Even if you haven’t heard of vetiver, there’s little doubt that this complex fragrance note has stealthily caught the attention of your nostrils.Vetiver has been a major player in men’s luxury fragrances for a long time thanks to its classic masculine properties but – such is its charm – it’s now estimated to be present in about 40 per cent of women’s fragrances too. So, despite the swanky sounding name, it’s a bit of a people pleaser.

That’s not to say that vetiver is an everyman, however. Where oud fragrances can smack of lurid opulence, vetiver smell has been described as woody, deep, sweet, smoky and earthy – it’s precisely this ability to wear many different hats which is key to its appeal. Talk about a complex character, eh?

Roja Dove even goes as far to crown it the king of all man-friendly fragrance notes, saying: “It really is the ultimate men’s scent. Vetiver showcases a refined, natural elegance that represents the ultimate in how a man should smell.” High praise indeed.

Nowadays, vetiver is among the classic scents that defy the peaks and troughs of perfume popularity (you’ve probably worn it without realising), but way back when it was the fragrance world’s rank outsider. Carven lay claim to producing the world’s first vetiver-based scent in 1957, but it was Guerlain’s Vetiver two years later which gave the ingredient its breakout role, producing a scent so compulsively smellable that it still gets regular name-checks some 60 years later.
To help you sniff out vetiver in a line-up, here’s our guide to getting to know the Mr Popular of the perfume world, as well as our pick of the vetiver scents available today.

What Is Vetiver?

Like all the best things in life, vetiver oil is all-natural and can’t currently be synthetically replicated – authenticity, check. Scientifically speaking, vetiver (or chrysopogon zizanioides as it’s known to boffins) is a long tropical grass native to India. The grass itself isn’t what’s important though, it’s the long web-like roots that yield the good stuff: vetiver oil.