Vetiver Essence
Ferrari (2014)

Like a first date on an fally afternoon-turtleneck sweaters and sipping hot latte's in a room with deep green walls. It's name says almost everything about it Vetiver Essence. What makes the vetiver in VE lovely is it's steeped, in delicious, light gourmand elements that allows this sometimes polarizing note to be softened and approachable but still present.

The opening is fresh, aromatic feeling, almost cold blast with the citrus and cardamom. A sweet delicious vetiver heart that combines a nutty, and creamy qualities (but i wouldn't really call it a gourmand) like smoothness with the dry, earthy vetiver root and refined tonka bean in the background. A versatile scent. It is suitable for any seasons. The price is affordable. Longevity is good, projection could be better.

I wanted to update my old review, and sadly the only one on this site, despite this being a fairly well known fragrance. This is a fragrance I have bought and sold on 2 separate occasions.

Initial application: A little bit of alcohol, goes away within 30 seconds. I get a vetiver/coconut/fig sort of vibe, highlighted by a rooty/earthy vetiver note. To me, this opening is intoxicating, as it manipulates this dark and dirty vetiver with tropical notes. It's kind of like Banana Republic Vintage Green, but with a ton of vetiver.

The heart notes come in quickly. Still vetiver as the main role, I get some iris, with a lot of cardamom. The coffee note is hard to detect. In my initial review I noticed it more, but not so much now. The combination kind of has a coffee vibe, but not so much the smell if that makes any sense. It's like it has the earthy, sweet part of fresh coffee beans, but it doesn't smell like coffee. What's weird is that if I go in to my hand/arm to smell it without any coffee expectations, then I kinda get it, but when I go in looking for coffee like a dog looking for a fire hydrant, I get nothing. The power of the brain can do amazing things to your senses.

Moving along, is my least favorite part of the fragrance. I guess they didn't wanna use vetiver through to the end, as we know it's quite possible since vetiver serves as a great base note. So the base is sort of a woodsy, powdery thing going on, I may even get a little rose, or something like it. Overall though, the more it dries down, the more synthetic it smells.

Maybe it's the complexity of this fragrance and making it very hard to describe the accords and nuances I get. Or maybe it's that it falls apart in the end, that people don't keep their bottles, which is why you see used bottles of these float up in sale/swap posts all the time, as well as on selling platforms.

Conclusion.. it's very interesting, but also kind of flat and unfinished. If you can find it as cheap as $20-30 a bottle, and love vetiver, this is a safe bet. It's pretty niche in terms of uniqueness, and maybe with the top notes, smelling very high quality after the burst of alcohol absorbs.