Mainstream Monday – Sniffing A Popular Perfume

I’ve been wanting to try Avon’s mark White Vetiver. I mean doesn’t it sound good? Here’s what mark has to say:

A blend of unexpected contrasts. A dark, smoky vetiver vibe merges with intimate notes of ultra-femme white tuberose…

And I thought the packaging/font looks good. In my mind, I imagined mark White Vetiver as being a budget friendly Bobbi Brown, simple and pretty. I thought pleasant, nothing world rocking, but good and affordable. And maybe it would be a vetiver version of something like Tom Ford White Patchouli. I was hoping for too much. White Vetiver isn’t awful, but it gets close. I think the idea is wonderful and that the notes should make sense, but they don’t. This is a classic “you get what you pay for” perfume. The ingredients are cheap and it evaporates quickly. If mark was willing to purchase better ingredients and raise the price to lets see, $50, this perfume could, hypothetically, have been enjoyable dry grassy figgy tropical floral, something I should, hypothetically, love. Oh, well.

White Vetiver is a “fragrance mist” so the alcohol content is high like a body spray. It opens up as this dry, grassy coconut with a plummy tuberose, somehow figgy. It’s way sweeter than I imagined. It’s like the Kim Kardashian fragrance but sweeter and more “tropical” because of the coconut. White Vetiver is much more bland in comparison to Kim Kardashian perfume (which can be compared to Coty Sand & Sable and Piguet Fracas). I almost like White Vetiver when I smell it up close, it reminds me of fig trees, but the further it gets from my nose, the more I unlike it. I get a strange “community pool” accord which reminds me of chlorine, sweat, and tanning lotions. I usually LOVE a sweaty/salty vetiver, but it isn’t working at all in this blend of cheap tuberose and chemical coconut-fig. Nothing about this blend smells “dark” and it isn’t smoky! It reminds me of being at a community pool on the hottest day of summer. Everyone is irritable, dripping in sweat looking awful in their swimsuits because they rarely swim and that bikini is from 1992. I can smell dead, crunchy grass in the distance because the apartment complex is too cheap to turn on the sprinklers. Wow, the more I think about it, White Vetiver is dirty and not in a good dirty way. But, it isn’t awful, just awkward. Hmmm…

So, I don’t know what to say about White Vetiver. I almost like it, but then I don’t. I think it’s the quality of the products. I really should love a grassy tuberose that is figgy. But, I don’t in this case. My husband says this smells good and that I’m overreacting. I say that he has cheap tastes and likes “the dollar menu” of perfumes. White Vetiver isn’t terrible, but I have better vetivers and fig fragrances in my collection. Life is too short to waste your time wearing perfumes you don’t love. But, I have sniffed much worse perfumes at a higher price point.

Notes listed include plum, mandarin, pink pepper, tuberose, jasmine, dark cocao beans, Haitian vetiver, patchouli, and Georgywood® (an intense clean woody odor).

I’m not saying that everyone will dislike White Vetiver like I do. I don’t love it, you may. I say give it a try if you like coconut or fig fragrances or perfumes like Kim Kardashian, L’Artisan Parfumeur Premier Figuier, Sula Love Bird Tropical, Rihanna Reb’l Fleur, and/or Sarah Jessica Parker Covet Pure Bloom.

The 1.7 oz. fragrance mist of White Vetiver retails for $22 and is available at www.meetmark.com.

Want more reviews? Try…

The Scented Salamander

Fragrantica (member reviews)

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