vetiver: 12 posts

“Art does not reproduce the visible, it makes visible,” wrote the expressionist painter Paul Klee. The same could be said about perfumery, which is an art of intangible substances. The greatest fragrances conjure up the most complex of images, holding the artistic intent of their creators and offering a glimpse into their thoughts and memories. Of course, the goal of a perfumer may not always be that grand (or, given the nature of the market today, they may have neither the time nor opportunity to leave their fingerprint on a finished fragrance). However, when it does happen and a perfume feels more than the sum of its parts, it can touch us as deeply as any great work of art.

One of my favorite examples is Lalique’s Encre Noire Pour Homme released in 2006, and which perfumer Nathalie Lorson composed with the intention of showing off the suave, languid character of vetiver – a note usually seen as bracing and cold. A type of grass originating in India, Vetiver is grown to prevent soil erosion and produces a complex oil with accents of licorice, bitter grapefruit peel, smoke, and damp earth. Everything that makes it interesting is present in Encre Noire, but Lorson went further. She balanced the different facets of vetiver and highlighted them with musk and woods, fashioning the roughness of roots into reams of black silk.

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The scent of sandalwood is glorious–creamy, velvety, with a rich rose nuance. It’s as if wood shavings had been steeped in rose liqueur and then drizzled with cream. I remember the bliss I felt while leaning over a vat of vetiver-sandalwood attar in Kannauj, a town in northern India renowned for its scents, and immersing myself into a cloud of fragrant vapor. I still have a handful of sandalwood chips from that trip and they retain their beautiful aroma. The combination of sandalwood and vetiver is even more spellbinding.

Of course, there are plenty of sandalwood-vetiver fragrances, from Serge Lutens Vétiver Oriental to Maison Louis Marie No.04 Bois de Balincourt. I enjoy all of them. Yet the sandalwood fragrance I wear the most is Forest Essentials Sandalwood & Vetiver Scented Body Mist. I bought it on the same Indian trip when I traveled to Lucknow and Kannauj researching the history of attars.

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Do you smell in color? Or perhaps you associate scents with shapes, textures or tastes? For some people, a synesthetic perception of the world around them is part of their life. Synesthesia refers to a condition when the stimulation of one sense engages others, and some famous writers and artists like Vladimir Nabokov, Vincent van Gogh and Tori Amos are known to be synesthetes.

I don’t think of myself as a true synesthete, but over the years, I have developed a way of thinking about smells that has an element of synesthesia. Certain aromas evoke colors for me, and in my video and article today, I wanted to share my experience of scents that smell blue.

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Forest Essentials is an Indian beauty brand inspired by Ayurvedic treatments. It has a collection of skincare, creams, lotions, soaps, body mists and perfumes. I can’t comment on the Ayurvedic authenticity of its formulations, but the scents–jasmine, sandalwood and rose, turmeric, vetiver, narcissus–are beautiful. I like that they are based on the Indian perfume palette, and using these products is one of those small pleasures that make a day better.

One of my favorites from Forest Essentials is its simplest–Vetiver Spring Water, which is a vetiver hydrosol. It can be used as a facial toner, body mist or even a middle-of-the-day, pick-me-up spritz. Vetiver is soothing for the skin, and while it can be used on all skin types, it’s especially beneficial for oily skin. It’s also known for its regenerative properties, which is why vetiver extracts are often used in formulations designed to treat scars and acne.

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“Art does not reproduce the visible, rather it makes visible,” wrote the cubist, surrealist and expressionist painter Paul Klee. The same could be said about perfumery, which is an art of intangible substances. The greatest fragrances conjure up the most complex of images, holding the artistic intent of their creators and offering a glimpse into their thoughts and memories. Just how perfumers achieve is what I explore in my recent article for my FT column, Vetiver Voyages. I use vetiver as an illustration.

One of my favourite examples is Lalique’s Encre Noire Pour Homme, released in 2006, which perfumer Nathalie Lorson composed with the intention of showing off the suave, languid character of vetiver – a note usually seen as bracing and cold. A type of grass originating in India, vetiver is grown to prevent soil erosion and produces a complex essential oil with accents of liquorice, bitter grapefruit peel, smoke and damp earth. To continue, please click here.

The other fragrances in the Modern Classic series were Serge Lutens’s Féminité du Bois, Lolita Lempicka, Bulgari Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert, and Frédéric Malle Carnal Flower.

What are your favorite vetiver fragrances?

Image via FT