Guerlain Vetiver was the first solo fragrance effort by Jean Paul Guerlain, the great grandson of Guerlain founder Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain. Reportedly created for the South American market, the fragrance was released in 1959 and relaunched in 2000. I never smelled the original version, so I cannot say to what extent it was reformulated at that time, but according to the reviewers on basenotes, this is not your father’s Vetiver. It has notes of orange, lemon, bergamot, pepper, coriander, nutmeg, oakmoss, tobacco, and tonka bean.

Vetiver starts with a bright, almost aggressive burst of citrus. There is a dusty buzz of spices which eventually settles into recognizable notes of pepper and nutmeg, and they last right through the dry down. There is also vetiver, and oakmoss, and in the far dry down, quite a bit of tobacco. There is said to be carnation, and possibly other floral notes, but they are not in the least noticeable to my nose…

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