Ingredient

Vetiveria Zizanioides Root Oil

Vetiveria zizanoides

Inhale, pause, then exhale and feel your worries floating away. With its deep and smoky aroma, vetivert oil encourages a moment of calm, while on the skin it cleanses and mattifies.

The Vetiveria zizanoides plant belongs to the Gramineae family, like lemongrass, and is a tall grass with a complex root system. It is these very long and thin roots that are harvested, chopped and dried, before being steam distilled to obtain a fragrant oil. The older the root is, the better the oil will be — but also harder to distill, which makes it difficult to source.

In a bath, it is thought to be a warming, soothing oil. And finally, it is used as a fixative for perfume blends, which means it holds onto other fragrances that it has been blended with and releases them slowly.

As the scent of the oil depends on many factors, such as the area where the plant has grown and the age of the root when harvested, it is a tricky ingredient to source and Lush has to have many different suppliers to avoid shortages or huge olfactory differences between batches. Vetivert scents can vary from deep, smoky and almost ashy to somewhat citrusy.