Look at the root: 7 of the best new fragrances with vetiver
Text: Ksenia Golovanova, author of the Telegram channel Nose Republic
Your nose is exactly familiar with the vetiver: This oil, which is extracted from the roots of a grassy plant, forms the basis of many popular (and avant-garde) aromas. In the autumn, these mostly deep woody smells rush with a feeling of special comfort. You can choose your aroma from countless compositions. Perfume critic Ksenia Golovanova, at our request, collected a personal top of seven vetiver in a variety of variations.
We already wrote that the Comme des Garçons returned from oblivion dozens of past hits, including your favorite Calamus and Garage. The time machine continues to rumble delicately and a couple of weeks ago, for example, gave out Vettiveru 2 - a classic cologne with vetiver, collected by Mark Buxton back in 2002 and subsequently discontinued. The deuce in the name means a new version - Buxton carefully went through the green mosaic, putting aside almost all the bright and golden stones. After the restoration, the fragrant pattern of cologne received additional depth: this vetiver is darker and more serious than its predecessor, not a cat's eye, but a Colombian emerald of impeccable shade of grass at the sunset of summer.
A new Hemingway perfume for the Masque Milanese was made by Fanny Bal, a young student of Dominic Ropion, who, after the unusual Sale Gosse, Frédéric Malle, and L'Eau d'Issey Nectar de Parfum, Issey Miyake, waited for the “strange” - and they received a thoroughbred vetiver, barely Is not the most traditional thing in perfumery. Someone was embarrassed that the author’s Hemingway name was somehow authoritative: where is the alcohol, women, a smoky sweater, where is the holiday, which is always with you?
Let's make a reservation at once that the holiday - perfumery - is here: “Hemingway” is woven from two beautiful vetiver, fresh and green Haitian and smoked, dusty Javanese, reminiscent of jute sacks for storing coffee in its aroma. Rhubarb adds fruit, exotic brightness to the roots, and the ginger in this non-alcoholic cocktail works with soda water for sharpness and effervescent effect. "Write drunk, edit sober," the writer bequeathed. Hemingway y Masque edits.
Here is another author's reassembly: classic eau de toilette was released in 2002, and last summer there was perfumery water. New concentration - a new formula: Olivier Pesho took his Vetyverio, one of the most summer and transparent modern vetiver, and grounded it, firstly, with patchoulias, and secondly, with an autumn damascon rose with hints of tobacco and apple-padanese. In addition to depth, the Vetyverio has an ethical component: the Haitian vetiver Diptyque is now being mined in the farms of the region of Le Quay and meets the EOCERT standard ESR, which guarantees environmentally friendly production and favorable working conditions.
The Australian cosmetic brand Aesop, without much need, but rather after a lot of love, produces beautiful perfumes every few years - now there are only three fragrances in the brand lineup. Last year's Hwyl (pronounced "huil", with emphasis on the first syllable) is inspired by Japanese evergreen forests, while the name is Welsh - meaning "spiritual lift". Something like that should really be experienced by an urban person who was suddenly transferred from the office under the cover of cypresses, camphor laurels and cryptomeria - by the way, as early as 1982, the Japan Forestry Administration offered the practice of sinrin-yoku or forest baths as a medicine for stress, - long walks among fragrant trees.
The main stars of Hwyl are cypress, frankincense and smoky, earthy vetiver, a fragrant trinity, reminiscent of other Japanese from the start, Kyoto and Hinoki Comme des Garçons. But the aroma of Aesop seems to be something more than the sum of their parts: not as transparent and chaste as the first, less dry and sharp than the second. This is a Japanese forest of folk tales - with a thick grassy undercoat, green twilight in the crowns and the magical Kitsune foxes, lying between ancient roots.
There is a kind of subgenre in perfumery - gourmet vetiver. His ancestors are considered to be a couple of flavors of 2004, Vetiver Tonka, Hermès, and Vetiver Oriental, Serge Lutens: “Tonka” is distinguished by recognizable nut sweet, and the sweet-tooth “Oriental” is given out by chocolate lips. Staying Alive is the most dessert of all flavors of its category, although there is no added sugar in it - neither ethyl maltol from Angel and Music for a While, nor other synthetic substances, the smell of which signals sweetness. The flavor of Lush seems sweet due to the combination of milk sandalwood, vanilla and incense, but also smoky and smoked, because vetiver has a lot of it in it. The overall effect is rather unusual and very nostalgic: as if you are frying a piece of bread on a fire, bred in the autumn forest.
Mark Buxton, as we noted above, has excellent vetiver: in his "root" collection, in addition to Vettiveru, there is an excellent personalized Renegades, Roboris brand Cale Fragranze d'Autore, Vetiver 46 brand Le Labo and Devil in Disguise in its own line of Mark Buxton . Most of the compositions collected by Buxton for young Germans Verdúu are stitched with vetiver greenery - this is a kind of thread, on which very different aromas are strung, made for different fashion designers. We like Hien Le very much - ghostly magnolias on a green-green substrate in the style of Magnolia Au Vetiver d'Haiti, Chopard, but less bourgeois.
Here is another attempt to enter the British brand on the perfumery territory - a new line of fragrances, well thought out and not cheap. The previous attempts failed: the wonderful Kingdom ruined the cumin - in the early 2000s everyone pretended to be clean and the sweaty spirits went around a mile away, and the next launch, MyQueen, seemed too old-fashioned. But the collection, released this year, plays for sure.
First of all, the eighty-ethnic bottles are very beautiful - there is something poisonous and fascinating in their gloomy colored glass, as in Poison, Dior. Secondly, every hunter here will find his own pheasant: in the line half of the fashionable olfactory profiles of the decade, from Celtic Rose pepper rose to Everlasting Dream mineral aquatic, with all the stops at Osmanthus, Narcotic White Flowers and Green Forest for Witches stations ". Of course, it was not possible without the neo-hip, with which Vetiver Moss works - a beautiful, sad iris, strangled with swan, vetiver and moss. It smells like an impoverished estate, from which the gardener has long been driven out.
Photo: Luckyscent, Masque Milano, Diptyque, Aesop, Lush, Verdúu, Fragrantica