Vert
Clandestine Laboratories (2021)

First fragrance I tried ever :) . Herbal, mossy. most surprised by how it dries down to smell like coca cola which i find incredibly captivating. I'm sure it's definitely not anywhere close to coca cola but I don't have the vocabulary for those things. Vert isn't something I expect to particularly like but I adore it.
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Vert by Clandestine Laboratories (2021) is as it sounds: green. This is hands-down a very green fragrance, full of sour and urinous animalic musks to boot, with a classic coriander/galbanum interplay seemingly plucked right from the 1970's "boss bitch" green chypres of old. If you are not a fan of the bitter green substance known as galbanum, you will not love this perfume one bit; and likewise, if you are not a fan of old sour displays of bergamot and lime over cistus labdanum, I can equally recommend you to stay away. This one lives in remembrance of things like Moustache by Rochas (1949), Monsieur Lanvin (1964), and Capucci pour Homme by Roberto Capucci (1967), tossing in bits of Givenchy III (1971) and Chanel No. 19 (1972) as it goes, perhaps without any noticeable rose from the latter. Clandestine Laboratories itself is founded and operated by Mark Sage, a man who also knows his way around professional photography, so many of his perfumes are nothing if not snapshots into certain eras or places in time; Vert is no exception to this rule, and seems to cast its lot squarely in the days when exceedingly perfumes by Bernard Chant, Vincent Marcello, and Guy Robert ruled the world. I know this whole thing seems to project a very narrow band of interest in the online fragrance community, and as a consequence may make Vert seem a little one-dimensional and less-likeable overall compared to others from the house, especially if you've come to the brand after smelling some of its more-complex creations; but I like that dimension a lot, and am myself an ugly duckling.

The opening here is going to be really pissy to the untrained nose, so I do not recommend sniffing this one first if you're not accustomed to obvious animalics. Sour bergamot and lime join this note, furthering it alongside a dry lavender, majoram, and coriander, with the strong grassy green bitterness of galbanum. Eventually things do smooth down as geranium and jasmine form a classic uplifting floral chypre core, reminiscent to my nose of many of the things I mentioned above. Vert avoids being too floral though, and soon dives into terpenous patchouli joined with nutty vetiver and resinous opoponax. Musky labdanum and leathery castoreum join a tonkin musk reconstruction, bring the animalic facets back into view, although this time they are less pissy, and more "rear of the deer" fleshy in nature, but never rank. Late wear seems to be all about that galbanum though, so you won't forget this fragrance is all about the name, and is about as vert as vert gets. Overall, I just feel there is less to say about Vert compared to some others I've reviewed from this brand, because it's really a "if you know, you know" kind of perfume. Performance is strong, and this one will go the distance all day, with projection only trailing off after maybe six hours, but lasting over ten on my skin. Best use would be spring and early summer, casually or when outdoors enjoying nature in the raw. One of my friends recommended deer hunting in it, but I won't speak on that. Wearing Vert around strange company is a risk, but if you want to make a lasting impression Hell or high water, do it.

Vert could almost be a kissing cousin to Certo by Clandestine Laboratories (2021), because both fragrances go after an ostensibly-green chypre archetype, while Certo lives more in its leathery tones and balance between them and the citrus up top, while Vert eschews all sense of said balance and shoves your face right into the scrub brush, freshly pee'd on by some wild animal. Put another way, Certo is more like National Geographic Presents, while Vert is found footage of a safari in the brush that ended in the untimely demise of whoever was holding the camera, real Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde stuff this is. For me though, that couldn't possibly be better; and I'm a huge fan of stuff like this, which is usually the purview of artisanal brands like Clandestine Laboratories or maybe Middle-Eastern houses like Amouage. Speaking of them, if you enjoy Amouage Gold Man (1983), Amouage Epic Man (2009), or Amouage Figment Man (2017), Vert by Clandestine Laboratories is probably one you should check out. Personally, my favorite animalic-prominent perfume from this house will always be Film Noir by Clandestine Laboratories (2021), but had I given this a sniff sooner, I may have had a tough choice on my hands between it and the former. Vert by Clandestine Laboratories is a very bold green fragrance for a very bold person, but it certainly will not win any popularity contests like Silver by Clandestine Laboratories (2021) nor is particularly high-concept like Ashes by Clandestine Laboratories (2021). Still, this is one of my favorites from the brand, because I just love green. Thumbs up

Vert by Clandestine Laboratories is the best "green" fragrance I've worn. It is green...a very bright green. Not necessarily in color, but in freshness and overall scent profile. This is a crystalline green and is what an emerald would smell like to me if an emerald had an scent that was noticeable to humans. The combination of notes in the opening, key lime, yuzu, lemon, lavender, bergamot, all combine to give this fragrance a tartness that is sizzling from a citrus standpoint, but also green. There is also a settling but spicy presence from coriander and galbanum that adds another layer to the beautiful green! And, then there's the vetiver, or as Mark Sage from Clandestine says in the notes list, "loads of vetiver"! I love the way Mr. Sage has brought all of these green notes together and made their sum total much, much better than they are individually. Vetiver alone would simply not smell this good and clean to me. The vetiver's grassiness is very noticeable as Vert drys down, but it is perfectly balanced by the citruses and additional green notes, particularly the galbanum, to create a green fragrance that is memorable, wearable, and energizing.

will add that the far drydown becomes mostly about galbanum.

Very nice work once again by Mark Sage with Vert. Full bottle for me. Two thumbs up.