Vetiver Rain Skin

I really thought before wearing Vetyver Rain Skin that it was going to be a touchy one for me. I love vetiver, but it is fully capable of going overboard with the sweaty swampy notes. I am also good with aquatic scents, but they are very frequently fully capable of going overboard with calone and/or dihydromyrcenol, making them shriek like banshees wanting to blow-out your eardrums and make your nose bleed. Laudamiel has given us commercial juggernauts - like Abercrombie’s Fierce, which I saw some strong potential overlap in the notes pyramid before wearing Vetyver Rain Skin - that I find to be very... questionable... which made me all the more nervous. I wasn’t completely wrong. The ozonic marine note is massive, like a piece of seawater soaked driftwood pressed up to your face. Hesperidics, particularly grapefruit with its sharp and oily and sour and sulfuric qualities, and fruity-floral-sweet orange blossom keep it lively, energetic, playful, gently floral and a touch sweet. The classic masculine base (of an early 2000s style, mind you) of vetiver, woods, mosses, and musks are not hidden underneath, they sit calmly and well-leveled below the surface of the green, orange, and aquatic melange layer. Abercrombie Fierce. A microscope is not needed to see its DNA here. But... you know what... I don’t hate it! In fact, I’m genuinely enjoying its puerile and rudimentary good humor and sense of fun. Everything is smooth, balanced, and of solid quality. It is damn-near perfectly aquatic, woody, floral, herbal, mossy, green, orange, sweet, bitter, dry, wet, oily, and all things in between. From a technical perspective I cannot smell a single thing off with it. Artistically, I get a hallucination in my mind of walking out of the ocean, soaked with seawater, and stepping into a humid tropical forest on the shoreline - the beautiful smells of the flora and soils radiating into the air. It’s doing exactly what it says it is going to do, and it does it well. One of the times wearing this for testing my partner, who is never shy with feedback and who is a 2000s kid as well and well-used to those smells of the time, balked and went wide eyed smelling this on me: “You’re wearing Fierce?! Are you ok?! Wait... that isn’t Fierce is it?... What is that?... That’s pretty nice actually. I think I'd like to wear that in the summer.” I can’t disagree. I do wear it. It is nice. It just goes to show that a little attention to the little details can, overall, make a big difference.

I received a random sample of Vetiver Rain Skin with a purchase, and am very impressed. Its name, albeit uncatchy, captures the essence of this scent perfectly. A cool marriage of grassy vetiver and fruity notes on an aquatic base, it is a creative, unusual take on a freshie. On paper, it is not typically something I would choose, but I confess myself to be quite won over. VRS is aquatic from initial spray, fresh but with some ozonic sweetness rather than the saltiness I expected. It is followed closely by the citrus notes, which add tart freshness. While somewhat synthetic, it manages to be pleasant and bracingly fresh. The vetiver-led woody accord follows, initially somewhat green, complementing the aquatic notes nicely. As it settles, it becomes more floral and soapy, but the woodiness persists. Green violet emerges, dewy rather than powdery, and I get some restrained but sweet orange blossom too. The fresh greenness persists. It becomes cleanly musky and a little mossy as it dries down, the oakmoss melding with the grassy vetiver to form a soft chypre accord. It fades fairly quickly, remaining green and dewy until final fade, despite the drier woody-musky notes. Sillage and longevity are moderate. It is a unisex, spring/summer day scent. A creative freshie involving an unusual combination of notes, VRS is a great take on vetiver that is offbeat but is wearable and really works. Fresh in every sense. 4/5.

Very ozonic/aquatic on the first notes, on a rather conventional ground, but with a very nice opening on woody/oak/mossy that takes it to a whole other originality. There's also this really chlorophyll/wet green aspect that I can't seem to associate with anything in the note pyramid. On the other hand, I miss a little bit the jasmine/violet accord (the drydown is powdery, but these notes are almost unnoticed by my nose). This is not a perfume I would classify as a classic (or "pure") vetiver, but it is indeed a "masculine" (from the point of view of the classic classification) young and lively.

Review for Vetyver Rain (2022) which may be a different perfume — it's dropped the Skin reference. Vetyver Rain opens as a very light grapefruit and blond wood fragrance. I would put the vetiver third in rank after grapefruit and cool, green, plasticky violet leaf. At this point it reminds me of packing cardboard and warehouses. After a short time a light muskiness begins to surface. It's marine, sure but it's really that effect that comes from combining cedary musks and moss, more woody than coastal. As it dries the musk takes the lead until it totally dominates. There are echoes of Heeley's Sel Marin , though it's softer, more laundry-clean than Heeley's mucky rockpools (which I enjoy). Those who love neutral musk perfumes will find favour with this one. It's anodyne, fresh and totally unobjectionable.

Great refreshing opening. Slightly citric, but also aquatic. Very easy to wear woody aquatic. The vetiver is fairly restrained, it's nothing like say Encre Noire Sport. It doesn't smell overly unique or anything, but Laudamiel is a pro when it comes down to these type of compositions. They perhaps smell familiar but are nicely executed in their own way. It could perhaps be a distant aquatic cousin of Fierce. The base is pleasant and slightly musky. Performance is decent and will last a couple hours. Overall a good summer scent, I'd definitely recommend a sample. 8/10