My very first encounter of Vetiver Extraoirdinaire was in the shower gel form. I took it with me to my trip to New York in August 2006, and it prove to be a nice companion in a trip to this humid land of concrete: cooling, grounding and somewhat earthy in comparison to the environment.

It is therefore comes as no surprise than, that my first impression from Vetiver Extraordinaire was that it’s a clean vetiver, perhaps along the lines of Guerlain’s vetiver, yet with far more subtle citrus nuances than the latter. The earthy cleanliness being one of the most esteemed virtues of vetiver, I saw no fault at that and found it very appealing, even charming at first. My current obsession with vetiver got me to revisit the sample I got at Barney’s when I got my Le Parfum de Therese last summer.

And indeed, Vetiver Extraordinaire is clean and fresh, with accent on the woody aspect of vetiver. It reads like a polished, smoothly worked pebble of wood that calls for repeat finger strokes, yet lacks the warmth of wood. Instead, you will find the coolness of a stone pebble at the bottom of a cold stream. Strangely, it feels more urbane than earthy.

Vetiver Extraordinare creates the illusion of thirst-clenching. Its coolness seems to pour continuously (until it vanishes completely from my skin, after about 2 hours; quite unusual for me because perfumes usually have a very good lasting power on my skin). It feels almost sterile and distance and the lack of evolution or depth leaves much more to be desired.

I found no information about specific notes other than vetiver for this scent, and I also can’t say I smell much more in it. Perhaps a tinge of citrus and a smidgeon of mint, and an even smaller amount of myrrh is all I can detect besides the vetiverness. The ad copy from Editions de Parfums claims it is made of 25% vetiver. The remaning 75%, I am afraid, seem to be made of mostly synthetic as far as I can smell.