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kaluchey – :
Nice. Herbal.
It smells exactly like garden angelica leaves and crushed green seeds (Angelica archangelica) + peanuts note (in the beginning).
santei_761 – :
The cognac overtones are overpowering in my opinion. I love Etro’s quality but I find this smells better on fine furniture than on people. I prefer Guerlain’s less alcoholic take on Vetiver
AlexPro – :
I picked up a sample of this based on the glowing reviews here. I love vetiver.
On me, this smells like a Little Debbie Nutty Bar that’s been scorched and dropped on the ground.
ulotrix – :
An excellent vetiver of many faces – anisic, coniferous, smoky, deeply earthy. And then there’s a weird, and yet addictive, caramelized sweetness that brings this multidimensional vetiver to a happy end.
I am not a huge fan of vetivers, but this one is right there with Encre Noire and Givenchy’s as the best vetivers i have.
****(*)
mamay139 – :
WOW! This is vetiver at its finest . Nothing else needs to be said.
It’s earthy, its smokey, its elegant, its woody, its bright, its dark, it is done perfectly.
Edit : I tried this out in the harsh winter months and longevity is short lived. I am thinking it would a lasting aura in warmer months. I still think this is an amazing fragrance.
david_game – :
This is undoubtedly a vetiver-oriented scent, and quality at that. It bears more than just the clean but earthy, fresh, masculine accord(s) we might expect — maybe that’s why they market it as unisex. There’s an effervescence about it, a heady gin booziness. I get licorice in its opening and a little in its drydown too. Although its price is a little higher, and its performance is a little lower, than I’d like this is a nice, sophisticated, slightly more-complex-than-simple, non-overbearing “Grade A” vetiver scent that is still above average on every level.
hiphophippy – :
If what you like about vetiver is the rooty, smoky aspect, you will love this one. That part of the vetiver is up front and center. In most other vetiver offerings I’ve tried, the rootiness and smokiness that I enjoy so much tend to be subtle and nuanced. Not so here.
This is an earthy, masculine fragrance. It’s a nice departure from the typical soapy, green vetivers out there.
ukt – :
Last month I was visiting Italy and came upon a selection of Etro fragrances at a little shop. I sniffed several, but Vetiver was easily my favorite. At the time, though I loved the scent, I thought I could live without something that essentially smelled like single-note vetiver. I considered the fact that I had other scents with strong vetiver notes, and I left it on the shelf. But it’s been haunting my dreams ever since, and I am giving serious consideration to hunting some down.
Vetiver by Etro is simply a perfect vetiver. It is exceptionally earthy. Not too clean, yet not dank. Not overly smoky, nor grassy. The supporting notes are just there to enhance the vetiver, playing off of the natural nuances of the note. Cypress is the most detectable of those. It is a very earthy, woody, dry scent, and even, as others have said, stark. No frills, no padding, nothing to try to make it more accessible to those who aren’t in love with vetiver. Very masculine.
When I smelled this, I felt that it smelled precisely like vetiver was meant to smell, just stripped of all the baggage that often accompanies it in perfume. And that’s probably the biggest reason it didn’t come home with me that day. It was so natural, so effortless that I mistook it for “simple.” I expected all vetivers to live up to this standard. Yet when I got back to my collection, none of them quite did. None of them satisfy that craving for this pure, dry, earthy, and wholly unpretentious vetiver.
zzzcrazyzzz – :
This is the first niche fragrance I purchased when I arrived in Paris 5 years ago. I didn’t know anything about Etro, I was just passing by their boutique (they were really nice) and saw they had a perfume collection.
I completely fell in love with Vetiver, and today it is still my absolute favourite vetiver perfume! This vetiver is so raw, very close to the actual root, and quite peppery and spicy.
Unfortunately on my skin it doesn’t last long and the scent quickly loses its sharpness and earthiness, but I bet on a man this would smell divine.
illena1972 – :
“Etro’s Ground” ****
All Etro perfumes I tried so far were distinguished. Messe de Minuit is the better patchouli I have; Palais Jamais is timeless and exquisite; and finally Vetiver.
What to say more? Reviewers below said it all already, so I’ll just add that if there is a vetiver that fixes me to the ground, this is it. Absolutely perfect.
Etro, 20 years ago, created several masterpieces. I know 3 at least.
musienkov – :
There are so many fragrance variants on the vetiver note, one can get disoriented in exploring it. There are easy going (Chopard Noble Vetiver, Etro Shaal Nur) and challenging ones (Jovoy Paris Private Label, Annick Goutal Vetiver), then the rest that fall somewhere in between. Sometimes the vetiver is prominent and strong, other times it is surrounded by a particular group of supporting notes that can even compete for attention. Etro Vetiver is unmistakably vetiver, far from sweet and rather salty.
Colin Maillard pretty much summed it up for me. I sampled Annick Goutal’s vetiver and found it too challenging. Interesting in of itself, but hard to wear. Etro Vetiver starts out similarly, but then softens with a wonderful salty and earthy accord that is almost marine like. Etro’s staying power falls a little shorter than I’d like, but given the composition I’m just happy to have it. There have been a few different bottling variants, the most notable going from gold cap to silver cap. I have no idea if there was a reformulation–I hope not!
Fragrance: 9.1, Longevity: 7, Value: 8.9
butuz0210 – :
this one is the earthy vetiver, it’s exactly like the Turtle Vetiver Back by Les Nez. very rooti. but be aware the top note smells awfully like urine, but when it calms it brings the earthy vetiver which few people call it dirty vetiver.
lonja0061 – :
I nearly got rid of this one a few times when I was pruning the collection. I’m not as experienced with dirty vetivers as with clean ones, so the Etro is a bit of a challenge. Right from the start, this vetiver is mustier and nuttier than others, a bit like the Floris. The top notes are extremely alcoholic, sharp and dirty, and give me a sense of freshly bruised leaves and stems…not necessarily of vetiver itself, but just the general smashed foliage of childhood, playing in the bushes. Here, the sweet barkyness almost reminds me of Burberry London, aided by the heavy dose of cinnamon dirt. Like Polo Modern Reserve, it seems to have started out as a summer scent for the first few minutes, and drifted toward being a winter scent, with earthy, spicy, moist wood. Thankfully, it’s _way_ more natural than any of the He Wood series, and the sour cigarette component which bothers me in the base of the Floris doesn’t last much past the opening of the Etro. The best comparison I can think of is another summer/winter overlapper: l’Occitane’s sweet, woody vetiver; Etro is the dirty side and l’Occitane is the clean side of the same coin.
biship – :
I am not a big fan of vetiver, but this vetiver is lovely….. not sharp and offensive . Love it !
valera342 – :
On my skin this vetiver smells almost entirely of licorice. I like licorice, but I don’t want to smell like it.
samovolja – :
Etro Vetiver is the best “earthy” and authentic vetiver than the others. Despite everything,I always love Guerlain Vetiver!
ordersstevedy – :
This is a great vetiver. It has a wonderfully burnt yet wet quality that makes this seem not so much like a fragrance to be worn in autumn, but a fragrance that smells of autumn. It smells like dried, fallen tree leaves that have been rained on, plus burnt cedar logs that have been doused by the same rain. Etro’s Vetiver has a very strong opening. The vetiver has the scent of real dried vetiver roots, and gives me that feeling of smelling soil in an small, enclosed space. It makes me take shallow breaths as if the scent is dry like cold winter air and will chap my mucous membranes if I inhale too quickly. It’s very visceral in this regard.
This is a stark vetiver. Not a fresh vetiver by a long shot. No citrus, no marine notes. The woody, rooty vetiver is perfectly matched by a combination of saccharine licorice root and dry, dry woody cedar. These two elements actually mimic an aspect of vetiver and reinforce the principal vetiver note. Vetiver overload! I love it! Over time it becomes more wood than root, and the cedar dominates the drydown.
sumrak1 – :
Another great vetiver to add to the huge list of great vetivers. If you like it smoky, woody, earthy, kinda rough and solidly crafted, go ahead! Good work! The bonimial smoky + licorice makes of Etro’s Vetiver on of the best alteratives to the always harder to find vintage MPG’s Route Du Vetiver.
Rating: 8/10
Kucherowatikhonina – :
When first I inhaled this scent, I connected with it in a primitive fashion. This is the scent of the Romans of the Old Republic, before the Empire’s pomp and debauchery. It spoke to me across the eons of time immemorial.
Wearing it amongst the subhuman Trogdalytes of London’s Underground system I could smell my own feral aroma…how Roman…how Romantic.. but wait! Was it perhaps too much hay? Too pungent? Too acrid, dry and unforgiving? Suddenly a panic gripped me – had I in fact paid £89 for 100mls of a cologne that was reminiscent of hay and saw dust saturated with rat’s urine in countless cages of pink eyed rodents in some University laboratory?
My worst fears were allayed when I arrived at work and in a bloody minded determination to overcome my fear of rats pee pheromone cologne, I sprayed two bursts to my jugular…and then.. from across the arid waste of our open plan office, my female colleague exclaimed “that smells absolutely amazing!” Roma Invicta…
Yesssss…This was the scent of a Roman who spends his summers campaigning in the legion to return home and tend to his horses, his familia, his land. A time when men were men, albeit in rustic tunics.
Towering cedar, dry and rugged, its needles sweating oil in the hot Roman sun. A breeze rises from the Mediterranean, the warm wind dragging its fingers through the wild bushes of clary sage and across the fields. Deep damp Italian earth, leathery tobacco, cloying and close to the skin. Vetiver like the very roots of the land, a grassy pungency that fills the nostrils like oxen under the yoke, straw and hay broken and bleeding into the clods of herbaceous soil, the most manly reek of the land.
A land of horses, hay, clay and sage, cedar trees and a warm salty breeze. Not a land of rodents breeding in pitch black, cold urine soaked warrens. Ahhhh time to book another Roman Holiday…
Titanishu – :
Outstanding vetiver. Very profound, dense, tantalizing and somewhat enigmatic like a fabulous, mythical wood.
Good in summer on sweating skin. Also it is fine in breezy days.
Definitely masculine.
mefis – :
Vetiver (ETRO) is one of the best vetiver scent, I think so. This is a very fresh vetiver, without any trace of citrus, deeply woody and intense. It is long lasting on my husband`s skin – always present and never harsh. I see it as better suited for a man.