Vetiver Extreme (2006)
by Guerlain

This is an example of why messing with the original, is not always the best idea. Nothing was pleasantly amplified in this version. I'd have preferred a deeper, smokier Vetiver. Funnily, this one smells more dated than the original, in my opinion.

I was really expecting something deeper and richer than the original. Instead, all I got was the original Vetiver but with an even stronger soapy smell to it!

Pass.

[Original submission date: 10 April 2008]

Hmmm, should be called Everything Else But the Vetiver Extreme. TO me, the vetiver notes in the original is exactly the same here. Everything else, the slightly sweet base and the opening dull citrus notes are intensified. Maybe that's what happens when you make vetiver more extreme? You know what? I really dislike all these "extreme" versions. If Davidoff goes bonkers and makes Cool Water Extreme, I'll laugh.

The plain Vetiver EDC is so much better and truer to the vetiver note. Plain Guerlain Vetiver is a wonderful fragrance, but it's much lighter than Vetiver Extreme, so folks might be tempted to buy this one instead. I tell you, don't. This has a bitter undertone that is very much like the "rubber" note described by other reviewers. I thought perhaps it could also be described as a leathery carnation. Any vestige of vetiver is outlasted by an extremely strong note of nutmeg.

I love a lot Guerlain products.
But this Vetiver "Extreme" is not for me.
Smell like a hot rubber.
And please nobody compared the "Extreme" with F. Malle "Vetiver Extraordinaire " because is complety different in my opinion.

I can't believe the lack of enthusiasm for this fragrance, which in my opinion is fantastic. It's a Guerlain and it's a new chapter in the Vetiver story, so I'm kind of surprised at how little attention this has received.

The first thing that impressed me about it is that it shares a bit of a unusual "rubbery" quality with Frederic Malle's Vetiver Extraordinaire. The smell of hot rubber snorkels lying in the grass of a backyard, baking in the late afternoon sun of summer, near a pool. Vetiver Extraordinaire almost takes this facet too far, while Vetiver Extreme backs off it a little, balancing it with other things-- notably soft greens and spices.

I think what may underwhelm people about Vetiver Extreme is that its sillage has a kind of "surface tension" quality about it. You either smell it or you don't. And when you smell it, you've hit a tipping point in which you smell all of it. You have to break a certain bubble of space to smell it, because the top notes don't continually break away and flare off like sunspots. The whole thing is so cohesive that it isn't given away by the screech of renegade top notes. So in a way, people might be upset because it doesn't bleed continuous sillage everywhere.

I think it's a beautiful, sturdy variation on Guerlain's Vetiver. Earthy, green and sophisticated. The "Extreme" denotes a kind of "weight" rather than "intensity." In some ways the original Vetiver probably announces its presence with more volume. Vetiver Extreme is more of a deeper, somber, resonant lower register kind of affair.

I have to wonder if once this stuff becomes hard to find, it won't garner more praise.