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Vetiver Rouge OOAK Perfume

Lipstick by 96dpi
Lipstick, a photo by 96dpi on Flickr.

And while we are on the theme of red, I want to announce a new One-Of-A-Kind perfume I recently added online. Back in 2007, I was on a vetiver roll and created several vetiver-centered fragrances. Out of these, my favourite, Vetiver Racinettes, was added to my permanent collection of natural perfumes.

However, the road of vetiver was as fascinating and quirky as the finished result - 5 different mods, Wilde Vetyver, Vetiver Blanc, Vetiver Noir and a Vetiver Truffle - a solid perfume with black summer truffle oil that melds together the luxurious and the earthy. Six years later, I returned to the sketch book of the 4th in the series, Vetiver Rouge, and felt inspired to elaborate on the theme of red vetiver.

This time around, I've played with the meaning of the name, and took it to the complete opposite direction than my other vetiver scents. It is far more soft, round, sweet and feminine. While is still maintains the mysterious depth and complexity of the darkest of vetiver essences, it had the audacity and It has the red spectrum with notes that in my mind have deep reddish hues.

Complex and ambitious, the most tenacious vetiver notes from around the world are accompanied with the elusive, distinctive, intensely licorice-sweet and somewhat powdery - tarragon absolute. The red-copper tainted Ruh Khus from India is combined with a co-distillation of vetiver with Mitti attar (baked Indian earth) and juxtaposed with the earthy luxury of deep cacao liquor. Add to that a slice of juicy, raspberry-like blood orange, red rooibos red tea, geranium absolute from the tropics, red champaca absolute and exotic tomar seeds form India, and there is a concoction that is like a kiss of thick rouge and a sip of a deep red wine.

Notes: Attar Mitti, Blood Orange, Champaca, Cocoa Absolute, Davana, Geranium Absolute Ginger, Nutmeg, Rooibos (Red Tea) Ruh Khus, Tarragon Absolute, Tomar Seed, Vetiver Indonesia, Vetiver Sri-Lanka, Zantoxylum, 

Vetiver Series Sample Package

Due to popular demand, I'm pleased to announce that the entire Vetiver Series is now available via my Etsy shop. This little gift-wrapped jewelry box contains all 4 mods that lead to Vetiver Racinettes: Vetiver Blanc, Vetiver Noir, Wilde Vetyver and Vetiver Rouge.

Thank you for your interest and support of this fascinating project!

Vetiver Racinettes - New Perfume


Ayala Moriel is proud to present a new, limited-edition perfume for summer 2008:
Vetiver Racinettes.

Vetiver is the root of a tropical grass native to India, Indonesia and Java. It is known for its calming and cooling effect on both mind and body, and is considered “The Scent of Tranqulity” in India.

Ruh Khus is wild vetiver from India distilled in the wilderness, in portable copper still. Its distinct earthy, copper-like aroma, married with the intense licorice sweetness of tarragon absolute creates an outstanding aroma never to be explored before in the realm of the vetiver perfume genre. Along with vetiver from four other countries, Vetiver Racinettes is at once earthy, sweet and cool like the aromatic roots and rootlets brewed to a bubbly rootbeer.

Vetiver Racinettes was born out of a long period of intensive study of this singular note, which really was part of a personal journey to better understanding of my own physical and emotion connection. At that time last year, I had a deep need for its therapeutic qualities and cooling effect and I have become aware of vetiver's many virtues and its particular connection to the well being of the people and the planet in present day. Vetiver is a purifying, sacred root with a woody aroma, and in many ways I feel that it takes on a similar role that was once reserved to sacred woods such as sandal and oud.

The result of my vetiver journey is a perfume that contains all of the elements that I've ever loved in the vetiver scents I've tried, as well as my own conclusions from my journey in the route of vetiver. It has the warmth of earth and firey spices and at the same time - the coolness of clay and vetiver curtains sprinkled with water; the medicinal dryness of herbs and grasses and the luxurious tenacity of woods; the sweetness of tarragon and earth with the bitterness of coffee and mud.

Vetiver Racinettes starts off warm and spicy, and will remain that way for a while when worn in a cool weather - accentuating the sweet tarragon, spice and coffee notes. However, in the heat of the summer it will quickly transform into a cooling elixir, bringing a quiet calm to one's physical and emotional existence, like drinking fresh water from a cool well, directly from the spout of a clay jar.

Top notes: Black Pepper, Fresh Ginger, Cardamom, Kaffir Lime Leaf
Heart notes: Haitian Vetiver , Nutmeg Asbolute, Coffee, Spikenard
Base notes: Ruh Khus, Indonesian Vetiver, Vetiver Bourbon, Attar Mitti, Tarragon Absolute, Cepes

Vetiver Racinettes is a limited edition fragrance that will be available throughout Summer 2008. We are currently sold out of the first batch, and the next batch will be ready on the official launch date, June 21st, is the first day of Summer. Advance orders are available through the website and will be shipped on a first-come first-serve basis, so hurry up - our batches are very small!

Vetiver Racinettes is available in 9ml parfum extrait flacon ($110), Perfumed Pendant ($150) 10ml perfume-oil roll-on bottle ($130) and 5ml perfume-oil roll-on bottle ($65).

Vetiver Rouge


Root Beer, originally uploaded by Just Peachy!.

My recent vetiver experiments concluded with a fourth liquid (alcohol based) perfume, which I temporarily named Vetiver Rouge. From all of my vetivers, this is the most complex and ambitious in a sense. I was trying to create a more rounded, multifaceted fragrance. Still, vetiver is the theme. But to the vetiver I added a note which I have never seen together before: the elusive, distinctive, intensely licorice-sweet yet somewhat green - Tarragon Absolute. I used again a few types of vetiver, but the most tenacious of them, the Ruh Khus and the Ruh with Attar Mitti (baked earth) dominate with their copper undertones (origininated at the traditional Indian still, which is made of copper).

This brew of myriad little sweet rootlets, a rooty beverage, reminiscent of the “Sous” (licorice roots iced tea) that the Arab merchants used to carry in tapped copper kettles on their backs alongside the sour & salty Tamarhind and (the less exciting) lemonade.

Of all my vetiver scent, this is the one I am most excited about. We’ll see where this will lead me…

* If you wish to try Vetiver Rouge, or the previous three vetiver (Vetiver Blanc, Vetiver Noir and Wilde Vetyver) samples can be obtained via email. The price is the same for all my other samples ($5.99 plus shipping). If you order all four, you will also get a free sample of the solid vetiver perfume (to be announced here tomorrow).

Vetiver Noir


Cuppa Coffee and Jack, originally uploaded by CaymanGirl.

One of the most original vetiver accords I’ve smelled is Black Vetyver Café by Jo Malone. I was so impressed with this imaginative combination, yet hoped the coffee note will linger longer. Given that coffee note is a heart note and not a base note dictates that it cannot last for too long on the skin. But in Black Vetyver Café it is more of a top note than a heart note and disappears really fast, leaving behind mostly woody vetyver. Therefore, I simply could not resist the temptation to try my hand at combining these two essences in their natural form – black coloured just like the dark-roasted coffee beans and vetiver oils from around the world in different proportions.

I decided to go wild with earthy vetiver varieties from India, including the co-distillation with Mitti Attar. The pungency and the earthiness and a hint of brash greenness seems to provide an interesting counter point to the coffee. And also by staying away from the “woody” I was hoping to create something different, albeit not original (Jo Malone deserves all the credit for thinking of this combination!). Indonesian vetiver adds a rough smoky touch, and the wild Indian vetiver oil (Ruh Khus) adds a sweetness that is well rounded and complex. To this I added nutmeg absolute. There is something about nutmeg absolute that just works so well with vetiver. It’s so sweet and rich (not like the oil, which is quite sharp and peppery!). It adds warmth to the sweet yet cool earthiness of vetiver. I could barely resist the temptation to sneak in a few drops of cardamom CO2, which goes so fantastically with coffee. But I don’t like to repeat myself.

I am really enjoying this vetiver mod. Perhaps it is not my favourite so far of all the three, but I feel I am getting somewhere in exploring the possibilities that vetiver has to offer. Hopefully by the end of this journey I will come up with something that I can truly call my own vetiver.

I like the complexity in this scent, even though it only has three elements: vetiver, coffee and nutmeg. It is earthy-sweet and warm, and feels rooty and almost edible without being obviously spicy or sweet. I am wondering what would happen if I chose a more mellow vetiver as a pivotal point, maybe the Sri-Lankan oil. Or add another woody element such as patchouli, or sandalwood or agarwood. Yet I think I should be trying a new mod before drawing any conclusions. In fact, I much rather keep blending vetiver-dominated scents and discovering the interaction between vetiver and other notes. It’s a fascinating study and it really should never end.

Samples of Vetiver Noir, Vetiver Blanc and Wilde Vetyver (Khus Khus) are available for you to try, you can get all three samples for $15 including shipping world wide. Just email me and let me know, or simply PayPal me and I will ship it to you immediately.

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