Vetiverissimo

Vetiverissimo is Bruno Fazzolari (now creating scents under the FZOTIC label) at his most stripped-back and personal; it’s the vetiver he made for himself. Calming and Zen-like, this is the vetiver you wear to relax and clear your mind. No topnotes to speak of, and no back-story either – just a superb quality vetiver dusted with a hint of warming spice, bleeding gradually into a protracted woody drydown.

Wearing Vetiverissimo feels like doing a factory re-set on your nerves. With its matte, earthen dustiness and subtle spice, it smells less like a Western perfume and more like Mitti Attar, a traditional Indian distillation of clay into sandalwood oil that captures the scent of rain on red soil. A flicker of turmeric or saffron gives the earthy vetiver a little kick, but doesn’t interrupt the smooth Zen flow of the scent. On paper, the rooty greenness of the vetiver seems to last forever, but on skin, it slides quickly and seamlessly into the warm embrace of polished woods, a balanced tandem of aromatic sandalwood and spicy, resinous cedar. Drying down into a smoky powder hovering between sandalwood paste and zukoh (incense powder), Vetiverissimo is a laid-back ayurvedic salve for frazzled tempers and city stress. In fact, it’s so good we think it should be prescribed by doctors.