Vétiver Dry 1988 Eau de Toilette

Vétiver Dry (Eau de Toilette) by Carven
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8.7 / 10 3 Ratings
A perfume by Carven for men, released in 1988. The scent is animal-sweet. The production was apparently discontinued.
Pronunciation
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Main accords

Animal
Sweet
Green
Spicy
Powdery

Fragrance Notes

VetiverVetiver
Ratings
Scent
8.73 Ratings
Sillage
5.52 Ratings
Bottle
6.67 Ratings
Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 15.01.2023.

Reviews

2 in-depth fragrance descriptions
BrianBuchanan

355 Reviews
BrianBuchanan
BrianBuchanan
2  
Vetiver Nay
This isn’t a Vetiver but a fougère in the style of Azzaro pour Homme.

Vétiver Dry is has a geranium note - which makes it a more conventional fougère - and it's more powdery-full, but they are basically quite similar.

It has herbs and a green tone which aren't in Azzaro, and, as well as that, there's a possible violet leaf note, which - along with a dark pepperiness - gives a vague hint of Fahrenheit, which was also launched in 1988.

But, despite these differences, this is yet another Azzaro clone; and like - I think - all of them that I’ve smelled, I prefer this to the original.

So leaving aside the name, and viewing it on olfactory terms, this would be of interest to Azzaro lovers, and worth checking out.
But, it doesn’t say anything that hasn’t been said a dozen times before, it just says it in a softer powdery accent.
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jtd

484 Reviews
jtd
jtd
1  
misdirection
Carven make one of the better known vetiver fragrances. It’s been around since 1957 and has stood shoulder to shoulder over the years with the other ‘classic’ vetivers that followed on its heels, namely Guerlain Vetiver (1961), Givenchy Vetyver (1959). Reformulations aside, these are Paris’s masculine Big Three of from the era.

In 1988 Carven released a new fragrance called Vetiver Dry.  The name of the perfume denotes 1980s-styled overachieving sensibility. Vetiver itself, the botanical substance, is as dry as a bone, and typically keeps most vetiver compositions at the far end of the spectrum of dryness. The name, though. It's just two words, but they suggest something out of whack. Is it overachievement? Is its competitiveness? Is it simply a misunderstanding of the material? Maybe it's an ironic tautology, as in water is wet.

Unfortunately, smelling the perfume doesn't answer any of the questions. Vetiver Dry, despite the name, is an aromatic fougère. Oh, there's some vetiver in there. More’s the pity, though. Vetiver and the fougère accord don't enhance each other, the point reinforced by the dearth of vetiver fougères available. 

The top notes are recognizable and are characteristically herbal/soapy in the fougère manner. But where the other late 80s aromatic Fougères seem bright, sharp, inventive, Vetiver Dry seems muddy and blurred. Whether or not it is the vetiver that muddies the perfume, Vetiver Dry feels like it was composed with a dull pencil.  

There’s a struggle within this bottle, and it makes for a confusing progression. Conflicting notes vie for precedence, and the topnotes, though blurry, are strong. The dry-down is murky, suggestion the conflict of notes ends in an unsatisfying draw. But to reach drydown, there’s no avoiding the heart notes, which are more unpleasant than vague, with a scent of rising dough that makes me want to open a window. 

There is a reason perfume wearers who ‘layer’ perfumes have never suggested the combination of Drakkar Noir and Bois de Farine. Vetiver Dry serves as the cautionary tale.
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