Shooting Stars : Kobe
Xerjoff (2009)

An orange blossom fragrance par excellence, this is a Xerjoff that "lives up to the hype" (not that there is much hype for Kobe).

A crisp overdose of bitter orange introduces a heavy, but still carefully calibrated, of sweet and warm orange blossom and neroli. It's like a cozy, creamy blanket of orange citrus, with just enough tartness to keep things refreshing.

But the masterful choice here is to anchor that citrus not in vanilla, as with so many orange blossom scents, but in tart, sharp, earthy woods, cutting the sweetness and adding some darkness to the orange blossom.

It performs astonishingly well. This is the rare "cooler weather" citrus. Kobe is so warm and rich that it's a bit heavy for warmer days, but it's the perfect accent to chilly morning.

It's simple and straightforward enough that it's hard to articulate just what makes Kobe so special, but there's nothing else like it.

Shooting Stars Kobe

Citrus Cologne

Xerjoff's Kobe exhibits superb quality citrus, namely neroli and bergamot, in its exquisite opening. The neroli is on par with some of the finest eau de colognes available. After a few minutes, the citrus subsides to a slightly powdery, woodsy/mossy base with just a dash of oud and tonka. This reminds me of the long lost Berdoues EV no. 444 minus the base. Very expensive, but worth it if you like superlative citrus colognes.

Xerjoff is one of my favorite houses and I own a variety and have a lot on my wishlist...the neroli in this seems a shade darker than the usual neroli, but i like it...to me , this is a heavy neroli scent backed up with an underlayer of wood...there's touches and nuances of other notes, but my bottom line is neroli/wood...well blended and quality ingredients...the more I smell this , the more I like it...

My first Xerjoff and one I am surprised has remained below my radar for a while.

A gorgeous floriental. One of the most long-lasting neroli (orange blossom) scents I can ever imagine, with a slightly oud-like woody/ambery dry-down.

I went through a 20ml decant over this summer and have already cracked open my 100ml bottle. Projection is superb as is longevity.

It will possibly be my last Xerjoff though as well as my first. I haven't been impressed with the new bottles, neither does the smell of a reformulation excite me much. A definite thumbs up though.

Loved everything about Kobe- except for the price. Thinking about driving for Uber on the weekends so that I can actually afford to own a bottle of this glorious juice;)

Xerjoff Kobe seems to promise a lot in what I expected to be a warm-weather-leaning fragrance, especially given the multitude of notes. In actually smelling it, though, it seems relatively straightforward. It starts with a hefty dose of citrus and labdanum, quickly exposing the strong neroli heart that takes over the fragrance with a very subtle blend into some of the base notes, most of which I cannot detect, because the neroli remains so heavy, even into the dry down.

The petitgrain is the notable non-neroli contributor in the dry down, along with some of the woody notes in the base.

To its credit, Kobe is sophisticated, even restrained, perhaps, as far as a warm weather scent, and it should function well both in day and night and in formal and casual situations.

Performance seems fine, but I'm just not blown away by the scent itself, which pretty much needs to be the case with Xerjoff's pricing---in this case, $260 for 50ml on Luckyscent.

7 out of 10