XerJoff XXY & XerJoff Homme

The ultra-expensive luxury fragrance market has mostly been the domain of a few Houses like Amouage and Clive Christian. XerJoff is an Italian fragrance house that, in 2007, became the most recent addition to these ranks. When it comes to a luxury fragrance release you want to be able to feel the quality of the ingredients in the bottle and XerJoff has certainly cleared that hurdle.

The other aspect where XerJoff has out shone their compatriots, in the ultra-luxe category, is in bottle design. For the 17/17 collection the bottles are either carved from a bottle of quartz, hand crafted Murano glass or in the case of XXY a spectacular gold, bronze and lapis lazuli sculpture. Each one of these bottle is gorgeous and the perfume in the bottle matches the beauty on the outside.

                                                                   XXY

Of the two scents I’m reviewing XXY is supposed to be the shared fragrance of the pair as the name refers to the chromosomal pairs that define women (XX) and men (XY). The letters are also a pretty good description of the development of this fragrance as the top is very XX.

It starts with a very fruity floral beginning. A strong peach note is paired with jasmine giving the opening stanza of XXY a strongly sweet character. I didn’t find it too strong for me personally but I can see it being very close to too sweet for some. The heart is where this truly becomes a mix of traditional masculine and feminine notes.

The floral aspect becomes lighter as a chilly Orris leavens the sweet top notes and then a lovely twist of black pepper and vetiver add a typical masculine austerity to things. This mix of cool and spice is wonderfully refreshing. The base revels in its Y chromosome as sandalwood and amber finish this off in a typical woody amber flourish.

The development of XXY is very slow on my skin as each phase lasts for a good period of time and that speaks to the quality of the ingredients used. XXY also has above average projection; you won’t leave a trail a block long behind you but people will know you’ve been in the room.

                                                                   Homme

If XXY shows off its androgyny, Homme shows off its masculinity as a powerful leather fragrance. One of the notes used to realize leather in a fragrance is birch tar. Knize Ten, which is the benchmark leather fragrance, has an unforgettable birch tar accord that calls up the deepest leather at its unrefined best.

Homme begins with that birch tar note firmly in place and the beginning of Homme wallows in that strong leather accord. If you are a lover of strong leather accords the top of Homme is as strong a leather opening as one could want. That opening lingers for a long while, perhaps too long, as it takes almost two hours on my skin before anything else can be detected. What does start to appear at that point are two very masculine florals, rose and iris.

At first they seem to be very far away but over an hour or so they become more pronounced and at about the three hour mark they reach a delicate crescendo of all three notes that is exquisite.

This is a paradigm shifting progression as the opening of Homme is all brash bravado until with the appearance of the florals it becomes dashing and suave.

Homme keeps that new found maturity as the base adds in amber, vanilla and musk to turn things onto a very slightly sweeter path at the end. Homme, like XXY, has incredible longevity and that longevity is used to allow the fragrance to develop at a slow pace.

That slow development does allow for subtlety to have its way in a fragrance that is anything but subtle in the beginning. Homme also has more sillage than XXY and this is one people will notice. As a result a lighter finger on the atomizer is probably a good idea.

XXY and Homme are both successful attempts at what they set out to do; XXY takes a wearer on a ride from fruity floral to woody amber with a stop at spicy floral in between. Homme is a roughneck he-man who turns into a tuxedo clad sophisticate by the end. Both are good and if you are a lover of fragrance for whom money is no object then I can recommend these XerJoff fragrances to be an object of desire.

Full disclosure: This review was based upon samples received from XerJoff and Aus Liebe zum Duft for this purpose.

Author: Mark Behnke  (Somervill Metro Man)
Fragrantica Writer

Mark Behnke is based in Somerville, MA, a suburb of Boston, and is the writer for Fragrantica. By day, he works as a research chemist in a pharmaceutical company. By night, he has been a consistent poster on the forums at Basenotes.net under his nom de blog, Somerville Metro Man. You can also follow Mark on Twitter @SomMetroMan if you're curious to find out what he wears on a day-to-day basis.