I can see how this new release by Creed could be considered "great." It smells great in a safe way that borders on generic. It feels pretty good to wear it. It's a very attractive bottle, sort of a proprietary shade of green that I haven't seen elsewhere, save for lime popsicles from the dollar store, the extra-cheap kind that come wrapped in waxy white paper. Even the name is fun, conjuring imagery of unconstrained fields of tall vetiver grasses waving hello as far as the eye can see. It's all good.
Except Wild Vetiver is a little too close to Eladaria. Same bored, sugared peony-rose thing, which weirdly smells nothing like an actual flower. This note, by the way, is pretty much the whole shebang when you get past the initial Yankee-Candle "timur pepper", which is really just a mildly spiced grapefruit/bergamot hybrid with a bit of supporting aspartame blackcurrant. What I find strange is the fruits smell deeply fake and sweet, just like the rose, and rather like—you guessed it—Yankee Candle. You can identify everything, and it smells bold enough to stick for a few hours. Not exactly cheap, per say. But Silver Mountain Water's blackcurrant is also sweet, and even a bit sour, and it doesn't smell remotely foody or aircare-like. Not so, Wild Vetiver.
I hoped the base would bring in the grassy fields to justify the name. But the drydown is merely a watercolor sketch of Ambroxan and Habanolide, Ambrettolide, and maybe even some methyl laitone for more silky-smooth pseudo sweets. Ever since Carmina, Creed has been playing with this low-sugar rose-jam-meets-orange-marmalade thing that worked great in that fragrance, and somewhat well in Eladaria, but with Wild Vetiver it's a case of diminishing returns. Creed's new "Senior Business Development Manager" is happy to take a successful accord and milk it. Fine for some, perhaps, but for me? Cut the shit, Creed, and bring back Green Valley. You can do "green" better than this.
What note didn't I mention because I never once smelled it here?
Crap, it'll come to me.