Beyond The Collection : Wild Vetiver
Bentley (2019)

Wild Vetiver opens up with a carroty/iris like accord accompanied by a strong inky vetiver, something like the vetiver in Clean White Vetiver. It's dirty, and probably wouldn't sit too well with a non-vetover lover. If you go in up close to try and get the most of this smell, you'll smell a ton of alcohol. In fact, I haven't quite smelled a fragrance that reeks of rubbing alcohol for so long in the opening. Usually it dissipates in 20 seconds tops, and that's usually on cheap stuff, not a bottle that retails for several hundred. Wild Vetiver maintains the smell of rubbing alcohol but mostly only at close range, it's not as bad from a far, but yes still noticeable.

Once settling in, I get a nutty sort of vetiver. There's a medicinal vibe to it as well. It's certainly like no other vetivers around. It'd intriguing as hell, but also kind of sickening. The alcohol smell still seems to linger, even 10 minutes in. I find as this lingers in the air I start to feel a headache, and sinus pressure.

The base is without doubt the best part of this fragrance, but having to sit through a horrible opening, and a barely tolerable beginning mid, the first 20 or so minutes of wearing this, is dreadful. The overwhelming smell of alcohol has managed to sit in my nostrils and overwhelm my olfactory senses.. to the point where I need to refresh with coffee beans to get to smell the rest of the fragrance clearly with an open mind. It's after that point that I can see the good in Wild Vetiver. The nutty vetiver takes on a fantastic bitch note, it's rubbery, and smokey, think birch in Creed Aventus, the same style only more intense. Birch and amberwood takeover the base for me, and the vetiver gets kind of lost. It's still there, but a shell of what it was earlier on. It's more of a typical green vetiver at this point, along the style of Guerlian's Vetiver, but the birch outpowers the vetiver. The nutty, almost peanut butter like accord is no more.

Overall, this kind of reminds me of Halston Amber mixed with Guerlain Vetiver, mixed with Clean White Vetiver. The dirty opening may deter a lot of people from sitting through to the dry down. It's an interesting vetiver though. The alcohol smell is almost unbearable though.

Glad I purchased a decant and not a full bottle. Although this has been seen to go down in price to the $60-$75 range if you look around and wait for the right time. I'm not sure I would even want to own this one. Its weirdness makes it unwearable for me, for the most part.

TLDR: Rating: Very Good (3.75/5). Solid if mainstream vetiver with a hint of smoke and good longevity and projection.

A well structured, somewhat linear vetiver scent with a pleasant, vaguely spicy citrus opening. Reviewed from a full bottle after multiple wearings.

The citrus top notes quickly fade and a nice, natural smelling and clean vetiver takes center stage. This vetiver is augmented with a bright citrusy verbena and a whiff of a ginger-tinged, spicy, smokey incense note that hints at the base to come.

When the base arrives, a clean smoke from birch wood and a mellow non-vanilla synthetic amber accord take up support for the now somewhat faint, but still noticeable, vetiver.

Projection is good for the first 6+ hours before the fragrance fades to become a near skin scent. Total longevity is remarkable for a vetiver product, with a detectable, close to the skin odor still present and praised by my wife more than 12 hours after application.

My skin usually absorbs scent and the longevity I get with Wild Vetiver is right up there with Roja Vetiver Parfum Extrait and Nishane Sultan Vetiver on me. Indeed, perhaps with a bit longer lasting projection ability that either of these more complex scents.

If Guerlain produced an extrait version of Vetiver EDT, I imagine they'd end up with something pretty close to what Bentley have achieved with Wild Vetiver.

The presentation on the Bentley Beyond products is truly excellent and for the first time with this house/car company's products seems to me to embody enough tasteful luxury to deserve the link to the venerable maker of some of the world's most special automobiles. The bottle is housed in a leathery, top-hinged box and is hefty with a nice, knurled top. Each of the tops in the series has an leather accent band, and the yellow chartreuse color Bentley have used on this top looks great with the bottle. This presentation will look great on your dresser or shelf.

I got my bottle of this juice for a very sizable discount and at the prices I see on the discounter websites as I type this review, this product has to be one of the best value vetivers on the market.

Strongly recommended as a great spring/fall, office safe, vetiver fragrance for those who like good projection and all-day performance in their scents.