Ether

This is an absolute masterpiece and immediately leaps to the forefront of Xerjoff's top 5 ouds. Of the new releases I also think Astral is brilliant but more in the wheelhouse of what has been done before. We get an immediate burst of citruses with an animalic undertone and more than just a hint of sweet warmth and aromatic sage evident within minutes. I am reminded of Roja's Pierre de Velay 4, which mixes rum with an aromatic sage and bay accord, but in this case it is oud and not booze that is apparent. Totally mesmerising. As the citruses fade, the green element emerge but the vanilla and oud are always there providing a warmth to contrast the more uplifting notes. A wow factor fragrance for sure. I own 4 of the XJ Attars including King Masarat, which is 80% similar to Kemi, the former having more citrus and aromatics (by a touch) and Kemi having more leathery castoreum and carmel/vanilla like Lira (by a touch). It is hard to distinguish between Kemi and King Masarat on skin, so I never bought Kemi. I also have Ceylon, which is great but challenging with the rotting fruit signature of Malaysian Oud. But Ether is a new king. It is totally mesmerising and a true 10/10. Totally wearable too, while not compromising one bit. Alexandria II has a new rival at the top of the Xerjoff Oud Empire.

There is so much to say about Ether. Talk about a diamond in the rough! To preface what I am about to write, I purchased a small sample of every fragrance from the new K Collection. Some were better than others, but I was mostly disappointed. Quite surprised to be honest because I am such a fan of Xerjoff. Ether is one of the last samples I tried and it is most definitely the best in the collection. I think it is one of the best from the entire brand! This is a masterpiece in my opinion. It’s overlooked or simply not talked about perhaps because of the price. $410 for 1.7 Oz is fundamentally ridiculous. And it angers me that I am going to purchase it. It's one of those fragrances that you have to have in your collection after you smell it. You can't stop thinking about it and then you compare it to other fragrances you are testing or even your permanent archive which is even worse. It ruins your plans that's how good it is.

Lemon + Orange Lavender + Sage + warm Benzoin Sandelwood + Caramel The first hour this is pretty animalic, if you hate animalic scents dont try it. Overall this is an Orange scent with a bit of an aromatic touch well balanced warm benzoin with a good amount of caramel and sandelwood. This is perfect for the spring right now, I personally like it a lot but most people will probably think its too animalic in the first hour. I am really digging the magical Orange + Amalfi Lemon combo in the beginning and the slightly aromatic warm airy benzoin heart on top of the caramel. The caramel is not too much that it can be labeled gourmand. Overall this is an aromatic citrus scent with a warm creamy touch to it. I love that it comes across as overall airy as the benzoin/caramel/sandelwood doesnt make it too thick or heavy. Great Release but you 100% need to sample it before buying.

This is really interesting and clearly unisex. It grows on you. If there is something called moderate oud with sweetness of caramel, then this is it. It’s probably for those who have started getting comfortable with a bit of skanky out, but not into the potent cambodi / hind oud. Good offering and to me smells in a similar ballpark to Kai Poten Oud 31...with the latter being more potent on oud but this one being overall more pleasing. Shukran Habibi!

Ether is the best Xerjoff by far, absolute masterpiece, anyone who says it smells like poop are too young, dont have taste, are not experienced enough to appreciate the sensation of authentic Oud or they didnt wait 30min. opens up bright fresh citrusy with a little animalic oud, after the drydown it gets really smooth creamy and a little sweet because of caramel vanilla 10/10

Ether to my nose is ethereal and opulent. An incredibly well blended oud that isn’t too challenging, this is very easy going when it comes to some oud scents. I really get the earthy tones with some mild citruses but mainly it settles into a sweet caramelized oud. Pretty outstanding scent profile. Stop by my TikTok for some fragrance content: nerolicannoli

Another winner from Xerjoff. Happy to have added to my collection; the bottle is absolutely stunning ! Oud on this is light/moderate imo catering more toward western markets. The scent is complex and quite enjoyable at every stage. Performance: 9/10 Projection: 8.5/10 Uniqueness: 9/10 Presentation: 10/10 Overall Value: 9.15/10

Wonderful! This is what Xerjoff used to be at its golden time. It reminds me of the feeling I had when I first smelled fragrances like the OG Al Khat from the oud star collection when it was first released. I really hope the formulation will remain the same until I push the trigger on this beauty. Nose happy!

Very bright citrus in the opening... touch of floral in the middle and little bit animalic but in a good way.. enough sweetness and vanilic in the base.. very cozy and sexy.. i smell something like bubblegum but not that sweet..

What a beautiful scent! Ethereal as the name suggests. It’s unique, well blended, performs and projects really well.

I like this quite a bit to be honest. Ether didn't impress me much on first impressions and I wasn't expecting to like this too much after I wore Hayat some weeks ago but Ether was a really enjoyable wear, not to mention considerably better than Hayat. Just like Hayat, Ether has a cheesey oud over some aromatic notes and citruses, the biggest difference being a lack of spices here. I know there's a cumin note listed but I never detected it. I'm not sure what it is but Ether just works where Hayat doesn't, the cheesey oud just comes off balanced much better with the lavender, sage and citruses compared to Hayat and its cardamom, lavender and bitter orange. About an hour into the wear I could pick up on a caramel-rose duo up close on skin, but for the majority of the wear the oud was the most predominant aspect of the fragrance. After the sixth hour mark give or take the skin scent becomes a light ambery vanilla-caramel scent that's very likeable and thankfully Ether's perfumer didn't have to resort to Amber Xtreme for this. Something that also surprised me is that I put this on around lunch time and then spent a lot of time in the car, being quite hot and this never felt heavy or choking, quite the contrary, at one point I just thought "damn this smells good". I don't think I would necessarily go out and buy this, I don't like Xerjoff's take on oud compared to other houses like Amouage, but I would gladly own this if it was gifted to me. Performance was good but at this point I just have to accept samples won't give me an accurate measurement of the performance I can expect from a full bottle for any brand. Projection seemed moderate to strong, sillage was dense, but not at all invasive, for a few hours before settling down to a more intimate bubble. To be fair I hijacked myself because I tested Areej Le Doré's Royal Barn on one of my hands in the middle of my wear and that is a powerhouse, so I kind of drowned out Ether with one spray of the ALD. Despite this I can still catch light whiffs of this around 8 hours later, so longevity is great.

[Tested on skin] In the air, Ether's opening strongly reminds me of Givenchy Gentleman Eau de Parfum Reserve Privée, but with oud. It's powdery, amber, and chestnutty (I guess this is how I'm getting the caramel note), with no discernible citrus. On skin, it's sweeter than Gentleman EdPRR, and the oud is somewhat animalic, though less noticeable in the air. The initial impression is a slightly skanky, sweet, honey-like, and syrupy fragrance with some powdery facets. Evolution Within about 5 minutes, caramel emerges, and the skankiness lessens. This is when I fully get the comparison to Gentleman EdPRR, but with added sweetness and oud. Citrus is only hinted at occasionally, and the oud, which isn't a clean oud, reappears in wafts. At this stage, I find it more of a fragrance that's "interesting" rather than something I'm eager to wear: it's just fun to keep smelling it to try and decipher its character. By 15 minutes, the syrupiness begins to dry out, replaced by a developing powderiness. Unfortunately, the oud takes on a somewhat urinal quality, which, combined with the persistent caramel, creates an odd and unappealing scent with a slight bitterness. These stronger, darker notes are primarily close to the skin. Around 30 minutes, it becomes more powdery, increasingly smelling like Gentleman EdPRR, but with the oud still lingering and enhanced sweetness from the caramel. Up close, woody notes are clearer. The skankiness has toned down to "strange" rather than "bad." By 60 minutes, the skankiness is further reduced, leaving a scent of chestnut, caramel, in a slight powdery vibe.

To my nose, this is a beautiful scent. I was surprised by some of the comments below, such as "smells like crap" or "worst smell ever". It's either your crap smells really good or you don't know what crap smells like. Kidding aside...if this smells unpleasant to you, then clearly you are very very early in your fragrance journey and haven't had much experience outside the acqua di gio, le malle type of designer scents. If you are truly interested in niche perfumery, you need to keep an open mind, and understand that your olfactory senses are not developed enough yet. Or just stick to your Le Malle and stay in your comfort zone. I have over 60 Xerjoffs in my collection, and 400+ niche fragrances, from Oman Luxury to Roja, PDM to Amouage, Baruti to Bianchi, Rania J, Humber Lucas, Jovoy...the list goes on and on...and i am telling you, this is a great scent, so don't let newbies with 2ml sample vials influence your opinions 😀

Pleasant powdery woody aromatic that is joyful and bright. It opens with a medley of citrus notes, some rose and cumin. The heart is mostly resinous with pine resin, gurjun balsam and cypriol with slight sage and lavender. The perfume settles on a woody base of vanilla, synthetic musk, sandalwood and touches of caramel and oud. This is not a novel perfume by any means but is well constructed and has a light feel in spite of its dense ingredients. The slight masculine leaning scent has moderate projection and good longevity. Enjoy!

Ether is the second out of the K Blue collection I've tested. Empiryan was the other. With Ether, I did not notice very many of the listed notes and some that I did detect weren't appearing in the correct order. (Notes listed here are same as on Xerjoff website.) Also, Ether was not a challenging fragrance nor did it have a barnyard oud scent. The oud here was quite mild. With the opening I got a very subtle citrus but dominated by sweet, resinous scent with the rose appearing as well. Cumin was also very subtle - no BO scent - more of a general spiciness in the background. The sweetness was a bit much for me but as the fragrance evolved, the sweetness started to retreat. As the sweetness toned down, the oud, caramel and vanilla became prominent. The evolution to these base notes took about 30 minutes and has pretty much stayed there as a strong skin scent at the 10th hour. In general, if I were to characterize Ether, it would be as a western style (mild) oud with caramel and vanilla, with the caramel being stronger than the vanilla. The caramel was not sticky sweet - was quite reserved and something I found acceptable. Projection was quite good for the first couple of hours and longevity is pretty long lasting. Ether impressed me as unisex; certainly not a strong masculine fragrance. For me, Ether is nice, but nothing special. It didn't induce me to want to buy a full bottle.

Smells like crap. Yes it smells like you walked into a bathroom stall where someone relieved themselves after a taco binge and didn't flush. If you want a joke fragrance this is like a niche version of the old joke fart spray you got at Spencers as a kid to gross out people. If you wanted a niche version of fart spray here you go. Even the sales lady at the Xerjoff store sprayed another fragrance as soon as I threw the test strip away to cover the stench. I could see you using this fragrance on a blind date gone wrong where they are into you but you're disgusted with them. Run to the bathroom and spray this on and you can bet they won't want to go home with you.

Guys i kid you not this smells like rotten eggs. Hands down the ugliest thing ive ever smelled in my life. Literally rotten. eggs. I even showed it to my friend and he said the same thing. Asked the lady working at the niche parfumery and she agreed and said we’d be surprised how many people actually buy it. Its weird knowing how different everyones taste it and how different our smell receptors are. Two words. Rotten. Eggs.

worst perfume i've ever smelt, smells like passing by a cow field, and the only thing you can smell is their "business"

I love the fecal oud. I feel much more like a man announcing myself when I arrive. I am ze big man sewer worker yesss

Scent accords off on this one since this is not at all a citrus-freshy - this STARTS OFF as a gourmand fragrance. In the air, you won't really get much of any darkness or animalic tones (stop sniffing it up close...) - dominated in the air by caramel & vanilla, at first I got mild vibes of Kilian's Intoxicated but as the vanilla became more prominent, it started to resemble the Minuit et Demi / Changing Constance scent class. On the base, though, this does not smell like those comparables. You are mainly getting caramel-vanilla on an oud base. At first, I didn't think it's as animalic as people were making it sound, but as you let it dry (around ~30 minutes in) the gourmand tones (somehow) largely fade away, you are left with this more eastern-leaning profile with animalic tonalities. The original gourmand fragrance has turned into, what is mostly, an animalic-leaning oud scent. Value at €360 for 50ml is a tad wild, but in terms of scent quality, this is definitely comparable to Xerjoff's top of the crop scents like A2, Ceylon etc. This is worth a look, imo, for men wanting a fall-winter scent with a blend of animalic/dark and gourmand tonalities. As a scent class comparable in the drydown, it's a little bit like Haltane or OFG - a dark scent with sweet tonalities.