Vetiverus
Avant-Garden Lab (2011)

This is a dirty vetiver, akin to Encre Noir but more musky and earthy, plus what I can only assume is a heavy-handed dose of nagarmotha.

I have worked with nagarmotha before and, in my opinion, it is best used sparingly. Whatever is causing this scent to overpower the experience for me was clearly used too much for my taste, though fans of incredibly earthy vetivers will love this.

The opening is reminiscent of birdseed to me, and I can't get past that. A hint of something spicy in the deep drydown is very pleasant, if incredibly faint.

Eye-rollingly good opening with its labdanum, styrax, and vetiver.
Smells ancient. Wet.
Irish bog on a winter's day.
The vetiver isn't all that strong but, it's here.
I get a kind of ocean beach at low tide note.
Taxidermy note, like a dried up carcass.
Muted, dried carnation petals.
Nine Inch Nails songs playing in my head, while wearing this.
Styrax and osmanthus play tricks on me here.
Vetiver returns.

Vetiverus is a treat - a keeper.

This is an interesting fragrance which has taught me alot about my olfactory perception. As oppposed to virtually all reviews I have read, I get an overpowering orange-osmanthus note from it that dwarfs anything else there might be in here. In fact, it is such an obnoxiously powerful presence I find it very hard to wear and not feel like a functional product stuffed with undeca-gamma-lactone (that peachy-mango smell from air-fresheners etc. pp.). I'm obviously hypersensitive to it (which would explain why I found the Jardin series by Ellena unbearable). There something vaguely smoky-transparent in the background whih might be the eugenol and vetiver, but it remains totally lopsided. But that's just me, myself and I...

I am quite charmed by this. The opening bouquets of Spiced Squash, that then transitions to a grassy canvas, almost hay-like. Whispers of Peppery Carnations provides an interest blending with the Osmanthus and touch of Labdanum suggesting a vague Leathery texture.
Beautiful, fresh,balanced Apricot drydown.
Yummy!

Oliver and Co's Vetiverus is a potent Vetiver. It rides in medicinal and herbal...the first night that I tried a sample, my nose was a little bit stuffy, and I couldn't quite place the herb until I tried it the next day. It was absolutely clove! But mysteriously, clove is not listed as one of the notes so I did some research. Turns out that concentrated carnation can smell like cloves because carnation (Dianthus caryophyllata) contains eugenol, the same scent molecule found in the oil of clove. Very interesting.

For me, the medicinal quality opens Vetiverus, but then recedes to be replaced by a sharp vetiver over thick ambergris. Very rich. A slightly bitter floral enters that has the tonality of osmanthus pollen interwoven with a more true carnation note. In the mid-period, hints of orange came through the powder and the vetiver/ambergris became mildly salty. In the close, the clove shows through again, leaving a strong herbal base. Quite a unique scent, but I wasn't as taken with it as Vaninger. This is a house to watch.

It took me a while to understand the love here - but not a long while. I bought Vetiverus blind, although in the same purchase as a bottle of La Colonia by the same producer, which was not blind. Good for Oliver & Co that they have worthwhile sales from time to time; I managed to obtain these for about a third of the list price.

The initial question was where Vetiverus was placed on the vetiver scale. It is not one of the dank, mysterious vetivers such as Encre Noire; but it surpasses even Guerlain in its freshness. In addition there is a strong floral influence from the osmanthus. There is the strong resinous note that we find in Resina from the same house, and some amber. This ensemble takes some getting used to.

As with the other Olivers, longevity is excellent and this provides a good opportunity to get a proper idea of how the scent develops. After some reflection, I think the success of Vetiverus, in terms of the fragrance construction, is that it manages to meld an extremely wild-fresh, almost minty and "freshly-cut" vetiver with a spicy oriental, "fleshy-flowered" accord (although osmanthus is obtained, as I understand it, from the blossom of a small bush). The result is something easily wearable by a man, although surely amenable to both/any/all genders, and coherent beyond all my attempts to describe it. Put it this way - if you marketed Vetiverus as "Vetiver de Guerlain au Fleur" you would get a good idea of what it is about, and it wouldn't, I think, be an unreasonable description. Rather than evoking the image of a gardener lighting up in rural France, Vetiverus suggests his Oriental counterpart cutting back some foliage on a bracing morning.

Another Oliver win, then, this one extending my personal understanding of vetiver.