Hey there Perfume Posse, Portia from Australian Perfume Junkies with something that is good year round but particularly excellent in high summer, where most of you all are. Sel de Vetiver could be exactly what you need right now.
Sel de Vetiver by The Different Company 2006
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Grapefruit, cardamom, bergamot
Heart: Tahitian vetiver, bourbon geranium, ylang-ylang
Base: Iris, (Haiti) vetiver, sea salt
We have a few vetivers around this house: L’Artisan Coeur de Vetiver Sacre, Guerlain Vetiver (new & old), Lalique Encre Noir, ELdO Fat Electrician, Terre d’Hermes and a few others in decant size.
Photo Stolen GoogleCommons
The opening of Sel de Vetiver is so fun and fabulous on my skin, it instantly gives a burst of salted citrus and herbaceous greenness, at once both woody and wet. It reminds me so happily of summer in the cool of winter and slots in comfortable and refreshing during the heat of summer. As the first super summery blast burns off the ylang comes through warm and buttery beside the salty, wet and sandy woods. The perfume seems locked in stasis thenm for a few hours, calm, quiet and softly wafting. I love this part because though no sillage monster Sel de Vetiver remains quite fragrant and so different from my own smell that I catch wafts of it more than many of the heftier frags. I love the end, after about 4-5 hours all I smell is the briny, salty wash of leaving the beach. MMMMM
Photo Stolen MorgueFile
Further reading: I love Freddie’s post at SmellyThoughts HILARIOUS! Bois de Jasmin is more thoughtful and explanitory
The Different Company does a 3 x 10ml Discovery Pack for $105 and or you can buy the Sel de Vetiver 48 Hours Trip Set $150 which comes with a stunning refillable Stainless Steel travel safety bottle holder and 3 x 10ml Sel de Vetiver, very freakin cool.
LuckyScent does $150/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts ay $6/ml
Did you try Sel de Vetiver? Do you have another favourite vetiver that I should try? Maybe you’d just like to say HI? I am probably sitting near or at the computer waiting to chat, please comment, this is supposed to be the START of a conversation.
Loads of love from the Australian Perfume Junkies,
Portia xx
Hahaha! Oh my – a shoutout to an old fragrance review is very embarrassing – although nice to re-read, back in the days when I was a total newbie to the world of reviews but threw all the tripe out there anyway 😛 Still, nice to be honest.
You make this sound like I need to revisit it but I seem to remember it clearly! Glad it works for you 😛 x
I loved your review Freddie, it always makes me smile when reviewers have different experiences. Especially when they are poles apart. Whoever says that frags are the same on everyone is dead wrong.
Portia xx
I love vetivers in summer, and recently sniffed Tom Ford’s Grey Vetiver. It was lovely – too masculine for me, I think, but if I could get my husband to wear this…wow!
Grey Vetiver is lovely isn’t it? The girls smell great in it, don’t be afraid.
Portia x
I was so eager to try this perfume, as it’s well loved. On my skin it smells very, very similar to Bottega Veneta. After a recent search of the notes in each, there are some similarities that my chemistry must amplify:
Bergamont in each – check. Jasmine in BV and its close scent-cousin Ylang Ylang in SdV – check.
What stumbles me are the base notes. BV has patchouli, oakmoss and leather and SdV has veviter, iris and salt. Can an experienced nose tell me of these combinations could produce a similar dry down?
In any case, I really like both.
WOW!! We have both of these scents on high rotation in our house. Bottega Veneta is my partners signature. Getting him to wear ANYTHING else is like starting a war, thank goodness I adore it on him. We often wear these in tandem and I’ve never noticed similarities, you can bet your sweet ass I’ll be paying attention next time.
Portia xx
Very early in my perfume sniffing life, I somehow convinced myself that vetiver doesn’t love me (not sure if that is true anymore).but I’ve always been curious about sel de vetiver because of the saltiness.must.try.sample..:)[the perfumes that I consider ‘salty’ are Amouage Jubiliation for MEN and Bond No.9 Andy Warhol Silver Factory..is the saltiness in this similar?]
Welcome to perfumista land Lavanya,
I hope you have a great time here. I have not tried Jubi Man or Silver Factory. I know! QUELLE HORROR! But if you have spent some time with Cote d’Amour by L’Artisan or Sandflowers by Montale then similar but not the same. SdV is a beautiful wash rather than a wall.
Portia xx
haha- no I meant that I had dismissed vetiver very early in my perfume sniffing (around 6 years ago)..:D ..I haven’t tried those two- I will- especially since I know you love Sandflowers (no?)
TOTALLY love Sandflowers. You’ve done your homework.
Portia xx
Howdy, Portia! So glad you mentioned this scent — I remember trying it and liking it, so must now go digging for my sample. I’m usually not a big vetiver fan, although as I said, I do this like this one and also the Hermessence Vetiver Tonka. Hope you’re doing well!
And I almost forgot — Serge’s Vetiver Oriental is quite nice, too!
I love the Hermessence VT Ann but am yet to try Serge’s offering, I can’t wait to now with your recommendation behind it. If you come back how is Vetiver Oriental’s lifespan? Sounds warm and fuzzy?
Portia xx
Sel de Vetiver was my first big-ticket perfume purchase after I read about it in Chandler Burr’s “The Perfect Scent”. I sampled it twice at Barneys before I committed. My nose doesn’t pick up any ylang or greenness – just a blast of grapefruit, saltiness like Atlantic seawater dried on skin, and of course, the vetiver, which always smells more fresh/woody to me than green/herbaceous. It reminds me of summers swimming in the Atlantic off Martha’s Vineyard and Fire Island. I have no buyer’s remorse and frequently reach for it on a sunny, summery day, on the occasions we get them here in SF. Love the heft of the bottle, too.
I am so glad you are loving SdV too. You have such great associations with it too. Jam packed with happy memories.
Portia xx
I haven’t tried this yet, but it’s on the mental list as I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. Most vetivers get respect instead of love from me ie. I enjoy them, but not enough to wear. However, they transform when they hit the skin of The Engineer and become sex-ay! LOVE vetivers on him.
Having said that, I’ve been kicking myself for two years now that I never picked a bottle of Vetiver pour Elle while in Vegas. What was I thinking? It smelled fantastic! So imagine my delight to learn yesterday (thanks to the Queen of Enablers, Miss Ruth) that the Guerlain store in Florida had one bottle left. It is now mine, MINE, I say! Mwaaahaaahaa!
HA HA HA! You are hilarious Dionne. You must tell me how the Pour Elle wears. Ruth is the ULTIMATE enabler, whenever something fabulous goes my way I go straight to Ruth and ask for a split list.
Jin smells divine in vetiver too. We bought a 100ml Coeur de Vetiver Sacre L`Artisan Parfumeur while in Paris recently for around 30 Euro because they were selling out! Though trying to get ANYTHING other than Botega Venetta original onto his skin currently is impossible. This is not a complaint, he smells beyond incredible in it.
Portia xx
I’m glad you wrote this review because I suddenly realized that I know almost nothing about vetiver scents! Time to sample. I do have a sample of vintage Guerlain Djedi which I like. I lean towards florals, especially white ones and orientals. Fortunately my perfumista daughter likes the opposite of what I do, so we share samples and I have expanded my perfume horizon. It works for her too since she discovered (to her great surprise) that she likes rose perfumes.
AHHH! So many excellent ways that vetiver can be used: earthy, dry, woody, salty, wet, green and smoky. You have some fun exploring ahead. I particularly like this, Coeur de Vetiver Sacre L`Artisan Parfumeur, Vetiver Guerlain, Terre d’Hermes and Eau Sauvage DIOR.
I too love my rose perfumes Farima, which are your favourites currently?
Portia xx
I totally forgot to add Fat Electrician, the funnest vetiver EVER!!
Portia x
So bad – I typed my own name wrong! Thanks so much for the recommendations. It gives me a good starting point. Right now for rose fragrances I’m sampling Nostalgie. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but I’m really starting to like it a lot. My daughter was over when I was sampling rose perfumes. There was one that I said was probably not for me . She tried it, broke into a big smile and started laughing. It was Rose Poivree. She said it smelled like her grandfather’s yard (we lost him a few years ago), with the fresh water spring and the moss around it, his garden and flowers, the earth. That’s perfume magic to me.
That is totally what perfume magic is about!! I want to go there too.
Portia xx
For a long while Sel de Vetiver was my go-to scent for business meetings and the like, where I wanted something low-key and conservative. I still enjoy it, even though I’ve moved on to other “business” scents. When I got my stash, TDC was selling wonderful sample sets in 2 ml tiny square bottles, and when I ordered they sent two of each instead of the one I expected. I love that kind of surprise!
WOW! Always excellent to get extras. What a great marketing tool, people love to get more than they bargained for.
What are your business scents nowadays Ellen? Ballets Rouges would be a stunning choice.
Portia xx
I haven’t tried this one yet, but definitely want to, as I do like vetiver. I have a bottle of Miller Harris Fleurs de Sel and I really enjoy it. Not sure if the Miller Harris one has been discontinued, but I do know it is hard to find.
I have spent very little time with any of the Miller Harris frags, we don’t come across them in Australia and whenever I’m OS there are so many other things vying for my attention that they get left out, I forget to order any from the sample shops too. Thanks for the reminder MaryK.
I wonder if Fleurs de Sel is at all like Sandflowers by Montale? Anyone?
Portia x
I haven’t really gotten into vetiver but from what little I’ve tried I do like how dry it can be. My favorite so far is Chane;’s Sycomore.
MMMM Sycamore is beautiful. I don’t remember it exactly but I loved it when I tried it. time to go back to my Exclusives decants.
Nice to see you Eldarwen22
Portia xx
I’m with you eldarwen22. Love that Sycomore. I like the F. Malle vetiver, too, but I can’t remember exactly what it’s called. Oh yeah, Vetiver Extraordinaire. I’m now curious about Sel de Vetiver. It does sound perfect for sweltering summer conditions.
Hey Martha,
an excellent summer frag. Light and hefty at the same time,
Portia xx