It’s a distillation like this that reminds you how magical vetiver is. If someone has never smelled any vetiver, they’d think this is an attar composed of white flowers, sandalwood, and a gentle dash of citrus.
It’s only if you’re familiar with veritiver’s overall profile that you’d recognize it as vetiver. Even then, nobody will blame you for thinking it’s vetiver with a floral-santal-citrus blend added.
There are plenty of cheap ones readily available, but quality Haitian vetiver is considered among the top vetivers for a reason. That citrus-like sweetness that smells like there’s a resinous base with its flowery undertone hovering around the grassy tone you’d typically associate with khus makes it a rich, layered aroma that’s beautiful to wear as a neat fragrance.
Like oud, distilling vetiver isn’t a rush job, and there’s a steep decline in yield the longer you distill – but it’s exactly those ‘unnecessary’ extra hours and days (in the case of oud, weeks) that lets you pull the cream of the flavor.
Because vetiver is so molecularly dense, it improves with age just as oud does and works great as a fixative in perfumes.
Haitian Khus is incense green, clean, as far as a root fragrance goes: fresh. It’s the most lively, zesty of vetivers. Compared to Hindi Hara, it’s like comparing Thai Oud to Maroke.
