Pure Vetiver (2000)
by Azzaro

Ahh, this fragrance leaves at its back  the caftsmanship and the quality in the materials of the great Azzaro Pour Homme in order to embrace the "new synthetism" of Chrome and the other new kinds of detergent creations of the brand in its recent era (as Decibel for instance). This is a synthetic vetiver that starts angular, peppery and harsh (just in the course of the first minutes)  becoming soon fruity-watery with its splashing alcoholic and pungent  blast of grapefruit, airy ginger and citrus-lavender than finally sprouts up in a sort of chemical-ozonic and gummy feel that is at once fruity, detergent and green. With time the fragrance becomes powdery and woody without any trace of natural rooty vetiver but with a kind of dusty white-green chord of synthetic vetiver, musk, sandalwood and amber. In this more than averagely sweet and almost powdery stage the smell is too artificial and boring. Powerful projection and medium lasting power.

15th December, 2011. (Last Edited: 21st December, 2011.)

Pure Vetiver begins with a citrus accord – a grapefruit note combined with a strong ginger note. The citric character doesn’t last long but the ginger does – in fact it’s a pungent ginger note that lasts way too long IMO. In the middle accord there is a strong green coming through and in the background of the green is an aquatic note that and also lasts considerably too long because I don’t find its cheap synthetic nature to be enjoyable. For the base I don’t really get a lot of vetiver. Most of the time I get a powdery green which I assume is a mate note. On rare occasions, I get a slight rhubarb tinge to the green base. To me, ginger, powder, and synthetic aquatic notes don’t add up to very good vetiver fragrance; especially when there’s such a poor delivery of vetiver. Pure Vetiver doesn’t live up to its name.

1st November, 2010.

I am with perfaddict on this one. The name is somewhat misleading, much like Pure Cedrat. Pure Vetiver is more of a newer-age vetiver in that it is more of a hint of vetiver plus spices. Either way, this is a great fragrance if you want to smell good without reaching out to anyone around you. It is light but long lasting though very close to the skin. Not bad.

16th September, 2010.

A very nice one from Azzaro. The only problem i see is the name. It is not a pure vetiver in the Guerlain, Givenchy, Malle, MPG, etc sense. The Clarins/Azzaro marketing suits must have had a tongue-in-cheek moment naming this scent.

PV starts of with a bracing melange of tangy grapefruit, cardamom and pepper, as well as the best ginger accord i have ever experienced so far in my limited exposure. No vetiver in olfactory "sight". A few minutes after spraying on i believe i feel an aquatic vibe which fortunately does not last very long, but adds an interesting dimension. Lavender, which has always been sort of "there" then comes on stronger, but not so much as to make PV a lavender frag. The eponymous vetiver note begins to raise its voice about an hour into wear. PV at this stage begins to smell like Mugler Cologne and Creed's Original Vetiver, except that the cardamom and ginger are still in the mix, albeit mutedly. No hint of the earthier vetiver not a few would have expected to experience here. The vetiver here is "ozonic", if that makes sense, and i guess the aquatic note earlier sensed has something to do with this feeling. PV is a scent peppery/spicy woody scent with lots of ginger and lavender as well significant non-earthy vetiver in its base. This is the kind of fragrance i like more than the vetiver heavy-hitters. I must be part of the target market for PV - those who like vetiver as a cast member, but not an A-list star.

My first full wear of PV was to the office and, to my extreme pleasure, i kept sniffing this gingery ozonic vetiver all working day long. I want to submit that this scent is an unsung scent by Azzaro. Its name distracts away from the beautiful woody aromatic that it really is.

Nice one!

28th August, 2010.

This is a somewhat dry, very grassy cologne and so the "Pure Vetiver" name certainly applies. It honestly reminds me of a dry, mowed lawn on a hot summer day. To be honest, I really don't get the connection with Azzaro Chrome, but then all our noses are unique. Pure Vetiver is a good value and smells OK if not outstanding, but decent enough to warrant a positive rating.

24th May, 2010.

A different aproach on vetiver here. I liked very much and I finished my bottle. Unfortunatelly, I can not find it on sale anymore around here.

28th April, 2010.