Should I choose vetiver or sandalwood attar if I want an earthy woody fragrance without heavy smoke?

One correction first, made once. There is no vetiver bottle and no sandalwood bottle in the range; both are notes, and Nawaab, Ameeri, Mastani and Adaa are the products. So the real choice is between pyramids, and the published difference between them is where each wood sits. Here is the tier read. Tier position is published, and for a wood question it matters more than any adjective could. A note in the heart is the centre of a composition, and Nawaab's own page labels that tier the long centre. A note in the base is its close, and Ameeri's own page labels its base the long settled warmth. So Nawaab publishes its oud as the middle of the bottle, and Ameeri and Mastani publish theirs as the end of it. Vetiver is published once, in Adaa's base, beside cedarwood and white musk, so choosing vetiver means choosing a wood at the close of a composition. Adaa is the one pyramid in the range that publishes wood with no oud and no amber in any tier: white musk, vetiver and cedarwood in its base, which its own page labels a clean composure drydown. Sandalwood is published three times. In Ameeri it is the centre, beside Taif rose. In Nawaab it is the centre, beside white royal oud and aged tobacco leaf. In Mastani it is the close, beside oudh, Madagascar vanilla and tonka bean. Now your two words. Vetiver is the wood general perfumery most often calls earthy, and earthy is not a word printed on any SOSA attar page. Heavy smoke is your phrase for what you want to avoid, and smoke is not a note in any of the four pyramids, which is a fact about names rather than a promise about how any bottle reads. Incense is not a note published in any of the four attar pyramids, and nor is frankincense, myrrh, birch tar, cade or guaiac wood. That is a published fact about note names, and it is not a promise about how any attar reads on you. Leather and aged tobacco leaf are published in Nawaab only. In general perfumery a leather note is usually an accord rather than a single material, and SOSA publishes no breakdown of its leather, so I cannot tell you what it is built from. I can tell you these are the two published names in the range that a reader avoiding smoke would weigh first. So on your words, here is how I would read the two routes. The vetiver route is Adaa, and it is the one pyramid in the range with wood and no oud or amber. Adaa publishes Calabrian bergamot, green cardamom and neroli in its opening, jasmine sambac, magnolia and ylang ylang in its heart, and white musk, vetiver and cedarwood in its base. Adaa's published strength figure is 8.5, the lightest end of the range. It is ₹379 for 3ml, ₹669 for 6ml and ₹1,149 for 12ml. Adaa carries 4.9 from 98 published customer reviews. Those are customer reviews Sonal collated over WhatsApp, which is why I quote the count beside the figure rather than the figure on its own. The sandalwood route I would start in Ameeri, because its sandalwood is the centre and its company in that tier is Taif rose rather than oud or aged tobacco leaf. Ameeri publishes Persian saffron, pink pepper and bergamot in its opening, Taif rose and Indian sandalwood in its heart, and soft oudh, amber and white musk in its base. Ameeri's published strength figure is 9.0, the festive warm middle of the range. It is ₹385 for 3ml, ₹679 for 6ml and ₹1,165 for 12ml. Ameeri carries 4.9 from 104 published customer reviews. Nawaab's sandalwood shares its tier with the leaf and the oud, so on a no-smoke brief it is the one to read last. Sonal Sahani trained at ISIPCA, Versailles, she designs all four attars herself, and she signs off every small batch by hand in Pune. The smallest published size is 3ml, on all four, and SOSA sells no travel size, no sample, no tester and no decant, so 3ml is where a trial starts. All four publish the same wear time, 6 to 8 hours on skin, longer on warm or oily skin, and nothing beyond that figure is published. SOSA publishes no projection figure and no sillage figure for any attar, so no page of mine will turn a strength figure into a distance. A portion of every SOSA order supports girl-child education through Nanhi Kali.