Vetiver vs Cedarwood Oil: Two Woody Scents Compared

Vetiver and cedarwood are the two oils people reach for when they want a room to smell like a quiet forest floor, so it is natural to ask which one is better at bedtime. We have looked, and nothing we found shows that either oil on its own improves sleep in people. What we can compare is how they smell, what they are made of, and what has been tested.

Vetiver Essential Oil bottle

Vetiver Essential Oil

Our own Vetiver Essential Oil, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

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"Cedarwood" is a family

A 2026 review of wood essential oils by Setzer and Satyal points out that besides the true cedars (Cedrus), many trees from other genera are called cedar, including Juniperus, Cupressus, Thuja and Cryptomeria. True cedar oils are generally dominated by himachalenes and atlantones, while oils from species such as Juniperus virginiana are rich in cedrenes, cedrol and thujopsene. So an Atlas cedar bottle and a Virginia cedarwood bottle are different products sold under one name, and a study that says "cedarwood" needs to be read for which tree it used.

Where the two smells meet

Vetiver has a cedar-like side of its own. In a 2021 analysis of Haitian vetiver oil, one compound, isovalencenol, gave a creamy background linked to cedar and sandalwood, and the oil as a whole read as a sweet, woody-ambery base under a fresh, grapefruit-like top (Ouyang et al., 2021). We describe our vetiver as deep, earthy and smoky-sweet, and the standard on our Certificate of Analysis lists its smell as herbaceous, earthy and woody. The Setzer review notes that sesquiterpenoids are generally responsible for the woody fragrance of cedarwood oils, so both oils draw on the same broad family of molecules. We found no source that scores the two side by side, so which one smells "woodier" is for your own nose. Our scent guide describes vetiver, and the perfumery post shows how it behaves in blends.

A small amber glass bottle of vetiver essential oil tightly closed with a black screw cap and a small amber bottle of

Smelling them side by side

The easiest comparison costs almost nothing. Put a drop of each oil on its own paper strip, label them straight away (it is surprisingly easy to lose track), and come back after a few minutes and again after an hour. Decide for yourself which one feels drier, which one feels sweeter and which one you would still want to smell tomorrow. Vetiver will be the slower one to pour, so warm the bottle in your hands and take it gently.

If you find you like both, that is a perfectly good outcome. Plenty of people keep a woody oil and an earthy oil on the same shelf and choose between them by mood and by what they are making.

What has been tested

For cedarwood, the work is mostly on its main compound. In rats and mice, inhaled cedrol, a major component of some cedarwood oils, reduced spontaneous activity and lengthened pentobarbital-induced sleeping time in Wistar rats, and the effect held in rats with impaired smell, which led the authors to suggest a route other than the olfactory system (Kagawa et al., 2003). In 26 healthy volunteers, cedrol vapour delivered by face mask lowered heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate compared with blank air (Dayawansa et al., 2003). Both used cedrol, not a whole oil, and neither measured sleep in a person.

A calm bedroom about half an hour before bed, lamp on, a small plain matte white ultrasonic diffuser with no logo or

For vetiver, the evidence is mixed. Rats breathing 20 or 200 microlitres stayed awake longer with less slow-wave sleep (Cheaha et al., 2016). A Taiwanese study of 67 adults used lavender, vetiver or orange blossom oil for four to six weeks; the vetiver group's sleep scores moved from 7.92 to 6.08, and the abstract reports no group using no oil (Chang et al., 2026). In a randomised trial of intensive care nurses, a vetiver oil massage took scores from 10.91 to 4.63, but the jojoba placebo group also improved, from 10.78 to 6.84 (Burkev et al., 2026). That placebo result is the number to keep in mind.

The one study that includes both oils put them in a five-oil night blend, with vetiver, cedarwood, clary sage, petitgrain and grapefruit, used by 60 care-home residents aged 65 or older with a morning blend as well. Sleep measures improved against controls (Ede Sarikaya et al., 2026), but five oils cannot be separated, so it cannot tell you which of the two did anything.

How we would choose

  1. Choose by scent. Smell each before you commit. Both are strong enough to feel heavy in a closed bedroom if you do not like them.
  2. Know which cedar you are buying. Ask for the species and a chromatography report for the lot. For our vetiver, the Certificate of Analysis we publish is for one batch and lists density and refractive index; if you want more for a lot, ask us in writing through the contact page.
  3. Use either with care. We recommend 0.5% to 2% for our vetiver in a carrier oil, with a patch test and never taken internally. We sell vetiver and not cedarwood, so follow the cedarwood seller's own guidance for that one, and ask a certified aromatherapist if unsure. If you diffuse, our diffuser post covers thick-oil practicalities.
  4. If sleep is a regular struggle, start elsewhere. The American College of Physicians recommends cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia as the initial treatment for chronic insomnia in adults (Qaseem et al., 2016), and the NCCIH says little rigorous research exists on aromatherapy for insomnia. If sleep trouble lasts weeks, see a physician or sleep specialist.

For the full vetiver evidence, see our sleep post, and for a herbal sedative with a longer research history, see the valerian comparison.

We would rather you buy a woody oil for how it smells than for how you hope you will sleep, and on that score both are lovely.

Whichever you pick, smell it on a strip first and let your nose have the last word.

Vetiver Essential Oil bottle

Vetiver Essential Oil

Vetiver Essential Oil from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $20.99

Shop Now →

Sources & Further Reading