L’Eau d’Issey pour Homme Vetiver

I blind bought a 50mL and was hesitant, as I don't really enjoy Dior Homme Sport 2021 or the original l'eau d'issey EDT. They both have a stuffy, staticy, tingly woody note that I find in lots of fragrances. I WANT to like both of these, I just can't. It's purely a personal issue, as I find whatever aroma chemicals responsible for their scent profile to be physically irritating. I also don't enjoy the weird sour-floral nature of the original l'eau d'issey EDT. I truly can't think of a good reason I blind bought this, but I am so glad I did. It's wonderful stuff!! I'm currently on my first wearing and to me, it's a mixture of Dior Homme Sport 2021 and the OG l'eau d'issey, with the parts of both that I dislike removed. It has a smooth woodiness, nice slightly aquatic freshness, not much vetiver, and a quality sage in the background tying it all together. The sage here reminds me of Ralph's Club EDT, but smoothed out and less screechy. I love a good Vetiver scent, like Grey Vetiver or Lunar Vetiver. This has vetiver mostly as a supporting note as I don't notice it all that much. Perhaps it's a vetiver I'm not really familiar with and just don't notice it as such. The ginger is pretty prominent and in a very pleasant way. It provides a nice sharpness, sort of like a ginger ale. Bright, zingy, fresh, naturally sweet. I find it adds the citrus element to the fragrance (although there's likely citrus added but not listed), sort of replacing the yuzu in the EDT. The ginger really smooths out over time and loses that ginger zing within 30 minutes or so. This has a lot of the sharpness most woody fragrances do, but perfectly smoothed over. There's not much of a floral aspect to this scent like the EDT has. This is quality quality quality juice for the price! This stuff is extremely versatile. It's fresh but it has a great amount of depth to it. I could see this possibly being a little too heavy in super high heat. It doesn't seem to have much sillage, but so far my 2-sprays-to-the-forearm test has lasted over 4 hours. I could see this easily exceeding 6 hours, and possibly up to 8. The scent changes over time, which is something I really enjoy in a scent. Linear scents get annoying after a while. It really smooths out and becomes a fresh, smooth-woody, masculine scent. Some really young people may find this a tad dated, but I truly think any guy of any age could pull this off. The only time I could see this not working is in cold weather or really high heat in crowds. I haven't tested it in high heat, but it feels like it could get stuffy when temps rise. It's a woody fragrance for those that usually dislike woody fragrances, but want to enjoy them. At least that's how I feel. It's nice finally having a woody scent I can enjoy, since it's a note family I can struggle with. There's a high chance I'm buying a 100 mL back-up since I love this way more than I expected. This is EXCELLENT if you want Dior Homme Sport 2021 but have a budget. As a Dior fan boy, and someone that is fortunate enough to afford Dior, I would choose this over the Dior every time. This is beautiful stuff for the price.

The danger of manufacturer-listed notes are that they shape the perceptions of those who read them. Only one of the 20+ reviews below mention any notes that aren't listed, which could leave readers to believe that this has nothing in common with the OG. In fact, this has the juicy yuzu of the OG, lots of lavender, and good measures of geranium green-ness, amber (from coumarin), Eugenol and Isoeugenol (clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and woody notes) and farnesol (lily of the valley, green florals and anise). Because of these notes, the opening tracks pretty closely to the OG, except for a bit more woodiness, vetiver (obviously!) and nutmeg/clove). It plays as a citrus/green aromatic for the first 30 minutes. When the heart begins to show, this begins to shade more towards the L'eau De Issey Intense, evolving into a light fougere. All of the classic fougere notes are present - the citrus top, aromatic lavender, minty-green geranium, anise (for a barbershop twist) and coumarin. The vetiver is quite restrained, here, which is odd for an ingredient-identified fragrance, but it adds a nice dimension. It comes out a bit more in the drydown as the lavender declines, and the interplay of the vetiver with the coumarin and eugenols is elegant. Longevity issues aside, I think that most of the fragrance-based complaints come from the fact that the actual scent differs from user expectations. Issey lovers usually like either the citrus freshies or the dark, but not both. This tries to span the gap. For me, in my 5th decade of life, both freshies and fougeres scratch my itch, so this works nicely, and I appreciate the development. Is this a must-have for me? NO. Am I glad that I have it? Definitely. This is a fougere that you can wear in the summer, and a freshie you can wear in cooler weather. Not unisex, office-appropriate and usable for formal events, like a warm weather wedding. This is somewhat classy, so it wouldn't be my first reach for a day at the beach or running errands in a t-shirt, and it isn't a sweet gourmand for date nights. 30 and up is my take. Because of the restrained vetiver, this is the kind of fragrance that a child or long-term S.O. would associate with you with fond memories of comforting masculinity and warm, fatherly strength. Finally, performance. This isn't beast mode, but you will get 4-5 hours of wafting off of your chest/shirt with 7 sprays.

I chanced upon this at my local Chemist Warehouse. There was no tester, so I made my impulse purchase decision based on the few reviews below this one. I weighed up the risk of poor performance, with the intrigue of Dior Homme Sport. Had a chat with the security guy about fragrances a bit, & once I paid for it I opened the box right there in the shop & sprayed a test spray on my forearm, as well as on a tester strip for the security guy. Spent the rest of the evening & the next few days getting to know this better before coming back to leave this review. So, L'eau D'Issey Intense has been my favourite "signature" scent for awhile now. Of my 50ish bottle collection, it is the only fragrance that I purchased a backup bottle of. I sprayed that on one arm & this Vetiver on the other, as well as the original as a reference to what this is, & this is a beautiful scent. Side by side, I'm not even sure if I prefer Intense or Vetiver now! I don't know how there are only 4 notes, because you definitely get the opening of the original L'eau D'Issey pour Homme when you first spray this on. That distinct yuzu citrus & woods clearly shares the same DNA & you would be nose blind to not recognise this as a somewhat woodier flanker. What you don't get though, is that vetiver that this flanker is supposed to be. At least not immediately. The original L'eau D'Issey pour Homme has a Tahitian vetiver base note, whilst this one carries a Haitian vetiver. So I'm looking for that Encre Noire A L'Extreme vibe to come through, but it's not quite there. Yet. I'm really digging my nose into my arm, looking for that vetiver note, & I can just about pick it out. It's not enough. Where is that Terre d'Hermès citrus vetiver I should be expecting? Nope. Not yet. But wait, once you get past the opening, & you stop actually looking for it, it comes to find you. That cool Encre Noire metallic vetiver undertone, whoomp there it is! It is beautifully feint, & not a strong projector type perfume. It has a certain designer type mass appeal, & is easy to get lost in the sea of same same, but if you can pick out the subtleties of this, it is indeed a(nother) Issey Miyake masterpiece! Looking forward to this one macerating nicely. Might have to pick up my second backup fragrance...

L’Eau d’Issey pour Homme Vetiver Issey Miyake IM latest 2023 flanker. I tested a spray of this at Sephora and found it pretty good, different from the og but there's no way I'm gonna get it at SGD$160 for a 100ml, if getting a retail I might as well top up Abit for the Dior scents that are similar. Then I saw one of the resellers listing it at SGD$78 for a retail bottle and I was able to utilize some vouchers and cashback and in the end it cost SGD$54/USD$40/Ringgit$188. I think it's quite a steal for a retail bottle. Ok back to IM Vetiver... The Vetiver opens sweet and it's not the dry grassy Vetiver. The ginger goes well with the clary sage and watery notes giving the composition a well done well blended one, a very aromatic scent, actually the ginger is prominent at the opening and the watery notes does remind Abit of the marine notes in the ADG scents but supporting the ginger and vetiver. The IMPH og dna is kinda there but it doesn't smell like it, there's no citrus nor the lovely yuzu, lemon verbana, so there's gonna be a hate love relationship for the IMPH Vetiver. In fact, it smells closer like a Hybrid of the newer Dior releases of Dior Homme 2020 and Dior Homme Sport 2021. It's definitely for the masses and a mass Appealing scent profile that will appeal to anyone testing it off the shelves. You can see it as a cheaper version of the 2 Dior scents I mentioned if you can get it cheap off a discounter or reseller as retail prices of it does not makes it worthy value wise. The presentation is IMPH styled But the Cap is 100% wooden and done and cut so precisely, fits perfectly, nice woody grains on the cap too. The cap isn't tight for all IMPH so don't go holding the cap. Overall it's a pretty good juice with decent projectivity and nice silage and the longetivity is somewhat better than the og for me. Good alternative to the 2 Dior scents.

So Dior homme sport 2021 has become a signature scent for me over the last 6 months or so and I feel I can speak to comparisons with Issey Vetiver. On test strip at first I totally thought this smells very close to DHS 2021. On skin it’s a lot more spicy maybe from the ginger + clary sage. The vetiver is a supporting note and never takes center stage in my opinion. As it settles in the first hour or so the watery notes and the citrus come out more and the spicy side tones down. It does remind me a little of DHS21 because the lemon in DHS starts to smell gingery with the elemi and Lab it can be the slightest bit spicy. When these are worn side by side back to back you can tell the differences as they are about 40-50% alike when it’s all said and done. Performance isn’t as good as DHS21 but it’s not bad, 5-7 hours and lingers on clothes throughout the workday. Overall a solid release and definitely worth picking up or at least sampling. Issey Vetiver also carries the OG Issey pour homme DNA with the citrus (yuzu) running through. If you like any of these scents I do not think it’s a redundant buy and on discounters it’s already becoming very affordable. Overall great release to add to the line. Update on the old OG with some modernity baked in. Subtle but present and usable in all situations. Get your nose on this because it’s good. Edit: After wearing LV Limmensite a few times this is like a softer version of it for a fraction of the price. Watery notes, spicy ginger, and woods = same profiles in each of these frags (LV & Issey). Not 1 to 1 but is in the ballpark for cheap. This is a great fragrance in my opinion. Funny thing is people hate the LV and you will see on this page how people call this boring so it's all subjective.