Xerjoff - Bouquet Ideale

With the scents from Xerjoff it has been difficult to decide which of them to write about. OK, Oesel is my absolute favorite among them, but several of the others aren´t far behind and there´s only a few of them that don´t please me at all.


Bouquet Ideale, from the Casamorati 1888 collection, is also one of my favorites. Maybe, even the one I would wear most often, since it is so easy to wear, mood lifting and still both personal and of highest quality.


Bouquet Ideale starts off with the smothest, creamiest vanilla you can imagine and mixed with something juicy, berry and sweet. It is like the most delicious vanilla ice cream together with soft and sunripe berries. It´s hard to tell exactly which kind of berries, but some tart berries like raspberry, blackberry or even arctic bramble. The ice cream are filled with berry ripple but after a short while the scent changes and the vanilla become more like custard and the whole scent remind more of fudge cookies or a cripsy pie filled with custard and berries. Soooo jummy!


This is really sweet, happy and filled with joy. As a mood lifter Bouquet Ideale is as good as Frederic Malle´s Lipstick Rose, but Bouquet Ideale is more discrete and also changing more. Beneath the lovely surface of vanilla and berries I can smell from the start some vague notes of warm wood and even little whiffs of incense. With time those notes become more prominent and the berries are being switched to flowers. At first I think of violet and roses, but eventually I also think I can smell ylang ylang and maybe jasmine. The wood notes are becoming stronger, but it´s a warm, soft and discrete kind of wood. There is appereantly a note of papyrus in Bouquet Ideale even though I can´t really smell it, I think it contributes to making the scent dryer, and with some papery feeling and also, interesting. I´ve problem finding any report about notes in Bouquet Ideale accept for cashmere wood (a synthetic), vanilla and papyrus. But I say that the base have amber and the vanilla is still around.


Bouquet Ideale would be a perfect scent for parties during late summer or autumn, but I don´t find it to heavy to wear now either. Most of all I like it becasue it is like a big, red and very happy smile. Sensual, but in a exuberant and vivid way, more than seductive or sexy. Bouquet Ideale is smitten me with it´s happy, sunny and radiant energy.


The sillage is good and the lasting power is OK, even though it seem the scents in Shooting Star-collection lasts longer on me. Bouquet Ideale should been tried by everyone that fancy florientals with warm and lively character.




Pic: Inmagine

Xerjoff - Irisss

I usually like perfumes with iris (orris root). You can find iris in a lot of different varieties, like Frederic Malle´s warm and powdery Iris Poudre and Serge Lutens cold and foggy Iris Silver Mist. Prada´s light Infusion d'Iris, Odori´s masculin and papery or maybe D.S & Durga´s filled with soil and minerals.


Xerjoff´s Irisss manage to collet all those different varieties of iris in one single scent. On my skin and to my noxe, Irisss is the most complex iris scent I´ve tried. It opens with notes of dark, rich soil and crispy, fresh carott. It feels like I´m digging up a very different kind of root from the ground. Soon the scent of carott are mixed with some note remindning of violets, the soil is still there, but becomes dryer. I can imagine a strange violet root (the one on the pic is a purple kohlrabbi and has nothing at all to do with orris root, but I think it look so strange and interesting) slowly I dig the root up...


Eventually Irisss become more and more saturated. On me it´s mostly a warm scent, even though I can sense streaks of coldness in it as well. On me, Irisss is also quite sweet (but as i discovered during this weekend, my skin really lifts up sweet notes), but with obvious elements of saltiness, soft floral notes and the amazing soil as a backdrop. I can suspect that Irisss will smell very different on different persons. And it´ll work great on both men and women. Irisss is also ratjer complex, but more like layer on layer than all notes swirling around each other. It´s like when one layer are about to fade away you can sense the bottom layer start growing. The note of carott are replaced by violet that are replaced by soft florals. The soil note is first fresh and tick and after that more dry, dusty and after a while salty and then mineral with a little more moist in it. The note of iris is first of like root vegetables and then iris floral and slowly become more woody...


As you can understand, Irisss is an incredible fine, interesting and beautiful iris scent. It is a must to try it for all iris lovers. I suspect I will be able to understand and like Iris Silver Mist better thanks to Irisss. Irisss has medium sillage and good lasting power, but even though I really like it, it is much to expensive for my budget. Irisss is also a challenge to wear, thanks to it´s complexity and the different shapes of it, it seeks attention all the time.


What kind of iris (orris root) do you prefer? Iris Silver Mist or Iris Poudre? Maybe you have tried Irisss as well?





Pic: gardenplansireland

Xerjoff - Oesel

I´ve been lucky enough to try scents from the Italian luxury brand, Xerjoff. before I recieved the samples i didn´t know that much about them except that the bottles are stunningly beautful, the raw materials used are really high quality and that they are really, really expensive. You can read more about Xerjoff here: http://www.xerjoff.com/


Of course I hoped that the scents would be really good, but I´ve tried perfumes from really expensive brands before without being that impressed. But, Xerjoff manage to be all that I had hoped Amouage to be.


Usually when i write about some scents from one perfume house i save my favorite scent to last, but with Xerjoff scents I decided to do the other way around. I start with my favorite, Oesel. Oesel is a part of the Shooting Star collection, a line of perfumes named after a meteorite impact over Siberia. every bottle in the Shooting Star collection are decorated with a piece of meteorite. You can find Oesel and other Xerjoff scents at Aus Liebe Zum Duft and Luckyscent. The prices are really high (about 250 euro) and well... hmm... not that I have that kind of money but if... Oesel is soooo worth it.


Xerjoff manage in Oesel to unite comfort, luxury and beauty with excitement, charm and advanced perfume making art. Oesel feels so abundant, over flowing and rich that I doubt it´s possible to pack a single scent more than this.


Oesel transform me to a small bee, or a butterfly, a humming bird or maybe a adorable little fairy with golden wings that lives her whole life in an acacia tree among golden clouds of flowers, pollen and precious drops of sweetest nectar. Oesel caresses me as the sunbeams. Oesel is a horn of plenty with charisma and power as an ancient divinity. Oesel is golden yellow and soft as the fuzz on a chicken. Oesel makes me dream when I´m awake and follows me in my sleep...


Notes, besides of acacia is orange flower, petitgrain, jasmine sambac and Bulgarian rose. Oesel starts of slightly lighter but soon the whole deliciousness follows. The heartnote is seamlessly blended it´s like a adorable, rich and golden floral cloud. Oesel wraps me in and make my pale skin turn golden...


The perfumes from Xerjoff make me feel happiness, amazement and gratitude. Non of the other real high end-brands that I´ve tried have manage to do that. Oesel is the one captivating me the most, but when I´ve tried to decide which of Xerjoff fragrances to write about, it has been a hard time not to write about them all, since they´re all deserving a proper review even though not all of them suits me as good.


Oesel is a slow scent, a scent to hang around with, but when the base notes slowly arrives I can see why Oesel is originally intenden for men (!)... The warm, woody base has some male characters, which of course only manage to make Oesel more interesting to me. Generally speaking you can´t accuse Xerjoff to make ground breaking, provocative or radical scents, they rather conduct the best in perfume making and still... Oesel is on the border to provocative... that is provocative beautiful, no matter if it´s worn by men or women...


Oesel might be my holy grail in perfumery. Usually I tend to question brands that chose to present their scents in overly pricey bottles, but with Xerjoff scents I can´t see them in anything but the most exclusive bottles. Each fragrance are like a grand jewel and as such, you wouldn´t wear them around your neck in a plastic ribbon. At the same time I´m painfully aware that the bottles are part of the reason why Xerjoff perfumes are out of reach for me. And I do hope that the people that afford to by Xerjoff´s scents really appreciate them as much as they deserve.


Anyway, I do think of saving money for my own bottle of Oesel. Do you have any loved perfume that is much to expensive for your budget? That you have bought anyway or hope to get some day?







Pic: Pbase