Vétiver (1959)
by Givenchy

Very nice… The strong bergamot opening already has elements of coriander and vetiver in the background… together they come across as a somewhat unique aromatic introduction. I’m more ambivalent than anyway else about it. I think its oft-mentioned licorice tinge rather reduces my pleasure in this version of vetiver. Yet, in spite of my minor annoyance with the opening, I find it impossible to dislike the accord. Givenchy Vetiver is well put together and presents such a skilled professional performance, I find myself respecting it even though I don’t thoroughly enjoy it, so I'm voting a non-enthusiastic thumbs up... Low key, unexciting, and completely respectable... it’s an excellent scent for someone who is not me.

July 2009:

The reissued Vetyver from Givenchy features a very spare, nutty vetiver accord that sweetens gently through something vaguely suggestive of licorice to a very suave woody-mossy base. This is not the sort of raw, aggressively earthy vetiver you get from Route du Vétiver, Vétiver Extraordinaire, or Etro's Vetiver, but rather a comfortable men's club vetiver your well-dressed uncle might have worn while lounging in a leather chair. Among the best of its classical, sophisticated, "Old World" breed, even if it's not terribly exiting.

September 2009:

A couple of months, many wearings, and one full bottle purchase later, and I realize I’ve given short shrift to this outstanding, if highly understated, fragrance. With growing familiarity I have become more and more impressed and enamored of Vetyver’s fine qualities. My affection for this scent has come to focus on the “nutty,” almost buttery, quality that distinguishes its vetiver and which comes to dominate its drydown. No, it does not break any olfactory boundaries, explore new territory, or offer any structural novelty. But Givenchy’s Vetyver deserves better than to be defined by what it isn’t. It is the smoothest, the most suave, and the most comforting vetiver scent I have encountered. (And that includes Chanel’s resurrected Sycomore.) It is also the warmest, richest, and most rounded treatment of the vetiver note that I can recall right now. In fact, it is everything that Guerlain’s much-vaunted Vetiver should be (perhaps was?) and isn’t. A personal benchmark.

Excellent all around fragrance. I'm somewhat new to being a fragrance connoisseur but after collecting 50 plus samples recently and wearing each one, this is my favorite. I sprayed this on one wrist followed by the Guerlain Vetiver on the other and confirmed what I had remembered, that the Givenchy Vetiver smells much better on me. Green and earthy, luxurious and unpretentious. It doesn't smell like a typical masculine cologne and instead just comes off as an outdoorsy sensation with a bit of woodsy smokiness to it as the top notes transition to the heart. 24 hours later the drydown on fabric is fresh and invigorating. Although I'm picky and thrifty, I'll buy a bottle of this.

This is the best thing I have ever smelled.
I was an avid collector in my teens and twenties, but became more interested in making my own scents from essential oils, and stopped buying commercial fragrances. On vacation 4 years ago in Brazil I noticed that the business men I would pass in the morning all smelled of something I had never smelled before - something green, bitter, bracing. I spent a year trying to find out what it was, and then I recognized the scent on a Brazilian gymnast I met at a cocktail party. I asked him about the scent and he told me it was vetiver. I understand that one species of the root is native to Brazil, and assume it must be a more common fragrance ingredient there than it is here in Canada. I bought a bottle of vetiver essentail oil and started dabbing it on with Eau Sauvage, but it smelled heavy, smoky, almost like patchouli. I smelled every vetiver scent I could find for another year, but could never recapture the freshness I remembered from those bright mornings in Rio. I finally settled on Guerlain, after a convincing lecture from the sales woman about how the house practically defined the style, etc. etc. But there was always something synthetic in it that kind of turned my stomach. A sweet note gone sour, perhaps the tobacco. Then at last, a few days ago, I finally found the Givenchy and tried it on. Fireworks! The opening sparkles like the oil from the skin of a mandarin orange peeled on a sunny Christmas morning. It's followed by a pale yellow, milky pastis swirl, and then the roots exude their unmistakable green depth. Brazil was also the first time I saw deciduous trees that grow year-round, the leaves achieving a green so dark it seemed black at night. The cilantro note puts a patent-leather shine on this fathomless vetiver green. A light dusting of sandalwood hints at something enigmatic without becoming ponderous, and grounds the previous exhilaration in firmly masculine territory. This is what a man is supposed to smell like. Thank you, M. Givenchy.

Sweetly sophisticated and refined vetiver fragrance that has a definite daintiness to it, very upperclass.
It does without the rubber/tobacco of the Guerlain Vetiver and the soapiness of the Creed OV.
Can be easily worn by both sexes IMO.
To paraphrase something I read; if Guerlain is the gardener then the lord of the estate is definitely Givenchy.
Reasonably priced but not easy to find - well worth a try.

I will give the view point of a 20 some year old kid who has typically sided with younger colognes like Tommy Hilfiger and such.
This came as a shock to me as I have never experienced what a formal scent smells like let alone a "vetiver" scent (apart from Guerlain Vetiver). But this epitomizes something you would wear to an evening hosted by Donald Trump or the Intellectuals of the World. I can't really distinguish between all the ingredients and notes but I can say that from an overall perspective, it smells similar to an Asian herbal store (but a good smelling one).