Shooting Stars : Modoc
Xerjoff (2009)

I'm a woman and loving it but getting mostly candies and incense. Funny one.

When I was young I used to be given a mixture of full fat milk and fresh orange juice to drink (which isn't as revolting as it sounds, provided you drink it before it curdles) and the opening lactonic citrus chord reminded me of that. So... I could probably drink it, but wear it?

On the opening I'm getting a very astringent iris and violet on a bed of dry vetiver.

As time passes a orange note appears within the blend with a little bit of sweetness making the scent more aromatic.

Eventually the dry vetiver and sweetness combine as we move into the basenotes.

I find this scent a bit unpleasant with notes that are not totally in harmony with each other.

Perhaps my sample is mislabeled (it's a factory sample from Xerjoff, so I doubt it though), but I'm smelling something quite different from the descriptions here.

Yes, there's citrus on top, but it quickly morphs into a complicated mix that's quite hard to describe. I smell licorice, as well as a weird melba toast smell, with dry woods, as well as cumin and pepper. It's quite "foody", smelling like some sort of fried Indian dish topped with hot sauce. But then all of this takes place on top of a perfumey cushion of what I'm assuming is the iris.

It all dries down to an appealing spiced wood smell that ends up fairly green, kind of like breaking open a new green branch on a sapling.

I've given Modoc a few tries, attempting to get to know it. The wood elements are nice, but I find the topnotes more "intellectual" than actually appealing. That licorice/cumin/fried bread thing really is as weird as it sounds. Meh.

NiceBasically , you have a combination of iris and vetiver and mostly iris on the drydown . It reminds me for some reason of some of the Guerlains . A nice fragrance overall with good longevity but limited sillage. Not sure about the price though. I recommend buying the discovery set ( 15 ml of Modoc and 5 others).

The initial daring, almost boaster, citrusy-floral tartness is unique and heartbreaking. At this point the acidity of lemon is still high before a starring orange sets its roots on the olfactory ground. This introducing stage could smell too much crude or acid for many but for others is compelling and juicy. Very soon a sophisticated and feminine note of iris, lymphatic and botanic, starts standing out combined with a fluidy vetiver (un-rooty, boise' and purified) and  with a still almost sour  lemon-orange with an heady  orangy-floral permanent vibe a bit vintage and ambient. I figure in my mind a sort of large white mexican farmhouse surrounded by citrus groves and full of busy bondages. After a while the notable botanic tartness starts fading enveloped by a soft, almost edible musky-vanilla blanket encompassing the juice is a warm-creamy cloud. I detect a touch of pepper in the mix soaring around till the end. Frankly i don't catch the violet that my friends Foustie and Alfarom detect but just a peppery and really orangy chord of white iris and civilized light vetiver over a finally smooth bed of musk and balsams. This is a womanly juice to me, a fragrance absolutely temperamental and durable, with a peppery floral sophisticated swirling around. Is not fenced  in the ring of my olfactory genre but this fragrance is particular and well made. My rating is high.