Vetiver in perfume: the grass root behind a woody note

Vetiver is a woody note, yet it comes from a grass. In Vietnamese it is called cỏ hương bài. This article is adapted from a Vietnamese essay by Rei Nguyen, for whom vetiver is a favorite material.

Where the scent of vetiver comes from

You might expect the scent to sit in the long green leaves. It does not. Vetiver's scent comes from its roots: the oil forms along each root, underground.

The roots grow straight down, firm and dense, and can reach up to three meters within a year. Vetiver is usually harvested after at least a year in the ground. Because the roots hold soil in place, prevent erosion and keep weeds down, the grass is also planted to protect and improve land. It is easy to grow, resists pests well and gives a good yield.

In Vietnam, vetiver is grown on the hills and sandy land around Hue, and its scent has long been part of traditional Vietnamese incense. Some families still grow it for the incense of their home region. Rei has not yet had the chance to try vetiver from Hue herself.

From root to oil

At harvest, the roots are cut away from the leaves, washed free of soil, then cut shorter so they dry evenly. They dry in the shade for one to two days before distillation. The shade matters: drying in direct sun affects how much oil the roots yield. The oil is then usually drawn out by steam distillation.

How vetiver smells

Despite being a grass, vetiver has no herbal side. Perfumers place it in the Woody family. Along with sandalwood and cedarwood, it is one of the woody materials perfumers reach for most often, and each new perfume brings out a different side of the vetiver note.

Two kinds of vetiver are common in perfumery:

• Haiti vetiver smells clean, slightly sweet and a little green as it opens. Haiti is widely seen as the home of the finest vetiver and produces a large share of the world's supply. Growing and harvesting vetiver for the fragrance industry is an important source of income there. Haiti vetiver appears in many well-known fine fragrances, and its scent is rounder, with more facets, than vetiver from Indonesia or India.
• Java vetiver, the most widely known vetiver from Indonesia, is smokier and denser. Rei finds it plainer and more rustic than Haiti vetiver, with a beauty of its own. She rarely builds a perfume on it. Instead she adds a little for a trace of smoke, and keeps smoky notes light.

Wearing vetiver

Vetiver is often called a masculine note. Rei is not so sure. She does not choose a perfume by gender and does not suggest you do; she chooses by personality.

One modern vetiver perfume she loves blends vetiver with sandalwood, cedarwood, myrrh and musk: woody and gently spicy. Woody, spicy scents are not the usual choice in Saigon's heat, yet she wears it in an air-conditioned room. To her, a vetiver like this feels direct and open, the scent of someone with nothing to hide. Vetiver is sometimes called "the fragrance of the soil," and like the soil, it feels steady and warm to her.

She does not wear vetiver to lift her mood. She reaches for it when she wants a quiet moment with her own thoughts. In Vietnamese astrology her element is earth, which may be why a plant so rooted in the soil is a material she loves. She has even drunk it: in Japan she sought out vetiver tea, sweet and fragrant, and drank it through the winter, sometimes brewing it with butterfly pea flowers, which turn the tea purple.

A woody perfume from NOTE

If you like the woody side of vetiver, try NOTE's At The Sawmill. Top: berries, cedarwood. Middle: Iso E Super, jasmine grandiflorum. Base: sandalwood, tonka bean, musk. You can see the full range on the NOTE perfume collection page.

Rei Nguyen is the perfumer of R Parfums, a Vietnamese niche perfume house that tells stories of East Asian culture through scent. Its perfumes are sold at the three NOTE stores listed below. Find out more at r-parfums.com.

Where to try NOTE in Ho Chi Minh City

NOTE - The Scent Lab perfumes are sold at three stores in Ho Chi Minh City: 2nd Floor, 42 Nguyen Hue (inside The Cafe Apartment), District 1; 34 Nguyen Duy Hieu, Thao Dien; and 3rd Floor, 26 Ly Tu Trong, District 1.

What each store has on the shelf changes from day to day, so message NOTE before you go, on WhatsApp or Messenger. NOTE delivers to addresses within Vietnam. If you are visiting, buy in store and take the bottle home in your luggage.