Sultan Vetiver Nishane 2014

We are in a warehouse, a flea market sale is taking place. The books for sale, from cookbooks to bibles, from travel guides to crime novels, are looking for a new home. They all give off a characteristic smell - the pages are yellowed, these hams have been exposed to too much moisture and some of them have been carelessly stored in the cellar. The leather sofa in the center of the warehouse contributes to the olfactory experience. This is Sultan Vetiver.

The voices that try to attribute modernity to this vetiver fragrance seem to me like a futile attempt to sell a tube television as the latest trend - Sultan Vetiver strikes me as musty, old-fashioned, harsh - simply unattractive.

Despite an aversion to vetiver, one cannot deny that Sultan Vetiver offers the wearer qualitatively well-realized vetiver, which is consistently underlined by suitable notes:

At the beginning, you encounter tart absinthe, which brings subtle sweet and spicy hints (wormwood, aniseed, fennel) in the background - the tart alcohol note paired with vetiver is nevertheless in the foreground.

Unfortunately, the leather note, which is well matched to the vetiver, only reveals itself later on. This transforms Sultan Vetiver from a flea market fragrance into a true perfume for the first time as soon as the base makes itself felt. Too late to save anything - the negative verdict has already been reached.

You will search in vain for the neroli and tonka bean mentioned in the heart.

To summarize, with Sultan Vetiver you get a concentrated load of vetiver, which is paired with characteristic notes that are perfectly matched to the vetiver. This may well appeal to long-established vetiver lovers, but the average perfume enthusiast will probably not find this fragrance very appealing, as it smells too harsh and old-fashioned for the norm.