Vetiver Réunion Urban Scents 2016

According to the manufacturer, the cultivation of vetiver on the French island of La Réunion, incidentally the southernmost point of the EU, has been reintroduced specifically for this fragrance. They traveled around the world to find the perfect vetiver, but only the "Vetiver Bourbon" from said island could meet the requirements. It's unfortunate that this sweet grass hasn't been cultivated there for years. But the Berlin perfumers from Urban Scents find nothing too difficult, so they took the cultivation on La Réunion into their own hands. Quite a lot of effort for a fragrance type that already exists in almost all variations. Let's see if it was worth it...

Vetiver Réunion starts off sharply alcoholic, paired with pink pepper, creating quite a spiced overture. The vetiver joins in soon enough, but more on that later. The discerning reader of the fragrance pyramid might wonder where on earth the promised grapefruit has gone? With the combination of grapefruit, pepper, and vetiver, I immediately thought of TdH, but fear not, there are no similarities.
After a good quarter of an hour, a slight sweetness emerges between the pepper and vetiver, which harmonizes wonderfully with the other two notes. Now the grapefruit makes sense to me; it is by no means fresh and fruity like, for example, in "G.", but rather reminiscent of a dried slice of citrus fruit in a Christmas potpourri (of course without cinnamon and cloves). It's a concentrated bitter-sweetness that fits in skillfully. In my opinion, this brightens the fragrance significantly, taking away some of the grim masculinity that I always associate with vetiver, and is therefore, to preempt, absolutely unisex.
Now, let's talk about the main character, the wonderful vetiver from La Réunion. It is truly something special. In a statement below, it was described as smooth-leathery, and that fits perfectly. Smooth-leathery with a slight rubber note. The exact opposite of the earthy-grassy-rough Guerlain or Dior vetivers. Still, nothing here is synthetic. Everything remains airy and loosely intertwined and simply smells good and, what's great, completely different from the usual suspects.
As we move towards the base, the musk also makes itself known, further emphasizing the unisex qualities. The musk note reminds me a bit of "Muschio Bianco" and adds a clean fresh laundry touch to the whole. All in all, this is a completely different, really successful vetiver fragrance!

And once again, it shows that hard work and meticulous attention to detail pay off. One must not always be satisfied with what is available but should also take a step further. As we can see here, it pays off!