The most expensive sub-category in the never-cheap Xerjoff Kingdom is the catchingly named XJ17/17 line. (The name refers to a filing shelf, apparently.) 100ml EdP in the stone label bottle (see below) starts at 500€ depending on the perfume, but you can spend a lot more when choosing a Murano glass or quartz bottle (up to 12 000€).
Let’s take a look at four of the line today. There are two more, Richwood and Damarose, which I hope to sample soon.
Elle includes notes of hesperidic and fruity accord, galbanum, orange blossom, iris, leather accord, patchouli, amber, musk and Tonkiphora balm.
Elle is a very sweet fruity floral-gourmand. No doubt this is not your fun fair candy floss, but a Ladurée raspberry macaron is just as fattening and bad for your teeth. Like said macaron, it is a great indulgence and I love to eat one or two, make me eat a dozen and I’ll stay away from them for life. Elle is lovely to wear for twenty minutes, then it is enough. I love to indulge now and again, but becoming a macaron myself is taking it too far.
Homme includes notes of Mediterranean citrus, spices, leather, clove, lavender, Lysilang, woods and vetiver.
Homme leaves no questions open as to what gender this is geared towards. Name and scent spell MAN, REAL MAN! This is the strongest leather scent I have ever encountered (yes, it even leaves Mona di Orio’s Cuir in the dust). I’m not man enough for Homme, that is for sure. Leather dominates throughout, accented by herbal notes and a soft floral garland that doesn’t gather enough speed though to compete with the overwhelming presence of leather. Did I mention this was a leather scent? A strong one?
XXY includes notes of bergamot, peach, jasmine, ylang ylang, black pepper and patchouli.
XXY is very muted, restrained, elegant and not at all uninteresting. A bracing citrus opening, a peachy-floral heart laced with a generous amount of black pepper, resting on soft patchouli. It is nice to wear and lasts a long time, it smells expensive and it should too. But what it is not, is unusual enough to warrant the investment.
Irisss includes notes of iris butter, carrot seed, rose absolute, ylang-ylang, rare woods, incense and musk.
Irisss has a reputation. It is rumored to be the best iris perfume around. Irisss opens very carroty, then the iris, unmistakably prominent, thick, earthy and rich leads the chorus of florals bedded on a sheer base of incense and woody notes. It is good, no doubt here, it smells like a lot of iris concrete is in there. But it does not displace the gold standard of iris perfumes for me – Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist is still on top, and in comparison it is practically a bargain!
What is your favorite perfume from the house of Xerjoff? What do you think of the line?
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I’ve only sampled Irisss and Richwood and neither one impressed me enough to part with that much money to have a bottle. So many other iris scents I like better. The same can be said for woody chypres. Ah well, money saved to spend on other scents.
I absolutely agree. For that money my socks must be shooting off my feet. 😉
A filing shelf? Really?!
I like Xerjoff, they are one very pricy brand that does make beautiful perfumes. Irisss is definitely my favourite but I completely agree with you that Iris Silver Mist is better, and about three times as beautiful.
I’m sure I have a sample of Richwood somewhere. I’ll see if I can dig it out for you!
Really.
Oh, that would be so kind of you! Richwood doesn’t sound bad at all, I’d like to see if the image in my mind can compare to the real thing.
I shall see if I can find it!
Thank you! xoxo
The only perfume from this brand I’ve tried is Irisss. I liked it. I will be trying it more but it wasn’t love at the first sniff. I really like those Murano glass bottles (can you guess which color? ;)) but it’s completely out of my price range so I kind of hope I won’t love any of the perfumes enough to even think about buying them.
Oh, that blue bottle is amazing…
I’m glad there is not one among the XJ17/17 range I find FBW, but they are undoubtedly very well done.
I have an utmost respect to companies that use great ingredients for their perfumes and build interesting/well made compositions. And I plan to spend money at some point to test more Xerjoff’s perfumes. But I’m at the point in my collecting where I’m trying to add to it only perfumes that I absolutely love trying to pass on even very affordable but just “likes”.
That is a very sensible approach and I have to remind myself often that I need to do that too.
I haven’t tried any of these. But I’m not necessarily sympathetic to a Company, which is pricing its “just quite nice” parfums with $$$$$.
Those of Xerjoff I’ve tried in the past were “just quite nice”, but didn’t make me crave (thankfully). Then there are the Xerjoff ouds I tried few weeks ago and I associated them with full nappies…
So no, I’m not exactly a fan.
Your story totally put me off even trying the Oud Stars line. I’ve had my share of nappies over the past few years, thank you. 😉
Well, I thought my threshold for Oud is quite high, so I was wondering about my absolute disgust of Oud Stars – but then again, what if you’d find them pleasant and appealing ? If I still have the samples (I’m not sure I haven’t thrown them out due to the momentary horror I felt…) will bring them to our next breakfast. But you will have to try them after the meal !
Lol, okay. 😉
I’ve also only tried Irisss and like you and others, I wasn’t blown away by it as I was expecting to be. I wore ISM last night (thank-you!) and agree it is far superior. Luckily!
I’d be interested in your thoughts on Richwood when you get the sample.
Enjoyed all those pics. Murano glass is beautiful.
Murano glass is beautiful. And it is also true that people pay lots and lots of money for empty glass objects, these at least contain perfume! 😉 But I guess that is another kind of enthusiast…
So glad you enjoy ISM.
I am so glad that so far I have not been blown away by the Xerjoff line, I loved Oesel but found Le Fleur Male to be a good substitute (my bargain £15 perfume) the others I have tried I liked but not enough to buy a full bottle. I did like the sound of Irisss but if it’s anything like ISM then it is just not for me, I will stick to my favourite Iris perfumes with LFB and Iris Ganache. Yay money saved towards an MDCI discovery set soon. 🙂
Good thinking! 🙂
The provincial girl in me rebels against the outrageous prices and the impossible names in combination – it all seems a bit contrived to me. I have tested a few and they were nice and wearable and everything. Can’t remember their names.
I am much more drawn to e.g. Mona di Orio’s universe that appears transparant and focused on the main thing – what’s in the bottle. Also, the names make a lot more sense.
Xerjoff is very much aimed at the Nouveau Riche, I believe, where appearance and over the top luxury is important.
That had to be said, finally – thank you !
🙂
I thought the same thing! I just had this visual image of someone with too much money and not enough restraint dousing themselves with Xerjoff!
The problem I have with Xerjoff is getting past the “gazillionaire juice” image. I’ve never tried any, and the price point – even for bland, non-Murano bottles – gives me pause. A Very. Long. Pause. At that price level, I pretty much expect an ‘Exorcist’ moment of epiphany and my socks blown across the room! 😉 As it is now, I’d much rather choose those brands that really DO deliver and and less than half the price point. Amouage from that perspective is positively reasonable, and Serge Lutens a total bargain! (With you on the Greatest Iris, B!) When you reach a certain point in your perfumed journey, the ‘have-to-have’ madness has to stop. I’ve chosen to concentrate on what I really, truly want. And thankfully, there are enough gazillionaires for Xerjoff to do just fine without me! 😀
Basisally I agree. I’ve tried most of the line and I have got any temptation out of my system now. 🙂
The only Xerjoff perfumes I tried were a few from the Oud Stars collection, because they were on prominent display at Jovoy Paris. And I didn’t fall in love with any of them except for Mamluk, which is truly gorgeous and not so much about oud as it is about osmanthus. Mamluk I would actually consider buying because it’s price, though steep, is more along the lines of an Amouage. It’s not nearly as uber-pricey as the ones you mention in this review.
I’m glad you did this review, by the way, because it sounds like I’m not missing anything by not exploring these.
Exactly, it’s always good to know what is what and if we are missing out or not.
Your review of Mamluk sounded so gorgeous, I will try it in any case.
I don’t know . . . I’m very much on the fence about these. It sounds kind of silly (but I am a literature students after all), but I just can’t get past the names of some of them. The triple S on Irisss makes me think that I am a Disney snake, and XXY just makes me think of the chromosomal disorder Klinefelter’s Syndrome — which feels really kind of insensitive to those who have to cope with the health problems of the syndrome.
You would think for the price, they could come up with better names.
Now I’m being snide, so please forgive me! As for the line, I haven’t smelled these two, but of the ones that I have sampled, I didn’t really fall in love with any of them.
I think exactly the same about the names. 🙂
I haven’t tried any of these perfumes, and fortunately your review is not making me rush out to sample – phew – I think I will join Andrea in saving for the MDCI sample set!
That is definitely what I am saving for!
I love that MDCI has captured your interest (and soon your heart, I bet)! 🙂
Yes put me down with Andrea and Alexandra for the MDCI. One must pick carefully when one is going to break the bank! Great review!
Thank you, Lanier! I love that MDCI gets so much attention now, it is so well deserved!
Ha! Je suis un macaron! I love Elle, and Rosewood is my favorite of this line (one of my favorite favorites of all time). You make me want to re-sniff Homme; I don’t remember it being QUITE so leathery. I’ll put it next to the Cuir de Lancome sample I bought because of you, and spend some quality time with them!
Bonjour, Macaron! 😉
I found Homme incredibly strong and leathery, please let me know what you think once you’ve re-smelled it.
I have a very low bullshit tolerance and any company that charges a fortune for its goods is immediately suspect to me. Case in point: Xerjoff, by Kilian just to name two in the perfume world. The only X. scent I’ve tried is Irisss and I have yet to do an in-depth comparison with Luten’s ISM, so the jury is still out on that scent. The other ones do not really interest me… I mean even the sample set costs more than 200 Euros… that’s crazy!
At least they offer a sample set (with 15ml bottles)… 😉
But in the end you are right of course. A lot of money is being paid towards image and packaging with this brand. It’s not my personal style either.
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