The Notes
Vetiver
Vetiver is the root of a tall tropical grass, and in perfume it smells of turned earth, dry wood and a little smoke.
Vetiver is a tall tropical grass, Chrysopogon zizanioides, and the part that matters to perfumers is the root. Distilled, it gives a dense oil that smells of turned earth, dry wood and a little smoke, with a green, slightly bitter edge: a garden path after a dry week, or a cellar with the door left open.
Where it comes from
The grass is native to India, where it is known as khus, and is now grown across the tropics. Above ground it is a stiff clump of narrow leaves; below, its roots go straight down, as deep as three or four metres in the first year, which is why it is also planted to hold soil on slopes and banks.
For perfume, vetiver is grown mainly in Haiti, in Java in Indonesia, in India, on the island of Réunion, and in smaller amounts in China and Brazil. Haiti and Indonesia are the largest exporters. In Haiti it is a crop of the south, around Les Cayes, where tens of thousands of smallholders grow it on hillside fields. Réunion’s oil, known as Bourbon vetiver, was long held in particular regard, but production there has dwindled and it is now rare.
How it is made
The roots are dug after a year and a half or so, then washed, dried and chopped before steam distillation. It is slow work: a single batch can take most of a day, and in some regions several days. The oil is thick and golden, and is often said to improve with keeping, its rougher green earthiness rounding out over some months into something fuller and sweeter.
What vetiver smells like
Earthy, woody and smoky in turn, with a dry rootiness underneath and sometimes a lemony or nutty lift on top. Its character comes from a large family of sesquiterpene alcohols and ketones, among them khusimol and the vetivones; chemists have counted hundreds of components in the oil.
Origin changes it. Haitian vetiver is usually described as clearer and more elegant than the others: green, a little citrus, only lightly smoky. Java vetiver is darker and rawer, smokier and more leathery. Bourbon oil from Réunion is softer and rounder.
How perfumers use it
Vetiver is a fixative: it slows the escape of lighter materials and gives a fragrance a floor to stand on. It is at home in the base, though Haitian oil is bright enough to sit in the heart. It works with citrus, woods and moss, and has long been a mainstay of fragrances for men, though there is nothing about it that needs to stay there.
In our fragrances
In Racing Green, Haitian vetiver sits at the heart with violet leaf, bringing an earthy, almost metallic depth between the bitter galbanum above and the oakmoss below. In Henley it works lower down: white cedar and ambrette keep the base light, and vetiver gives it gravity, like the cool of the riverbank under the July sun. Both are in the Discovery Set, to try side by side.