The list of notes sounds fabulous, complex, intriguing, but Coeur de Vétiver Sacré smells simple and linear. I’m not complaining the world doesn’t need another straight-up/vetiver-dominant perfume anyway.Ĭoeur de Vétiver Sacré uses vetiver as a vehicle for other perfume adornments. There’s certainly vetiver in Coeur de Vétiver Sacré, but it’s not the dominant ingredient. In fact, naming this perfume “vetiver” is like listing “vanilla ice cream” on a dessert menu when you plan on serving a banana split. It didn’t impress me much, I’m afraid, but I noticed a couple of interesting things.L’Artisan Parfumeur describes Coeur de Vétiver Sacré as an “offering to the gods” and a “mystical journey from East to West” the fragrance was created by perfumer Karine Vinchon, whose aim was to deconstruct vetiver into what she considers its main characteristics: sparkle (bergamot, orange, black tea) spice (pepper, ginger, coriander, saffron) and smoke (incense, birch).* When I first smelled Coeur de Vétiver Sacré, I felt it would have been better named Coeur de Gingembre Sacré because a rich candied ginger note is prominent. I had a forgotten sample of CVS and this morning, after having read your review I decided to give it a try. Lutosławski Philharmonic Orchestra from Wrocław conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk (photo by Jarosław Deluga-Góra) *Title adapted from Iris Murdoch: The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, I apologize for mutilating the title of this wonderful book, but I couldn’t resist. And beauty is something that never fails to move me. It shines in this fragrance, it sings like I never heard it sing before and it convinces me of its beauty. A sacred plant, the heart of the sacred plant. It succeds to elevate vétiver in my mind from boring, dusty grey root to a thing of wonder that is indeed worthy of reverence and adoration. Vétiver has many facets and each of those other notes is there in an effort to bring out those different facets. Like the name implies, like the notes suggests, vétiver is what it is all about, and all those notes do their best to bring it out to shine. They all play the same multi-faceted tune, solo parts passing from one to the other, but always retaining the common element, the piece of music they all play – a concert for violin and orchestra that is called All hail Monsieur Vétiver! Somehow Karine Vinchon made this ragga-muffin’ band of notes behave like a well-trained orchestra. That is how it sounds, but oddly it isn’t how it smells. It all sounds like a hot mess, like there is too much going on, like there is a convention of dozens of different and rivalling notes going on, every single one of them clamoring for attention. I find myself standing inside a tiny little shop that sells teas and chinese herbs, all those aromas converging around me an coalescing into something almost visible, almost touchable.Īs the scent broadens into its heart, the apricot note of osmanthus drifts by, I smell dates for a second, green spices like bay and tarragon weave in and out, spicy, warm, cool, sweet, fruity, grassy, rooty, dusty and dry, all those impressions are there simultaneously, bringing to mind the basket of offerings L’Artisan describes. For the first minutes it smells like herbal tea to me, a complex mixture of tea, oddly effervescent and calming at the same time. Upon spraying it I get hit by a melange of citrus notes and a marked tea note, tinged with spices and the first whiff of vétiver. Well, you see me reviewing Coeur de Vétiver Sacré, so that means it must have moved me somehow…Ĭoeur de Vétiver Sacré was created by Karine Vinchon in 2010 and includes notes of Vetiver Haiti, vetiver coeur, bergamot, orange, black tea, saffron, coriander, tarragon, ginger, pink bay, date accord, dried apricot accord, rose, iris, osmanthus, sandalwood, white cedar, gaiac wood, incense, amber, cistus, tonka bean, vanilla, musk, labdanum, castoreum and birch tar. For the most part vétiver fragrances are a bit too masculine, or too rooty-dusty for me, they are okay, but not earth shattering and I tend to review mostly things that move me, in either direction. I like the dark and mysterious Vétiver Extraordinaire by Malle, I like the foody-hazelnutty Vétiver Tonka by Hermes, I like the grassy-woody Timbuktu by l’Artisan, but there is a reason you won’t find them reviewed here (at least for now). Vétiver is not my favorite material, I’ll say that up front. The material is illuminated from all sides, every olfactory aspect of this complex root brought to light and polished, to be admired by the Gods as well as by us mere mortals. Coeur de Vétiver Sacré, “the offering to the gods, the mystical journey, a basket filled with fruits, flowers, spices and incense, with balms and precious woods.” That is how L’Artisan describes this perfume, an ode to vétiver.
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