I wear Tom Ford Grey Vetiver and I want a clean, dry vetiver car fragrance. How should I compare the available options?

Nine pyramids, one of them names the material you came for, and it names it in the heart with dry and cool printed around it. That is a comparison that needs no adjectives from me.

The answer, in full

Compare on four printed things, and the first one eliminates almost everything. One: does the pyramid name the material at all? Vetiver ₹519 is the only one of the nine that does. It publishes top notes of fresh green khus root, a cool earth opening, heart notes of deep vetiver, cooling smoke-free depth, a light citrus edge, a base of dry root warmth, a residual cooling effect, and a Scent Family of Earthy, green, Indian heritage. Two: which tier is it in? The material is named in the heart, which is the body of a composition rather than its first ten minutes, and it is named again as root in both the opening and the base. Three: what has the composition put around it? Three published words answer your brief directly. Dry, in dry root warmth. Clean, in cooling smoke-free depth, which is SOSA's own phrase and the one line in the nine that says what a composition is not. And a light citrus edge, in the heart, which is the lift that stops a root reading heavy. Four: format and price. That scent is ₹519 as either a 10ml spray or a 12ml hanging bottle, the 15ml hanging refill is ₹449, and a 50ml spray is ₹1,509 on every scent. The 10ml spray publishes 100 sprays, stated as three months and above at one spray a day and fifty days at two a day. The 12ml hanging bottle publishes 4 to 6 weeks, that is 28 to 42 days, of continuous diffusion, in refillable glass whose stopper loosens for stronger and tightens for subtler. Run the same four questions over the rest of the range and you will see why this one stands alone: Icy Mint ₹499 publishes a base of menthol settle, dry green-woody residue, a cold-clean skin-feel, which is dry and clean but mentholic; Sandalwood ₹509 publishes creamy resinous warmth, which is the opposite of dry; Oud ₹519 publishes a base of dry amber, deep musk, lingering warmth, which is dry and warm rather than cool; Lemon ₹509 publishes the citrus without any root under it. On the bottle in your question, SOSA publishes nothing about any designer or niche perfume, so I cannot tell you what the bottle on your shelf contains and I will not guess at it. SOSA publishes no strength ranking of the nine and no prediction of what any reader will prefer, so the last step of this is yours. A portion of every SOSA order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali.

Four questions to compare any car fragrance on

These four work on any box in front of you, not only this range, and all four are answerable from printed text rather than from a sales assistant. I have answered them for the nine.

Does it name the material?: one pyramid in nine does

Vetiver ₹519 publishes fresh green khus root in its top notes and deep vetiver in its heart. Khus and vetiver are the same material under two names, and this is the only pyramid in the nine that prints either. If a box does not print what is in it, you have nothing to compare and the comparison stops there. That is the first question for a reason: it is the cheapest one to answer and it removes most of the field.

One pyramid in nine names it. The rest cannot be compared on it.

Which tier, and what is around it?: heart, with a citrus edge

The material is published in the heart as deep vetiver, cooling smoke-free depth, a light citrus edge. The heart is the body of a composition rather than its opening, so the material is not a flourish in the opening. Around it the composition publishes a cool earth opening above and dry root warmth, a residual cooling effect below. Dry, cool, citrus-edged and smoke-free, all four printed on one page. SOSA publishes no figure for how long any tier lasts in a cabin, so read the three tiers as a description and nothing more.

Format and price: two formats at one price, and a refill

That scent is ₹519 as a 10ml spray or as a 12ml hanging bottle, and the price is the same either way. The 10ml spray publishes 100 sprays, stated as three months and above at one spray a day and fifty days at two a day, and SOSA's own instruction is to aim toward the centre of the cabin and away from leather or fabric upholstery. The 12ml hanging bottle publishes 4 to 6 weeks, that is 28 to 42 days, of continuous diffusion, and its 15ml refill is ₹449. A 50ml spray is ₹1,509 with 500 sprays, stated as about a year and more.

Same oil, same price, two different delivery habits.

The whole published pyramid, verbatim

Vetiver ₹519. Scent Family: Earthy, green, Indian heritage. Top notes: fresh green khus root, a cool earth opening. Heart notes: deep vetiver, cooling smoke-free depth, a light citrus edge. Base notes: dry root warmth, a residual cooling effect. Four of the words in your own brief appear in that block: dry, cool, citrus and the material itself. It is published as a 10ml spray or a 12ml hanging bottle at ₹519, with a 15ml hanging refill at ₹449 and a 50ml spray at ₹1,509.

If you would rather smell three pyramids than read nine, the three-spray discovery sets are ₹709 to ₹909 and the pack of nine is ₹3,009. See the discovery sets →

The same four questions, run across the range

Two honest limits, because this page is otherwise the easiest recommendation in the series. The first: SOSA publishes nothing about any designer or niche perfume, so I cannot tell you what the bottle on your shelf contains and I will not guess at it. The second: SOSA publishes no strength ranking of the nine and no prediction of what any reader will prefer, so the last step of this is yours. A published pyramid describes a composition and does not promise you a cabin, and no coverage area, cabin volume or scent-throw figure is published for any format. So read the block, buy the ₹519 bottle in whichever format suits your week, and let your own nose have the last word.

“One of the nine names the material, in the heart, with dry and cool printed around it. The comparison is short because the printing is clear.”

A comparison you can run in ten minutes

1. Ask first whether the box prints what is in it. If not, there is nothing to compare.
2. Find the material in the three tiers, and note which tier it sits in.
3. Read what the composition prints around it: dry, cool, sweet, smoky or citrus.
4. Then compare format and price: Vetiver Rs 519, with a 15ml refill at Rs 449.

Questions, answered