Madagascan Vetiver

There's vetiver, and there's vetiver. And then there's time. Time is an often overlooked ingredient in natural perfumery. When I first smelt this I instantly stopped what I was doing and listened. I listened intently. It was so rich, lush and mesmerisingly beautiful. This is how vetiver should be. It's not that there's anything outlandishly unique about it. Quite the opposite in fact, it's just an excellently soothing vetiver. For vetiver fans, you'll know that not all vetivers are equal of course: some are too rooty and earthy, others too smoky and leathery, and others yet too light and watery. But this to me is perfectly balanced. Opening with fresh grassy and sweet green hues, its lush notes are beautifully contrasted with dark, earthy and leathery qualities that keep everything in beautiful harmony. Distilled at the end of 2018, this is by no means an old batch, but it also isn't new. Much like oud, sandalwood and a few other oils, vetiver improves with age, and the 3+ years this has spent ageing has really rounded it off into the exuberantly rich oil it is today. To me, this is a benchmark of how an excellent wild North Indian Ruh Khus should smell. I present to you: Ruh Khus 2018.   Collection:  Kannauj Chronicles In the Kannauj Chronicles, I explore and share with you the wonderful natural oils and attars of India’s historic perfume capital, Kannauj. The oils in this collection are pure botanical extracts and attars distilled in sandalwood oil by some of Kannauj's most renowned and trusted artisans, who share our passion for distilling the highest quality of aromatics and attars. These attars are distilled using the ancient ‘deg and bhapka’ apparatus; a traditional distilling method largely unchanged for 400 years. I hope you enjoy these breathtaking scents of nature from a bygone era, an era fast being forgotten in today's race towards modernity and industrialisation at all costs.

Botanical Name: Pogostemon cablin Origin: India, 2022 Process: Iron-Distilled Essential Oil, Dark Note: Base Perfumery: Excellent fixative This is a gorgeous iron-distilled Indian patchouli oil bursting with its characteristically sweet, warm, rich, herbaceous, spicy, minty, woody, and earthy profile that makes it so valuable in natural perfumery and perfumery at large. Comparing this Indian distillation to the more common Indonesian one, I personally prefer the Indian variety due to its deeper and richer profile that feels more earthy, chocolaty, and almost caramel-like in its sweetness, compared with its more herbaceous, minty and fruity Indonesian counterpart that feels lighter and more top-note heavy. An incredibly versatile oil due to its outstandingly beautiful and complex profile, patchouli is a great fixative that can find use in almost all accords, from earthy, green and forest-type blends to spicy orientals, florals, and woods. It also improves with ageing if stored correctly, and should become smoother, rounder and fuller in profile with time.