Reviews of Vetiver (1961)
by Guerlain

I had very high hopes for this scent after what I had been hearing about it, but I was greatly disappointed. This smell simply did not fit my demographic. This fragrance smelled like a hospital waiting room mixed with soap you might find in a nursing home. I didn't get any of the fresh, green (forest-like, I was hoping) scents the smell has been touting. This "classic" is not for anything between the ages of 18-35 unless you are hitting on 50+ year-old cougars who may enjoy this sort of smell.

Soapy dirt with a splash of bug spray: try before you buy.

On the basis of the excellent reviews here on basenotes I ordered a bottle of Vetiver without first having tried it. When the bottle arrived I pulled off the cap excitedly and sprayed. After thirty seconds of citrus it settled down to soapy dirt with a splash of bug spray. My first thought was that there must be something wrong with my bottle, so I went and found a sample locally, but the outcome was the same. On my skin this fragrance goes horribly wrong and there is no development or dry down to speak of.

vetiver is not in the flora of the country i live so have never handled a piece of vetiever and smelled it. So when i first sniffed guerlain vetiver i thought vetiver is green with bergamot and coriander aroma. Really i cannot go any further with it. Cedar and tobacco is very faint (would be better with more of them) and coriander is very cloying (would be better with less) throughout the first hours. That makes it plentiful. My husband who pours perfume over his had could not finish his first bottle of vetiver for the last three years.

I wanted to love this as the bottle is beautiful and I still haven't found a vetiver that suits me but I was disappointed. The vetiver smells so old on me, almost acrid. The opening is ok but once the fresh notes disappear, I'm left with a middle that smells almost mouldy. Not for me.

Blasphemy!That is what some might say of my review but at this time I really can't say I like this. I like tobacco and pepper but I just couldn't get with this. The minute I tried this on my skin I was taken aback by very pesticide/flea dip smell that was overpowering. After an hour or so, that same strength and scent stayed with me. It really didn't remind me of a summer scent but of an old man fall scent. I will revisit this but I was highly disappointed. Definitely something I'm glad I didn't go blind into.

Emperor. Clothes. Not wearing any.
Now that we have that settled, let's talk about Vetiver: a fragrance exuding high notes reminiscent of Raid. I'm sorry, folks--I spent quite a bit on this bottle of juice, alas, the liquid is destined to become the most expensive fire-ant killer in history. Or someone will offer to take it off my hands. Please. Granted, it may just be allergies. Or it may truly be as hideous an odor as I've ever encountered.

Tried this the other day...what a disappointment that was! Top notes are very unpleasant, IMHO of course. Almost sickening. Om the drydown, it smells exactly like a bar of Sunlight soap. Quite pleasant actually, but nothing to get excited about! Be careful, try this before you buy: the beautiful bottle, the Guerlain reputation, and loads of positive reviews can be too much of a temptation...

A classic and timeless fragrance which is just not for everyone and I'm one of the ones it is not for. I gave it a try, used it for three full days and REALLY wanted to like it but just could not. I expect it is worth a try but as with any fragrance with a strong personality, you really need to try before you buy.

This was a blind buy for me, and an unfortunate one. While I can certainly detect many of the classic elements which have made this such a popular selection, this fragrance was overwhelmingly strong and smelled too much of soap to my tastes. A couple of my office workers commented that I smelled "old". This certainly isn't for everyone, though I understand where the attraction would lie for the properly inclined.

It may be a very classical scent but Vetiver of guerlain is too much vetiver-too green, too intense,too strong-and within the time it becomes worse, and on some people it stinks like an old soap-be careful and take a sample home and test it-you may feel comfortable with it but try it first in very small doses-Vetiver of guerlain is very harsh and too spicy.The opening still may be nice but the drydown is somehow hard, nerving and you want to get rid immediately of this scent.
To my opinion a perfume, a good perfume should be around you like a wind breeze-you feel the scent,you smell the scent -well balanced ingredients, nicely put togehter and composed and the perfume should accompany you but silently-Vetiver is loud and nerving and always infront of you and never around you....if you love vetiver try carven( see above)or annick goutal-definitely better balanced and finer....

After all the hype, the reviews, the talks on the forum, I finally had my whiff of the legendary Vetiver at the duty free in Birmingham airport. “OH MY GOD what the hell is this!?” It smells like a mix between rotting corpses and settles down to a very strong ‘rubber’ smell, the sort that makes you go dizzy when you open up an inflatable lilo for the first time, or anything else made of rubber you would inflate (toys etc.). I kept smelling it on my arm all the way to my Turkey hotel, trying to put my finger on the last time I had smelt something this bad, was it in the kitchen or the pool, but I realised when I got out my new lilo
UGH! Can’t believe it and I’m one whos abandoned the modern Eternity style fragrances for more macho alternatives. Avoid, its toxic.

Think I must be missing something! Bought this frag on the back of great reviews and a love of Habit Rouge...but it just doesn't do it for me! The citrus is too harsh and 'spiky' somehow. Ah well, can't win 'em all.

The American Heritage® Dictionary definition of "silage" is: "Fodder prepared by storing and fermenting green forage plants in a silo." Too much of this note for me in this edgy version, having a sharp or biting quality. Carven Vetiver is smoother and lighter, Royall Lyme's Royall Vetiver is far nicer and more rounded, albeit not as multi-dimensional. Can't see this as a summer fragrance, IMO -- it's too hot. I do wear it in winter, however.

The smell of rummaging around granny's underwear drawer - I did it, so I know. Now, I like a skanky scent as much as the next guy (ummm...probably more) but this one simply doesn't cut it for me: a fox wearing too much stage make-up or the scent wafting up from the casket of the monkey Nora Desmond's burying in Sunset Boulevard. ewww.

I tried Vetiver as a purchase from the duty-free shop just before a vacation. Honestly, I had to leave it in the hotel. To me, it reminded me most of the elephant house at the Baltimore Zoo. Not a good thing.

To me, fewer things smell worse. Dirt, grass, and chewing tobacco.

probably a great scent on some. for me it had wonderful top notes that quickly mellowed to the smell of a good chewing tobacco.

Juergen said it all. Vetiver and also Habit Rouge are no longer exclusive scents. They made them cheap.