Scent/Fragrance of the Day - 2012

[attime6]

GFT Sandalwood Sample.

[mdevine]

Montale Black Aoud

[BobK1]

Givenchy - Gentleman

[p.m.a.]

YSL Live Jazz
I get a kind of soapy herbal citrus, maybe a little mint. Refreshing, though nothing extraordinary. Nice to wear on this hot summer day.

[nEver-Ready]

Jovan Musk

[rearviewmirror]

Le Labo Rose 31

[Techichi]

Le Labo Rose 31

Same here.

[Obsessed]

Amouage Dia Man

I'm back in the "love it" camp with this one.

[MarkStar]

[BRuhling]

Tauer Vetiver Dance

[rebos]

Penhaligons - English Fern

[The Chandos]

Garofano Noir
by SMK Fragrances

yes, again!

[BillC]

TF Grey Vetiver

[pb56]

Veviter de Guerlain

[The Knize]

Ruh Khus

Today I'm trying two samples of ruh khus, which is just a fancy way of saying vetiver. Ruh khus, however, is hydro distilled in a copper still, which gives it an emerald green color. It's fairly viscous and has a much better scent profile than standard vetiver essential oil. Most of the vetiver EOs I've tried smell great, don't get me wrong, but they have a dirty/earthy vetiver note. By comparison, ruh khus is much more interesting in that it has many other elements and smelsl like perfumes all on their own. If you like ouds and sandalwood oils, most likely you'll like ruh khus too.

I don't know which is which, but one of these has been aged and the other one is young. They differ markedly in that one of them has a minty green but kinda musty smell to it while the other has a rich leathery note that reminds me a lot of ouds. They both smell like vetiver, however, and have excellent sillage and longevity. I merely applied a swipe of the wand from the sample tube just as I would an oud oil and it's plenty strong. I'm definitely putting some of this in my collection. I can't believe I haven't tried any of this before!

Intriguing! "Khus" is just another word for vetiver, right? There are lots of little bottles of oil or whatever out there labelled "khus," as I recall, of hugely varying "quality" and "qualities." I take it the "ruh" is an important part of the name here!?

[The Chandos]

Intriguing! "Khus" is just another word for vetiver, right? There are lots of little bottles of oil or whatever out there labelled "khus," as I recall, of hugely varying "quality" and "qualities." I take it the "ruh" is an important part of the name here!?

From what I understand, khus is simply vetiver, and yes, khus oils are ubiquitous. Ruh, however, means something like 'spirit,' and ruh khus is also called 'oil of tranquility.' Thus, like many of the incense sticks I've seen that have an extra word denoting a higher quality, ruh khus would be a higher grade of vetiver oil. Whether that means it's hydro distilled in copper kettles, I don't know. I've read that ruh khus is also supposed to be distilled in the wild so that there is nothing lost of the 'spirit' between harvesting and distillation. But I haven't spent much time digging around. Ultimately, to answer your question, I think, Yes.

Also, I have no idea where these samples of ruh khus came from. Sorry, they are just some random samples that got passed along to me. However, there are myriad ruh khus sources online. I just don't have any feel for what's good and what's not. Perhaps an authority on these will come up. Perhaps we should start a new thread specifically to discuss grades of vetiver and sources for good quality oils?

EDIT: A bit of internet exploration turned up "ruh" to mean "wild," in that ruh khus is cultivated and distilled in the wild. Ruh also means spirit, but I don't know if they're related - that would be conjecture on my part although it sound pretty good. There is a very good read on it at the Perfume Shrine.

Edit #2: According to this extremely informative read from Chris McMahon of White Lotus Aromatics in WA, there is a difference not only in the cultivation of vetivers by region, but also distillation processes. Khus refers not only to wild harvested vetiver in India but also to the process in which it is captured. Ruh denotes a higher quality, the distillation process being a little more involved, and can be taken to mean something along the lines of "pure" if you compare it to the standard process used for khus. Both Khus and Ruh Khus are hydro-distilled (as opposed to steam distillation or other methods). So, Ruh = 'pure' = 'spirit' = higher quality. If you look at the prices for the various vetiver EOs from White Lotus, you'll see there are several in the $10-$20/ounce range while the price of Ruh Khus jumps to nearly $80/ounce.

[daverasi]

Creed Vetiver 1948. This has a great opening that made me want to track down another decant but it faded so quickly I'll have to reconsider.

[rebos]

Evening: G F T - Limes

[chuckr9]

Harris Arlington cologne

[otto76]

PDN New York