our favorite of the essential oils, is also our preferred source of vetiverol and vetiveryl acetate. Vetiverol ex vetiver Haiti has a smooth balsamic scent with notes of sandalwood and a floral, powdery aspect. Vetiveryl acetate is the acetalized vetiverol (sometimes the whole essential oil) resulting in a sweeter, sharper, stronger note than the vetiverol, also with a sweet, powdery, sandalwood character along with the clear vetiver characteristic scent. Vetiveryl acetate is said to have been used at a high level in the original Guerlain Vetiver formulation. The powder is accentuated with the orris in the heart and further with musks in the base, accented by the Creed ambergris accord. So, now you find out that this isn’t really a vetiver scent per se, but a fresh cologne with a Creed base and some vetiver flourishes. If that bothers you, turn around again and head back to the Encre Noire side of the store, but don’t go all the way down the aisle.
Top Notes: Ginger, Mandarin, Italian bergamot
Heart Notes: Haitian vetiver, Mysore sandalwood, Florentine iris
Base Notes: Musk, Ambergris
Jean-Claude Ellena in 2004 at the top of his game, moving towards a spare style, but still with the volume seen here. As with most of his perfumes, and particularly with the intentional meeting of the Hermèssence, there is a trick of combining two or three notes in a way that is transformative. Here, that combination is vetiver and tonka bean. This is sweet, but dry, not cloying. The vetiver remains earthy, but not roughly dirty. The woody, grassy, nutty aspects are highlighted. The tobacco keeps this from going all the way into gourmand. Definitely not a blind buy, but a sample may surprise you.
Notes: Caramel, Praline, Blonde tobacco notes, Tonka bean, Vetiver
Launched almost 60 years ago in 1961, this scent by perfumer Jean Paul Guerlain had big shoes to fill. It was the house’s first masculine branded scent since Mouchoir de Monsieur in 1902. Spiced, yes, not too much, although well balanced throughout the composition. Citrus, a nice blast that supports the neroli into the early heart where the green grassy, woody vetiver emerges and blends with a dry cedar. A classy dry-down that adds some complexity with tobacco and nutmeg to one of the most pleasing portions of the vetiver scent curve. This is not a far cry from the design of Creed’s Original Vetiver, and clearly Jean Claude Ellena makes reference to this composition in Vétiver Tonka. This is affordable, classic, and probably one of the first vetiver scents you should add to your wardrobe.
Top Notes: Bergamot, Lemon, Mandarin, Neroli, Coriander
Heart Notes: Vetiver, Cedar
Base Notes: Tobacco, Nutmeg, Pepper, Tonka bean, Capiscum
This 2007 scent by perfumer Celine Ellena expertly expanded the palate of the growing vetiver field. The cardamom and grapefruit at the opening is a nice touch. This a departure, but true to classic vetiver-focused scents since Guerlain. The geranium and ylang ylang do not take over, but provide a white/green fruity cushion for vetiver’s woody, rooty notes. What makes this special and why it merits a sample longevity aside, is the clean marine vibe, listed as sea salt.
Top Notes: Cardamom, Bergamot, Grapefruit
Heart Notes: Vetiver, Geranium, Ylang ylang
Base Notes: Sea salt, Haïtian vetiver, Iris
Chanel performs magic with aldehydes and literally every other synthetic combined with some high quality naturals. Aldehyde C-12 MNA, among others, would seem to fit the bill well as Arctander notes that is excellent at forming a tobacco base with vetiver. Reviewers have noted a burning tobacco quality to the opening. This is vetiver from the start, smoky, resin from the cypress, and terpenic wood and bright pepper. Of course, the Iso E Super for transparent dry wood. This all fades into a classic Chanel powdery finish, but still dry and not sweet. Reviewers note that the EDP version (with EDT being phased out) is sweeter in the base.
Notes: Vetiver, Cypress, Juniper, Pink pepper, Smoke, Burning woods
Initially released in 1959, this had been discontinued for many years, but was reintroduced in 2007 as part of a broader branding campaign for Givenchy. This is a spare composition in terms of the listed notes. Coriander leaf, or cilantro, is extremely high in aldehydes, which range from the mushroom, waxy fatty of 2-Decenal (E) to the fresh citrus (Aldehyde C-10) to the sharp, metallic, mandarin 2-Dodecanal. This does get compared to Sycomore as a member of the “refined classic” vetiver scents. The lack of tobacco and other spices also gives the vetiver room to breath as it settles into the drydown with sandalwood. This, along with the Guerlain, is so a good value that it makes sense to build out from here if you are seriously into vetiver.
Notes: Bergamot, Coriander leaf, Vetiver, Sandalwood
8) Dolce & Gabana Velvet Vetiver
What a lovely surprise. This spare composition works on every level. The composition is simple: load a solid slug of vetiver that comes through at all phases, soften with the creamy fig near the opening, and then pull this hard to the green for a long drydown. Reviewers compare this favorably to Hermès Vetiver Tonka. If you can’t handle the fig, but need the green, perhaps try the C&S Vetiver Vert.
Notes: Vetiver, Galbanum, Fig
This 2011 release is not winning over the review crowd, but is still in production almost a decade later. No one would complain about the mandarin/bergamot opening, although they do. The laurel comes through, but perhaps the galbanum (the smell of green) could have been used more heavily. The vetiver is a cleaned up woody version that goes along with a dryer sandalwood interpretation. Sometimes we have to celebrate a perfume for the idea, the aromatic vetiver cologne, and hope the execution catches up.
Top Notes: Mandarin, Bergamot
Heart Notes: Laurel, Galbanum
Base Notes: Haitian Vetiver, Sandalwood
Another vetiver for the house from Jean-Claude Ellena almost a decade after Vetiver Tonka in 2004. This is a flanker to the original Bel Ami (1986). It retains much of the structure, adding a muted vetiver to the drydown. This won’t be much fun to a Bel Ami fan looking for something new or a vetiver-head seeking purity. However, it is an excellent rendition of leather over vetiver in a well-blended cologne.
Top Notes: Citrus notes, Cardamom, Elemi, Basil, Carnation
Heart Notes: Iris, Patchouli, Russian leather
Base Notes: Vetiver, Amber, Civet, Styrax, Vanilla
