June 7, 2024 - Vetiver You Want
- Brush: Semogue 610 #OLDWORLD #SMOLL
- Razor: Blackland Blackbird SS #CNC
- Blade: Wizamet (24)
- Lather: Mike's Natural Soaps - Vetiver
- Post Shave: Wholly Kaw - Rebelle
- Fragrance: Berceuse Parfum - Allegretto 7.2
I love puns. But, “Vetiver you want” is terrible.
Challenge: More wetuber nonsense. Can’t I just wear a bandana? I used the Blackbird for efficiency and did 1 pass ATG.
Vetiver is a scent note that was hard to get grasp on when I first took an interest in fragrance. It’s not in my pantry, or my garden, or growing in my yard. I don’t know of any uses it has outside of perfumery. I have some soaps and edts that have vetiver as a scent note. But, there's other notes fighting for attention with those fragrances. I saw a question in the daily thread about vetiver soaps a few months ago and someone recommended Mike’s. I hadn’t used Mike's soap. But, it was in stock. I thought it would be a good chance to smell a single note vetiver scent. So, I ordered a tub. It’s nice to have this frame of reference for vetiver. The tradeoff is that when I smell this my brain thinks "this is what vetiver smells like,” rather than trying to identify the scent of vetiver in the fragrance. So, how do I describe this? The scent off the tub is grassy and sweet. When lathered, the sweet note is resinous and there's spice bordering on smoky which takes me back to incense day last year. It's a complex scent. The soap base is much firmer than most artisan shave soaps; i.e. it's not a croap. That made it easier to spread a scoop of soap into my loading bowl. It doesn't produce much lather. I had to go back for more soap. It had good slickness. But, doing a single ATG pass was still a little uncomfortable.
I won a soap and splash set from Wholly Kaw in the Lather Games a few years ago. I had used a smoosh of Rebelle and liked it. And, that’s what I ended up getting. This is in my top ten fragrances from a wetshaving artisan. I smell a grassy vetiver note right away, along with leather and oud. Not to go off-topic, because today is about vetiver, but leather has been an underwhelming scent note for me since taking an interest in fragrance. I love the smell of quality leather goods. In fragrance, leather has been kind of boring. And yet, I love this fragrance. Leather is an anchoring note here, while two scents I really like, vetiver and oud, jazz things up. Oud is the strongest note. But, vetiver is definitely present.
For some reason, I thought Will from Barrister and Mann was involved with Berceuse Parfum. I must’ve been mistaken because his name is nowhere to be found on the fragrantica page for Allegretto 7.2. I have a few options for fragrances with vetiver. I chose Allegretto because it’s the most vetiver forward. Spraying it on now, I’m getting a strong vetiver top note. In fact, it’s difficult to pick much else out right now. Eventually it opens up a bit. There’s a touch of smoke, noticeable cedar, and a vague greeness. It’s not heavy. But, it’s certainly not green, powdery, or aromatic. Vetiver runs the show. This feels like a fragrance for a fall outing, hiking to a waterfall, visiting an apple farm, etc.
#photocontest - Grass, like vetiver.
#FOF