Vétiver Écarlate

Vetiver Ecarlate has quickly become my favorite hot weather choice! When I first smelled it off the tester card, I was not really impressed, it had the peppery tomato vine note and citrus, and very soon settled into a familiar vetiver drydown, all as expected. But then the hot day hit and I put on several spritz of it to go out, and it managed to turn my thoughts around with no effort: Vetiver Ecarlate is not your standard freshie/citrus kind of scent. I'd even go as far as saying this isn't a perfume in its traditional sense. Beyond the faint scent that lingers for hours, this creates a charged haze around you in heat and breeze. I'm sure a lot of people don't perceive it as a perfume kind of scent, but the way they react to it is fun to watch: it cheers everyone up and gives them a moment of pause as they wonder what's going on. Another point of interest is the vetiver in the drydown has more of an earthy-sweet facet, as compared to the routine dry-woody profile we know of vetiver. One reviewer described it as the tomato leaf turning into tomato flesh in the drydown, which makes perfect sense when you experience the evolution. Perhaps that's why it carries the term ecarlate (meaning scarlet) in its name? To wrap up, this is a very unique scent in its design, and the choice of high end material gives it a quietly chic vibe to stand out among the busy portfolio of summer citruses. Quentin's vision matched with L'Artisan Parfumeur's philosophy has created a very rare masterpiece that magically holds the tension at the intersection of fresh, sweet and dry! Totally worth the full bottle price and I will happily buy again when I run out, which I expect will be pretty soon living in this hot climate I am in! <3 <3

These three ingredients go really well together. The tomato leaf is responsible for a tart, green, vegetal aspect to the composition, but it's not so strong as to turn the fragrance into a garden smell. The grapefruit is bright, fizzy and invigorating and contributes just as much if not more than the tomato leaf. The grapefruit also seems to stick around longer. In spite of the name, vetiver is the supporting note here, acting like a branch between the other two notes. It doesn't have any of the smoky or rooty facets that vetiver often has. It's a very smoothed out, grassy vetiver, like the one in TF Grey Vetiver. There's a hint of ginger that isn't mentioned but it's nice to get some of that zingy quality too underneath the freshness. There's no sweetness here. It works really well in an office setting and lingers around for the entire working day. I would say it skews slightly masculine. All in all a very classy and versatile, slightly off-beat citrus freshie with good longevity.

Got this a while ago, worth every penny. Beautiful harmony of bitter, green, bright aromas with quality aura. Awesome longevity, stays super fresh and the citrus just lingers and lingers - which is amazing! This kind of citrus staying power is pretty rare, I think I have two fragrances that compare to this in the sense of citrus longevity - and I love citruses. It is pretty linear, but in the opening I do get those tomato leaves, very softly (I just wish they were slightly more dominant), drydown is grapefruit and fresh, green, foresty vetiver, almost salty. Might sound boring but I swear it is not! This is so fun to wear, uplifting good mood fragrance. Kind of off-the-beaten-path, but nothing too challenging. Fits well to office and brings you to spring mood even in middle of the winter. Unisex, actually I would describe this free from gender conventions. Just a great scent.

A hint of vetiver, with dominant tomato mixed with milder grapefruit notes. This smells absolutely delicious. When I first smelt it at the Seoul airport I couldn't decide if I loved it or hated it, but I found myself continuing to think about it so I bought it right before I boarded the plane. Since then it's been bliss- I find myself sniffing my wrist throughout the day to get a whiff. After this, tried the pea and beetroot ones at the shop- I really want to like them, but I felt like puking for how much they felt like raw vegetables. This really made me appreciate how the tomato-mixed grapefruit took away some rawness with fruit here. Finally, vetiver is used as a complementary scent. You basically can't smell it, but you can tell where they used it. Suits me perfectly- I like vetiver, but not that much. This is exactly what this vetiver is like.

Vetiver Ecarlate is a photorealistic green citrus fragrance. The tomato leaf and grapefruit is so naturalistic, it almost borders on culinary. On first spray, I was reminded immediately of Hermes Un Jardin Sur Le Nil with that sort of watercolor transparency- though I would say this fragrance leans further masculine due to higher presence of vetiver. The vetiver here mainly plays a supporting role, lingering in the background as structural architecture while the tomato leaf and citrus take the spotlight. It's especially unique in it's consistency: the citrus and tomato persist from opening to drydown with no degradation. It is bright, effervescent, charming, and incredibly happy all while being vegetal, soapy and calming. Fantastic release! Score: 8/10 Wearability: 8/10 Projection: Moderate to Strong Longevity: Long Lasting