XJ XXY Xerjoff for women and men

The name is odd, and if the name leaves you expecting something controversial, this is not the case. It seems that Xerjoff wanted to created an unissex hermaphrodite scent, but the result is more on what is offered to the femmes than to the hommes. XXY is an upscale version of the recent chypre genre. It takes an extra care with all the parts, the fruity, the floral, the patchouly and the musky one. The fruity is quick one me, and the sweet flower is what i get next and during a long time. The ylang-ylang here is less exotic than usual, lacking the rubber and camphor aspects that it can have some times. The patchouly is sweet, the musk is creamy and the base seems to last forever on skin. Even after a shower i could still get it. XXY has radiance, good balance, and a modern complexity. It`s not my favorite from the line but, like Doc Elly, if a bottle was gave me as a gift i`d happily wear it.

I have no idea why this perfume was named for a human chromosomal abnormality, Klinefelter’s syndrome, in which a male has an extra X chromosome. Maybe it was meant to be a “masculine” perfume with a little extra “feminine” twist? The Xerjoff website provides no clues, so we will probably never know whether it was intentional poor taste or simply an amusing mistake.

In any case, XXY starts off bright, citrusy and floral with peachy fruit. Right away there’s something soft about it that reminds me of the original Rochas Femme, a perfume that I used to wear a lot. As the bright citrus fades away the scent becomes somewhat powdery, with a definite violet/iris note. Wisps of ylang-ylang float in and out of the sillage, in typical ylang behavior. After the last of the ylang-ylang is gone, I smell what seems to be the characteristic sweet, powdery, vanilla, floral, slightly musky Xerjoff base. Later in the drydown the musk seems like it contains an ambrette note. Sillage is moderate, but the scent lasts over 12 hours.

XXY is not terribly original, but as in the case of other Xerjoff perfumes, it is well put together and clearly high quality. If a bottle were to magically appear in my hands, I would be happy to wear it on occasion, but I can’t see paying the asking price for it, lovely though it is.