Has anyone smelled plain vetiver?

i've never smelled the grass, but have smelled a few different pure vetiver oils. i wouldn't describe it as vibrant, but it certainly isn't flat. it's pungent and dark. kind of brooding. citrus seems to be a natural compliment to it.

Vetiver has such a strong personality that vetiver fragrances are basically arrangements rather than compositions, which is why almost all are named Vetiver with different spellings. Haviscous, with a deep smoky, earthy-woody smell. If you don't like it in a fragrance, it's highly unlikely you'll like the essential oil. I love it. It's inexpensive and extremely useful, often called "the oil of tranquility". It's deeply relaxing, valuable in massage and baths for anyone experiencing stress. You can use it all kinds of ways. There are a variety of sources, but Bourbon vetiver from the Reunion Islands and Haitian vetiver are the most widely used. Bourbon vetiver contains a higher percentage of vetiverol than Haitian does.

Of the ones I own...

Carlo Corinto Vetyver
Route du Vetiver
Guerlain (vintage 1988, 96, and new)
Mazzolari
Carven (vintage 1957)
Vetiver Extraordinaire
Floris
Annick Goutal
Santa Maria Novella
CdG Vettiveru

...Carven and SMN smell most like the Haitian vetiver essential oil that I own.

My favorites:

Guerlain (vintage 1988)
Corinto
Mazzolari
Vetiver Extraordinaire

Vetiver is one of my favorite notes, and I have several Vetiver oils. If it's just the essential oil of Vetiver, to me they smell for one very strong,sort of a woody, earthy smell and I can also detect spice, and I would swear a little smoke. It's almost a dark brown in color, and is very thick, not a thick as honey, but perhaps maple syrup.

It's cheap as in inexpensive.

You can find it all over the internet. Just google "vetiver essential oil" or "essential oil" and you'll get all you want. You want pure essential oil, nothing mixed with jojoba or any of that.

Scroll down to the February 22, 2007 entry on this link (from Ayala); its a great read.

http://ayalasmellyblog.blogspot.com/.../label/Vetiver

I don't like the country bumpkin smell of pure vetiver root oil much. However, I still like my vetiver with substance but in a more subdued and civilized manner. After trying almost all the vetivers out there, I have settled on Creed Vetiver '48 (for its arresting accord of ginger, spices and vetiver), Frederic Malle Vetiver Extraordinaire (for its core focus on a high quality vetiver note which never overwhelms), and Creed Original Vetiver for its light and refreshing vetiver accord.

I haven't tried Givenchy Vetyver. I hear its just a myth.

Vetiver used as an ingredient in fragrances produces an incredible scent, but pure vetiver oil (it is also called khus) is not my favorite. It is usually described as deep, grassy, rainy and earthy. And it is. But for some reason, it is all of these in not a very good way, at least to my nose.

If you do want to get your hands on some, here are some links to the ones I tried:
http://www.unsfinecrafts.com/store/i...products_id=16

http://www.unsfinecrafts.com/store/i...products_id=57

Good luck.

Most vetiver essential oil is traditionally distilled in cast iron leaving it with a burnt after odor that distracts attention from its full bodied depth and loveliness.

Vetiver essential oil is used primarily for its cathartic properties which are not nearly as accessible from fragrances. Like many things, once you become accustomed to its benefits you tend to like the smell a lot more. I love it either way and could damn near eat the stuff. The stuff I have is high quality and smells a lot like an excellent single malt whisky such as Laphroaig.

Givenchy Vetiver's not a myth, but was made in small quantities, and like many great fragrances, it never sold well. It was reissued during the last year or so but I haven't tried it.

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More on vetiver

It is a hidden oil to do with the dark recesses and the potential for life and energy. Vetiver personalities are strong and intellectual with a sense of reality and awareness of what is happening around them, embodying the relationship between mind and body. They're comfortable with their sexuality, seeing sex as very much as pure vitality and energy. There's nothing delicate or ethereal about the vetiver profile, it's very much of the here and now. Vetiver is grounding, centering, full of vision and wisdom. It's used to counteract negative attributes such as fear, anxiety, obsession, agitation, intellectual fatigue, scattered thinking, irritability, anger, emotional burnout, addiction, etc. It reinforces positive traits such as strength, spiritual calmness, growth, integrity, wisdom, mind-body connection, etc.

-- Stong dislike to vetiver's aroma may be the result of disassociation from or rejection of one's instinctual nature.


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Anyone with even a remote interest in fragrances should own multiple essential oil books. Valerie Worwood's are the best.

Some of the titles:

- The Fragrant Mind
- The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy
- Scents and Scentuality

You nailed it.

As far as Givenchy's Vetiver goes, they sell it here in Toronto at the Bay. I smelled it about a month ago. It was certainly nice, but reminded me a lot of Guerlain's offering, at least upon first impression. Given, I have not smelled the vintage formula, so I can't really comment on how true it is to the original.

The blades/leaves are nice. Green and brisk.
Roots I don't like. Too thick and musty smelling.
Vetiver roots' unfortuneately exactly like Etro's Vetiver.

For me, it's gotta be mixed with alot of freshness and citrus. My two favorites are Guerlain Vetiver Sport, and Creed Original Vetiver. Guerlain Vetiver extreme is the only one with a real heavy dose of root oil that I like.

I cannot speak for Canada but European pharmacies often have it, particularly those which carry homoeopathic medicine. Dilute drops in alcohol or oil. The essential oil is way too concentrated to give a pleasant smell. Alcohol really frees the molecules to mix with air and reach your nose best!

Thanks, Dullah! That could explain the huge difference between fresh and light vetivers, and those dark and heavy ones. Is the plant a grass, a tree (people call it 'woody' often), or what actually ?

Vetiver is a perennial grass native to India, although is grown all over these days. The oil is distilled from its roots and does indeed typically have a dark, earthy, smoky quality, although different vetivers grown from different regions are known to smell markedly different as well: Haitian vetiver is known to be a bit sweeter and more floral.

One thing I'd like to mention is that it's rarely - so rarely in fact that as a general blanket statement of advice I wouldn't advise doing it at all - a good idea to smell an essential oil undiluted. Most of the time it will give you little indication of how it will smell diluted. Sometimes, as is the case with thujone rich oils such as Artemisia Vulgaris, Thuja Occidentialis (Cedar Leaf), and others, it can be downright dangerous. Thujone is a known neurotoxin which can lead to kidney failure, seizures, and brain damage with either heavy exposure or repeated low exposure. Not enough studies have been conducted to clearly indicate if inhalation poses the same risks, but, do you want to be the guinea pig? I don't. If you are going to smell an oil undiluted, do not stick your nose near it and take a deep breath, but use the wafting method I'm sure you were shown in science class at some point. Hold the container half an arms length (or farther) away and then use your other hand to fan the odor towards you.

There is a lot more information at The Good Scents Company's page (http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/). They list the recommended upper bound that any ingredient should occupy, in regards to its percentage, in a fragrance, and also suggest the recommended dilution rates to use to properly smell a particular ingredient (which can be as low as a 0.1% dilution.)

Sculpture is correct. It's like a hardy wild grass.

And again, anyone who wants to smell exactly what the root oil really smells like...
...look no further than Etro's Vetiver. (which I don't like)

Vetiver EO is very widely available at any aromatherapy type shops. It may even be available at health food shops.

Barry

Caesar,

I wouldn't recommend making any assumptions on the nature of a singular note based on how it is perceived in perfumes out there - not only because the scent in its natural form is different than the chemicals, isolates and compounds used to create the note (in this case - vetiver) in mass marketed perfumes - but also because the way it interacts with the other notes changes its character. It's always best to learn about a note by going to the source - smelling the fresh or dried plant if possible, as well as the pure essences extracted from it.

Vetiver is widely available (in aromatherapy and health food stores etc.) - though the quality will vary as well as the smell - depending greatly on the soil where it was grown and how it was distilled.
Vetiver is everything but flat... Generally speaking it is woody and earthy, and the variation will range from clean woody cooling and tangy; through earthy dry and root-like; all the way to warm and smoky and in some cases similar to Marmite (the British yeast spread...). Traditional vetiver distillation in India is of the wild roots, with copper stills, which gives it a metallic and a bit carrot-like aroma... So essentiallly no two vetivers are alike...

Vetiver is a complex and deep scent generally speaking and smells a lot better diluted than straight up. Dilution will open it up and make it more refreshing and easier to tolerate... It is a note that is difficult for most people to like right away - more of an acquired taste generally speaking.

Pluran: I am surprised that you have never tried Vetiver by Lorenzo Villoresi. It is fantastic, slightly heavy handed and smells a little like the single malt whiskey you mentioned. Please try it soon - I'd love to hear your thought on it. I don't own any, if I did I'd send you some.

I also love Route du Vetiver by MPG and Vetiver Extraordinaire by Frederic Malle.

Vetiver essential oil is available at most health food stores. If you have a Whole Foods, they usually carry two or three brands. On its own, it's rich and deep.
Annick Goutal's Vetiver is the closest that I've smelled to the pure extrait.

I think that's an essential point in this discussion. This weekend I had the chance to smell a few vetiver oils from different provenances again, and they have very different odour properties indeed. The Haitian vetiver I tried in Isabelle Doyen's lab was very dry and smokey, whereas the one from Réunion at the Osmothèque was sweet and almost not smokey at all; in a side-by-side comparison, you could easily tell them apart.

Vetiver scents vary considerably from the type of vetiver used and the quality of the process. Vetiver essential oils are not normally great for use as fragrance until they are blended with a carrier oil which you can do yourself or find an already prepared fragrance oil My favorite "pure vetiver" fragrance oil is Madini Oils Vetiver. Madini oils vary somewhat from batch to batch, but I really like oil I have. It's quite inexpensive, and very earthy with the odor of clean wet soil with a smoky raw plant like quality. Some other pure vetiver fragrance oils that are very good are: Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Vetiver (very natural) and Tigerflag Natural Perfumery, Rhus Khus (extremely dry and rooty). All three of these are available online direct from the makers.

Most of the perfumes that are called vetiver smell mostly of the other ingredients blended with them. It seems to me that there are really four types of vetiver fragrance directions that companies take: (1) citrus, (2) green, (3) smoke, (4) earthy. These vetivers end up being very different scents that all have their own positives. Some are hardly recogizeable as vetiver after blending. My favorites are:

citrus vetiver: TDC Sel d' Vetiver, CdG Vetiveru.
green vetiver: Mugler Cologne, Original Vetiver. Carlo Corinto, Baie de Genievre, Victrix
smoky vetiver: Geurlain Vetiver, Lubin Vetiver
earthy vetiver: LV Vetiver, Vetiver Extraordinaire, Bois d' Orage.

..with respect to Guerlain Vetiver Extreme, I've tried it only once, but I've been told it does not contain more vetiver than the standard version. do you have info on that? is th concentration the same?

I had a friend who used to wear Vetiver oil. I thought it was a bit too rooty and intense for my taste, but I've gain more respect for its earthy darkness. I've read that the vetiver plant is sometimes called false patchouli. I think vetiver and patchouli carry the same earthy-rooty feel whilst maintaining their own natural unique notes individually.

I do prefer the more brighter and light vetivers like Guerlain, Tom Ford and Mugler Cologne. I recently tried Andy Tauer's Vetiver Dance and for some reason it came off smelling similar to Gray Flannel to my nose.

I can say that I went halfway trough this experience: several years ago I went to an organic cosmetics and fragrance shop and I smelled vetiver grass, preserved in a bottle of essential vetiver oil. Smelled intense, "green", simple and earthy, yet nowhere near, the few vetiver frags I know, as it had something far more crisp and herbal, less sweetness and more edge (if compared to these vetiver frags) to it.

An excellent description of the real thing.

I was so completely obsessed with vetiver at one point, I bought vetiver oil and was severely disappointed. Like the post somewhere above said, it has to be mixed with citrus or ozones and alcohol to really give it the liveliness and freshness I like about vetiver. Without citrus, ozone, or alcohol(I'm not sure if its the quality or production methods), it smells like smoky grass with dirty on its roots. With it smells absolutely refreshing, clean, and "sparkly" in a way 'fresh scents' can't achieve without smelling synthetic.

I thought I know the vetiver smell until my friend gave me a chance to smell 4-5 undiluted varieties of it. They have some similar notes, but also very different too. One oil (I believe from Haiti) was smelling like chocolate-Marmite. That`s the best for me.

As for Givenchy`s Eau de Vetiver EDT - I`ve got vintage bottle of it (pressurized content). Nice and raffinee understated scent.

I treasure a mere 15 ml of this vintage - heaven for me, not all that natural, but with a very satisfactory dose of vetiver. I have one oil which lacks any kind of sweetness, and the dried root from my antique pharmacy is similar and with a sweetish touch when you put your nose into it. Somehow it evokes an image of Lorenzo Villoresis storeroom in Firenze which I have not even seen in a dream... In one of the early Folio issues (2004/05) L. Turin tells us how he just went unearthing roots when his mother needed them. Smelling it fresh must be an experience of its own !!

Strangely, I've never smelled real vetiver oil. I'm not sure I want to, after reading all of the descriptions above.

I do remember, having a discussion about Fumidus by Profumum and how many people say its smells just like unrectified vetiver oil - and I love the smell of Fumidus. So maybe I will like it? Who knows.

Honestly, I'm not worried as I already own bottles of Vetiver EdC (vintage) by Guerlain, Sycomore by Chanel and Route du Vetiver plus in decant form: Vetiver Pour Elle by Guerlain, Fumidus by Profumum, Turtle Vetiver Exercise No. 1 by Les Nez...

I'm set for now.