Nowhereman

Vetiverite was an extremely pleasant surprise. The green apple in the top is not candy-like in any way, it's more of a "what the first taste of a big bite of green apple would smell like if tastes were smells" sensory impression of apple; hyper-tart and ultra-crisp. This blends in with a very "green" take on vetiver; you get this wonderful grassy vetiver that isn't very "earthy" - you don't think of roots and dirt at all when smelling this. As those brighter opening notes like the bergamot and petitgrain and whatnot burn off a slight apple-ness hangs around as the main vetiver notes become supported by some cedar, a light amber, and a touch of oakmoss, while still saying very 'green' overall and bright; it doesn't gain much darkness or heaviness from the basenotes.

It's funny because I think it smells very fresh and clean without smelling much like a "freshie" cologne at all, and it all blends together so well you actually have a very complicated fragrance (both at any given moment as well as across the development over time) that also manages to present itself as a unified and well-blended experience. I also really appreciate that it doesn't have much overlap with other vetiver-centric scents in my collection; it's far less "warm" than Escale en Haiti, and less "sweet" than something like Bal D'Afrique., and less "root-y" than something like Grey Vetiver.

At least on me, the florals in this absolutely dominate the citrus notes in both the intro and the drydown. The topnote development is interesting; I get an initial *strong* lavender floral blast and after 3-5 minutes the citruses pop out and go "heya!", but then after 10-15 minutes the florals come back in as the violet & iris somehow reinforce the initial lavender and bring it back to the surface, with the floral notes being sharp and not very powdery (perhaps due to the citrus). You then have this extended floral midsection where the iris gains strength (with the rose notes present, but quite faint in comparison), with an eventual settling into the light musk base that isn't heavy at all, staying relatively 'light' and fresh due to the still-fading floral notes. While this isn't a sillage bomb, it lasts a long, long time on my skin, and due to the florals I could imagine over-spraying it could be headache-inducing. Two sprays is all i'd ever want/need.

I'm usually not a fan of florals but this works quite well, is blended quite effectively, and does lean slightly masculine without having to "hide" any of its floral nature.

You get an initial blast of orange-ginger-bergamot, the ginger burns off in a couple of minutes, and you're left with orange & bergamot that'll hang around for a while but doesn't project far and will not offend anyone in your vicinity. The orange note feels kind of synthetic but not necessarily in a bad way; the other reviewers that liken it a bit to a retail space fragrance are in the right vicinity. It's what you wished your high-end gym or country club changing room smelled like, or what they might pump into the retail area of a decent Miami or "euro-coast" themed resort casino. That's not a mark against it (it does smell quite pleasant), but I'm not sure it's remotely worth what they're charging for this stuff to smell like that, especially because "relatively linear citrus-fresh in the orange-ish space" is pretty crowded as it is. Could see this as a late-afternoon spritz in warmer seasons when you just want to smell pleasant but not "put on a fragrance."