By Thomas
The recent popularity of the painter Michaelangelo Caravaggio and the composer Gustav Mahler sometimes has me scratching my head. Both were quite popular in their time, but faded into obscurity not long after their passing. In both cases, outside agencies discovered their works and became strong, impassioned advocates (Roberto Longhi and Leonard Bernstein, respectively) leading to their current veneration.
Of course, if they were that great, why would it take such effort to bring them around? Because their appeal is not universal. Where you might hear a Mozart tune and immediately start humming, Mahler doesn’t hook in to your mind quite so easily, and when he does, it’s in fragments, as opposed to complete tunes. Likewise Caravaggio, when compared with Da Vinci.
So we’ve all tried vetiver scents, probably own a few or even more than a few, and they all share a similar, reasonably pleasant grassy theme. Certainly you’ve tried Guerlain and can probably recognize it off the bat. Maybe you’ve had Carven’s Vetiver, or the Givenchy re-issue.
I read on a few message boards that Puig had introduced a Vetiver in the 70’s and it was worth a look. So, what does Thomas do? He buys a bottle, of course. I mean, you can’t have too many vetivers, right? Unfortunately, it turns out that having a gaggle of vetiver colognes is a bit like having a closet full of white shirts. There are variations on white…but they’re all still mostly-white. (except for Vetyver Haiti, posting later this week).
Vetiver de Puig hides his cards early on: the opening is a mossy rosemary-lemon. It’s well-balanced but…not very likeable. It’s too…perfume-y, too much behind-the-scenes production (like Jicky edt, it hangs heavy around the victim…I mean wearer). I would have dialed back the gauzy-moss effect and left a more direct lemon-rosemary-vetiver.
After a while the gauze fades and we’re left with a soft but clean rosemary-vetiver. The good news is, I like rosemary. The bad news is, rosemary was done to death in the 70’s and remains emblematic of macho 70’s scents. Some will like this, some will think…I’ve smelled this before, and others…well, there is no pleasing some folks.
Initial sprays (it comes in a splash bottle but I decanted to a sprayer) may gas you out of the room, but the effect is very short-lived. Drydown comes fairly quickly, and by lunch we have a mildly-soapy rosemary vetiver that stay s close to the skin. If you’re looking for a reasonable vetiver on the cheap, and like rosemary, give this a shot. Not quite the universal appeal like Beethoven or Da Vinci, but reasonably good and - for some audiences - a clear winner.
BTW: Zara introduced a Vetiver scent, composed by Puig, for a very reasonable price. I have been unable to get my hands on it so far, but I wonder whether Zara and Puig’s vetivers are similar. Zara indicated in an email that their Vetiver should be in U.S. stores in a couple of months. I’ll keep an eye out for it. (yes, another white shirt…)
Year: 1978
Notes: sage, lavender, lemon, bergamot, juniper, laurel leaf, carnation, pine, moss, musk, sandlewood, patchouli, vetiver, and leather.
Of course, if they were that great, why would it take such effort to bring them around? Because their appeal is not universal. Where you might hear a Mozart tune and immediately start humming, Mahler doesn’t hook in to your mind quite so easily, and when he does, it’s in fragments, as opposed to complete tunes. Likewise Caravaggio, when compared with Da Vinci.
So we’ve all tried vetiver scents, probably own a few or even more than a few, and they all share a similar, reasonably pleasant grassy theme. Certainly you’ve tried Guerlain and can probably recognize it off the bat. Maybe you’ve had Carven’s Vetiver, or the Givenchy re-issue.
I read on a few message boards that Puig had introduced a Vetiver in the 70’s and it was worth a look. So, what does Thomas do? He buys a bottle, of course. I mean, you can’t have too many vetivers, right? Unfortunately, it turns out that having a gaggle of vetiver colognes is a bit like having a closet full of white shirts. There are variations on white…but they’re all still mostly-white. (except for Vetyver Haiti, posting later this week).
Vetiver de Puig hides his cards early on: the opening is a mossy rosemary-lemon. It’s well-balanced but…not very likeable. It’s too…perfume-y, too much behind-the-scenes production (like Jicky edt, it hangs heavy around the victim…I mean wearer). I would have dialed back the gauzy-moss effect and left a more direct lemon-rosemary-vetiver.
After a while the gauze fades and we’re left with a soft but clean rosemary-vetiver. The good news is, I like rosemary. The bad news is, rosemary was done to death in the 70’s and remains emblematic of macho 70’s scents. Some will like this, some will think…I’ve smelled this before, and others…well, there is no pleasing some folks.
Initial sprays (it comes in a splash bottle but I decanted to a sprayer) may gas you out of the room, but the effect is very short-lived. Drydown comes fairly quickly, and by lunch we have a mildly-soapy rosemary vetiver that stay s close to the skin. If you’re looking for a reasonable vetiver on the cheap, and like rosemary, give this a shot. Not quite the universal appeal like Beethoven or Da Vinci, but reasonably good and - for some audiences - a clear winner.
BTW: Zara introduced a Vetiver scent, composed by Puig, for a very reasonable price. I have been unable to get my hands on it so far, but I wonder whether Zara and Puig’s vetivers are similar. Zara indicated in an email that their Vetiver should be in U.S. stores in a couple of months. I’ll keep an eye out for it. (yes, another white shirt…)
Year: 1978
Notes: sage, lavender, lemon, bergamot, juniper, laurel leaf, carnation, pine, moss, musk, sandlewood, patchouli, vetiver, and leather.
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