Vetyver / Vétiver (1959)
by Givenchy

Givenchy Vetyver is an excellent vetiver fragrance with a solid, intelligent construction and nearly flawless development. It is a great option for someone looking for a vetiver based scent that is not excessively dark and dirty or too clean, green, and soapy. It can be worn all year round, easily straddles the casual and formal, and has good projection and longevity. Vetyver is a multi-dimensional scent that remains interesting and dynamic throughout its duration.



When I first began wearing this I was so concentrated on the quality of the vetiver itself that I overlooked one of this fragrance's finest aspects--the bergarmot top note in the opening. The bergamot is crisp and sparkling, like a fresh cut lime in a cold glass of tonic water, and provides a wonderful prelude to the middle and base notes.

Bridging the transition from opening to heart is the coriander note--which accepts the citrus quality of the bergamot before rendering its own interpretation of citrus--a green and grassy pleasantly sour orange peel that gently pulls the fragrance toward the earth. Then, the other side of the coriander emerges--its warm, nuttiness--and ushers us into the next stage of Vetyver's development;its progression toward the vetiver/sandalwood heart--a balance of flavors that fluctuates seamlessly between green, earthy, and woody notes. When paid careful attention to, each note can be individually identified--the smooth, slightly dark sandalwood lying at the base and just above and around its edges the vetiver--fresh and alive, coming off green and earthy and rooty all at the same time. Meanwhile the coriander continues its role, accentuating the fragrance with its distinct nuttiness and citric punch.

From a holistic perspective Givenchy Vetyver is fresh and green, earthy and nutty, all the while emanating a clean, somewhat soapy quality.

It is an interesting fragrance because at different times it may lean more in one direction (say, the earthiness, for example) than another, or vice verse, but it always seems to recalibrate itself at some point and return to the middle again. And the middle is fantastic--that combination of notes so harmoniously blended it's hard to tell where one ends and the next begins--perfectly paired accords that feel like they were just meant to be together.

I really enjoyed analyzing this one, and have a deeper appreciation for it after studying it up close.

I don't rate fragrances numerically anymore, but if I did, this would receive very high marks.

23rd December, 2011.

Lovely opening. Softly smoked florals. A little powder. A somewhat green antiseptic quality. The balanced refinement of another time. As admirable as Givenchy Vetyver is I can't find enough magic here to make me want to wear it. For me Givenchy Vetyver speaks to the question of a fragrance's evocative quality versus the more objective "way it smells". Other reviewers have spoken far more eloquently then I could about the disconnect between how powerfully a scent may conjure up wonderful memories of places and times gone by against an actual desire to smell that scent on one's skin. The drydown of Givenchy Vetyver immediately transports me back to Ed and Gil's barbershop. I'm a little boy with a fresh short haircut. I really didn't care for haircuts but I did look forward to the ending when Ed would ask you if you wanted what he called "Stinkum". Yes, I definately wanted the "Stinkum". Ed would grab the clear glass liquor bottle shaped bottle partially full of a green scented liquid and vigourously rub it into your hair and scalp. Heavenly. But as much as Givenchy Vetyver powerfully evokes this wonderful memory I'm content to leave it back on the counter up against the mirror at Ed and Gil's.

27th November, 2011.

It's hard to describe in words such a sublime, perfectly balanced, poised, natural and living fragrance.
It is the perfect Vetyver.
Being brought up in the tropics I had many occasions to smell vetiver in its raw state, varieties from India, from Indonesia and then in my travels the 'bourbon' variety that got transplanted to the West Indies.
I started using Vetiver oil (crazily) diluted in alcohol and mixed with the then still available Mysore Sandalwood as a personal fragrance when I was in my twenties.The two together had an uncanny balance of the raw force of nature and the milk of the gods.
So, it was with the shock of recognition of a like minded man that I discovered Hubert Givenchy's Vetyver in the late 70's. The same puissance but made into something you could and wanted to wear all day, all year. Everywhere.

It is for me the perfect Vetyver. keeping the powerful raw freshness and smokiness that is inherent in the root of the grass, not overly tamed or streamlined or covered over, just architecturally balanced by a small coterie of support troops that lift, enhance, smooth and lightly veil it, yet always standing in the background to let the Vetiver shine.
It is a Vetiver for a man at peace with himself, or one who needs peace with the mad world. Someone who is an individual, exacting at work, with himself but never impossibly so. It is right both in action and at repose.
How unusual!
At once, both a physical and a spiritual fragrance, it manages to retain a beautiful view of nature and the image of a beautiful human within that.

The beauty of a lost world?

Givenchy Vetyver achieves its beauty by a master stroke of perfect dynamic balance.
It allows the most beautiful vetivers in the world to sing in concert with the warmth of your body, your skin.
It is a very private pleasure.

The re-issue is as beautiful as ever... (I have 2 200ml bottles from 1980 kept and guarded as a reference)

Get it before they change their mind and stop it again.

Take time to know it.
If you don't like it, know that the world is far too much with thee.

23rd June, 2011.

Classic, simple, realiable, solid, endless, classy, mandatory! Together with Sycomore and Vetiver Extraordinaire one of the best ever. "Pur Excellance". Finally reissued!



No desctription needed!

19th May, 2011.

I knew I wanted another vetiver because sometimes my Guerlain is a bit of a tobacco-y jerk. This isn't exactly what I was looking for, and yet it is divine. I believe it's the sandalwood that keeps this off of the straight-up green path. And I've come to accept that a good, harsh vetiver NEEDS another strong, easily identifiable note around to keep it in line. Anyway, this was a blind purchase and I am thrilled that I own it.

As I've worn this, I've smelled vetiver, sandalwood, citrus, cinnamon, anise, and coriander, I think. Well, I know for damn sure that I smell vetiver, sandalwood, and spicy stuff. Anyway, this brilliant aroma does a sparkly dance under the nose of the wearer, and the brilliant artistry with which this amazingly natural-smelling fragrance was created becomes abundantly obvious after a few hours. Some moments it's green, and others it's earthy, then it's spicy, and as you attempt to wrap your head around what you're smelling, it quickly becomes soapy. Yet as this constant alteration dazzles you like so many autobots, there isn't a single unpleasant moment to be had.

Vetiver is a temperamental beast, and Givenchy has managed to keep it in line with a few good pimp-slaps. Stop reading reviews and just get you some.

1st May, 2011.

a slightly stronger, more peppery version of guerlain's vetiver. very nice.

1st February, 2011.