Vetiver Bourbon

I love vetiver. I also love Parfum d’Empire. It might be a foregone conclusion that I would love Vetiver Bourbon. Wrong! (Hopefully). I try very hard to turn off my biases when assessing perfumes but I honestly cannot tell you if I succeeded with Vetiver Bourbon. Vetiver is a very talented actor, the type that you can see in several movies or television series and question whether or not you’re seeing the same actor. Vetiver Bourbon does what the best vetiver perfumes do, which is to give you this very complicated and multi-faceted material in all of its chameleonic forms while making each character coherent. Upon application you view a scene of enormous complexity, the opening sequence to a very well done action film. See the strongly medicinal and woody angelica muscling its way in causing a big green explosion, while musky-oily and earthy ambrette keeps the explosion from developing into total chaos. This is largely the same ambrette that Marc-Antoine Corticchiato used in Le Cri, except dialed way back so that it doesn’t come across as blinding sunlight but rather as a density with a gravitational mass that keeps the angelica explosion closer to earth. To keep proceedings from getting too medicinal-woody and oily-musky, a dried and spicy woody clove provides a lift into the air, the human emotion and personality to these serious and heavy action characters - which is funny to say for clove. But then arrives a massive dose of hydrophobic and oily orris as well. How did MAC achieve this? Orris is not a wallflower, yet the overlap between the top section and the orris and the growing vetiver accord in the base is masterful. There is the Bourbon vetiver which is musky, oily, pungent and robust in the aromatic way, and the Haitian vetiver that is dark, earthy, and woody. There are very nearly two dry downs to this perfume. It takes forever for the top section of angelica, ambrette, clove, and orris to depart before the orris link takes us to an aromatic and green Haitian vetiver and then finally settling on a Bourbon woody vetiver bolstered by cedar and a resinous labdanum. The Haitian vetiver - separated from the Bourbon vetiver - plus the cistus at the base is inspired. It smells dark and earthy, woody and green, but also resinous and slightly floral. Here, and as always, thank you, Marc-Antoine Corticchiato for not ignoring your dry downs and making them just as beautiful and intriguing as the upper layers. What is remarkable about Vetiver Bourbon is that, like the greatest of vetiver classics, it gives equal balance to the bright green and energetic vetiver notes as it does to the dark and mysterious notes of vetiver. The only thing that is missing is the more off-putting side of vetiver, the swampy, salty, fetid side of vetiver but yet you do not miss it - if that is something that allures you; the rather difficult and “look at me” explosive opening of the angelica more than makes up for vetiver’s naturally challenging characteristics. MAC displays a masterful and encyclopedic knowledge of the overlap of materials and their notes with Vetiver Bourbon, cramming so much into the perfume without ever losing the plot line or letting actors/characters become overshadowed. This is damn near as good as my beloved Guerlain Vetiver EdT (the original), which is saying a lot... a whole lot. This is one of my favorite vetivers to have emerged in many years.

Vétiver Bourbon is a truly lovely take on a vetiver-dominant scent. Much as I appreciate vetiver as a key perfume note, I don't gravitate towards vetiver-dominant scents - I find them to be very masculine and sometimes a little astringent. This is certainly not the case here. The gold standard for me is Guerlain Vétiver, but VB gives it a run for its money. Hiram Green's Vetiver also comes to mind as a decent example of a modern vetiver scent, but VB is more well-rounded with a nice chypre base - more tailored to my taste. The use of orris here is inspired - adding a powdery, rooty quality to the base, in a similar way to Mal-Aimé by the same house. Overall, this is an aromatic, musky vetiver scent with a chypre base (and is much less challenging than the aforementioned M-A). The vetiver used here is top-quality, and every note serves to present it in the best possible light. Cohesive and creative, the composition is masterful. VB is vetiver-dominant from initial spray - typically dry and woody with a nice grassy edge. Angelica, an underrated note in my opinion adds a earthy herbal quality that complements the vetiver to perfection. The opening is green and aromatic. As it develops, the vetiver remains centre-stage, but the rooty, powdery orris emerges, enhancing it to perfection. It adds body and enhances the earthiness, but in a smooth, luxurious manner. Iris is perhaps my favourite note of all, and its beautiful, melancholic, powdery complexity is why. I also enjoy creative applications of iris/orris in perfume, as seen here. The orris-vetiver accord remains throughout, but it becomes increasingly musky as it dries down, thanks to the slightly sweet ambrette. The earthiness persists, and it becomes slightly mossy in its later stages too, in the manner of a classic chypre. Notes like vetiver and patchouli can often give an oakmoss-like effect in modern chypres (necessary nowadays, given the oakmoss restrictions), and this is the case here. It fades to an ambrette skin scent, deliciously musky and smooth. Sillage and longevity are moderate. It is a transeasonal masculine-leaning scent in my opinion, but is certainly unisex depending on taste. It is ideal for everyday use - it is sophisticated yet has general appeal. A beautiful modern chypre with vetiver as a focal point, VB is a deeply pleasant, satisfying scent throughout, made of high-quality, natural-smelling ingredients. One of the best vetiver scents I've tried. 4.5/5.

It is a musky Vetiver with both high quality of ambrette and bourbon Vetiver, with noticable orris of quality. Very earthy no smoky, very lineal to me since maybe the perfumer want to keep the original bourbon vetiver without excessive decorations. It's good, but I prefer Hemingway for the same category of vetiver (for me they are the same). Hours Afters, it lest a special musky scent due to ambrette seeds, that a wonderful smell. For this dry down I would like to wear it, but at this moment there vetiver and orris are much weaker. Beautiful dry down but not for everyone's taste (different musky scent, not típico to my nose). By the way, the great quality of vetiver OIL smell recalls me the Vetiver Nocturne from Bortnikoff somehow, those perfumes apreciate that much the oil smell and alow it stay as what it is. Good one. But not my style. Edit: More and more I got used to the strong musky scent, and now I can enjoy the bourbon vetiver oil scent without disturbance. I have to change my rating to 5 stars. This is another love at the third or fourth sight!!! Have to be patient and have to sample it and give it full wear for more than two weeks before buy it!!! Would buy it? Maybe, once I become older enough, or a CEO, or I have to go in first clase to somewhere to do negotiations. 😅🤔😉 I have to RE-compare with its similar rivals like Hemingway, Vetiver Royal Bourbon and Hiram green Vetiver again with new perspectives.... Edit again: just did the comparison of those four similar type of vetiver frangrances, and Vetiver Royal Bourbon from Oriza L. Legrand outstanded of the others in durantion, Hiram vetiver and Vetiver Bourbon gave similar duration and strenth; while Heminway faded away sooner than the others as skin scents. Interesting! Since the price counts, Heminway is not worthy of its price tag but for the complexity that it gives only. I noted that Hiram green and Vetiver Royal Bourbon from Oriza L. Legrand have also so natual ingrediant the smell than others.

VETIVER UNTAMED! Stunning! and how long will it take to this sample transmute into a full bottle, is just a matter of few weeks. As the name of the perfume implies, VB unfolds like a conceptual monochromatic study of the green, but able to negotiate an entire palette of greenish shades. The opening avoids any sort of citrus and it is so sparkling bitter green like my baby cat's own eyes. The responsible for this greeness is one of my fav notes: angelica. Bitter, herbal, emitting bright burts of pepper, it made me wonder whether some additional pepper was used. Naturally musky, angelica complements what I would call the co-star of the show: ambrette. The seductive muskiness emanating from the use Corticchiato does of ambrette is gorgoeus to say the least (see Le Cri de La Lumiere) I detect slightly floral undertones - and even slighter leathery ones. As the ambrette recedes, there come some Madagascarian cloves paving the way to the most "pure" vetiver I had occasion to smell. It appears to me that cloves serve a modulatory function from the greeness of the openng to the hearthy-greeness of the main note. A woody and earthy iris-like note eventually cloud the profile in the base, sweet notes join in, in minimal amounts, preparing the fragrance for a balsamic, very soft finish that rounds off and completes the green facets once more. For those that are material nerds, Vetiver Bourbon comes from the Reunion island in the Indian Ocean. I am wondering if the raw material come directly from there and then goes to PdE's lab or, as some sources claim, it is cultivated in Madagascar where the aforementioned lab is. If you want your vetiver to be raw and untamed (perhaps someone would say unrefined if you compare to other treatment), but very true to the nature of its olfactory profile, then look no further. Follow me on IG @alexolympia6

After a quick blast of bitter green-ness (artemisia), it's Mr Vetiver to take unapologetically the lead, and dominate down to the base, with noticeable support of cloves, and probably also ambrette to round a bit the darkness of the vetiver. The orris also plays its role by rounding things up by giving a hint of powderiness. Great performance. What Corticchiato delivered here is a stunning dark vetiver, arguably the best iteration of rooty/nutty vetiver I got to smell in my life of vetiver-addict. I said it. At the intersection of Givenchy Vetyver (the nuttiness, but VB is deeper than Givenchy's), Elie Saab No.6 Vetiver (powderiness with a hint of cloves, but VB is of higher quality, and much more masculine) and Heeley VV (the dark earthiness, without going into a catacomb). Useless to say: only Heeley's compares with PdE Vetiver Bourbon in terms of quality. If one found Saab's was a bit too shallow, Heeley a bit too earthy, and MPG Route du Vetiver a bit too damp/dark, PdE is the perfect tuning for an easily wearable high quality rooty vetiver, that stays on the contemporary side of things. . That said, I expected a bit more originality in terms of blend coming from PdE, not only a 'best in its category'. Ok...ok... I might be nitpicking here, but PdE sets the bar very high in terms of expectations.... Still, a deep love for me, and I had to go for a full bottle, at full retail price, a few minutes after trying it in store. That says it all!