L'Artisan Parfumeur: Coeur de Vétiver Sacré

Coeur de Vétiver Sacré (the sacred heart of Vetiver) is the new L'Artisan Parfeumeur scent (exclusive to Liberty of London).

Vetiver is a star ingredient in perfume and it has a strong, powerful personality. It is dark chocolate, butter and espresso. Unlike more widely known perfume ingredients Vetiver isn't derived from a flower but is in fact a grass, the perfume oil being extracted from its roots. Pure vetiver does smell of grass, warmer and richer than a freshly mown lawn but having something in character with it and perhaps something in character with its cousin lemongrass (though non of the spice) it's salty and deeply earthy but dry. Vetiver is profoundly green and extremely seductive on a man or a woman. For me personally, together with jasmine, Vetiver is my favourite scent in pure oil form.

Vetiver is very widely used as a basenote and is likely to be in your perfume in some form but also has several stunning fragrances built around it, notably Guerlain's Vetiver- famously made for men but adopted by many women (because they love it and because men love them with it on).

Karine Vinchon is the perfumer who created this scent for L'Artisan (she was also responsible for their Jatamansi fragrance). They describe her as 'wanting to 'create a different, mysterious vetiver by revealing all its facets: its sparkle, enlivened by black tea with bergamot; its peppery side with touches of saffron, coriander, ginger and pink pepper berries; its hints of dried fruit, date and apricot; its vibrant heart accompanied by roses, iris and osmanthus flowers; its woody soul backed by sandalwood, white cedar and gaiac wood; its trail of balsam wreathed in incense, amber, cistus, tonka beans, vanilla and musks; and its shadowy character, animal and smoky, enhanced by labdanum, castoreum and birch'.

So as with many soliflores (scents that seek to replicate a single smell) a great deal of skill and many fragrance notes have been combined to make this interesting, individual and indulgent perfume. This is not a scent you would find in your local pharmacy and it is not a perfume for someone who would want to find a fragance there.

I would urge anyone interested in smell to pick this up because it's the closest perfume I have ever smelled to the vetiver oil I tried in a perfumer's studio (the oil in pure form is extremely expensive and smells beyond sublime). This is a scent that reminds you of the wonder of smell. It would work on anyone and would make them more interesting for their fabulous choice of scent.

Coeur de Vétiver Sacré is exclusive to Liberty of London and is available in the shop and online here.