Holysm

This is one of those fragrances where you are challenged. It is an achievement. By that I mean that the opening is an incredibly intense hit of falling out of a resinous fir tree head first into a garden of aromatic sage, thyme. It is almost confronting and in that is quite similar to another Xerjoff I tried recently. But where Zefira just keeps going and doubles down on the powerful greenery, herbs and cypress notes without ever really getting the benefit of the citrus and bergamot in there, Holysm pivots and changes. It takes about 90 minutes to dry down fully.... but when it does.... Holysm softens in this bewitching way that turns it from a cedary, green assault of herbs and fir oils into the most refined, wonderfully balanced, frankly genius bit of formal perfumery. It is as if it takes a little while for the accords to organise themselves to work together in balance. The oud notes below sit with some sandalwood and labdanum and add a mossy, woody richness that balances out the herbs and medicinal notes, and I think this fragrance really starts to sing when they come on in. The greenery is still there but it is balanced and considered. It does seem out of kilter at first but the later accords even it out into something stunning. It becomes less alpine flavour car air freshener and more the whole entire Alpine mountain range in all its majestic, soaring glory. THIS is why I love this hobby. This is why I love real perfumery. And this is why I will always love Xerjoff even if I do not love all their fragrances. Xerjoff do wonderful things that reward an educated or interested nose and curious mind. Holysm is one of these. It is certainly fair to say that you need to be into fragrances in a real way to understand and appreciate this mighty scent fully. And what a stunning looking bottle. My word. I'd keep this in my collection if I only wore it once a decade because of how stunning that bottle is. But luckily, I love this fragrance (and all the more so because you don't spray it, you activate it and then wait for the magic to happen) and so we should really talk about how you go about wearing this. Obviously, it isnt a daily wearer. You cannot wear this for casual days. You absolutely should not be wearing this down the pub. If you are like me, this will be a four or five times a year wearer. A real special occasion thing. I am an overweight, 5"10, bald, bearded, tattooed man whose face shows the toll taken on him by his job and the sacrifices he has had to make, and still makes, to keep it all going. I have a smile that betrays a love of red wine, coffee and tea, and a tooth line befitting someone who grew up in 70/80s Britain without the money for cosmetic dentistry. I am not an attractive man, is my point. But I have reasonable taste and can wear a suit well. This is the sort of fragrance that elevates the whole thing - it elevates me. I am all of the above, but when I wear this with a nice suit I am the subordinate of nobody. I am the master of my own destiny and king of my own castle. Fine fragrances should do that. Elevate. This is elevation in a bottle. It is a rare and mythical thing that should be treated with respect, but is a true masterpiece of perfumery. Not just for the way it smells but for the way you feel when you smell like that. It is interesting because that opening suggests beast mode performance and sillage that can sink ships. Fascinatingly, what you have here is beast mode skin scent. It projects but not massively and the performance is around 6-7 hours so isnt massive, but the way it sits close to the skin is magical. If you're out with someone who likes to get in close, you'll smell incredible. It is so refined, so classy, so understated. The notes are all there from the opening but it is like a different smell after it dries down. You bear with it, show patience and conquer it and the sense of achievement, or should I say the scent of achievement, is incredible. Three Word Summary - Mighty Green Movement Layering suggestion - Vettii by Agatho to keep it in the Italian family. Outfit suggestion - It is 100% formal - and not black tie formal either. I close my eyes and, reflecting on my wardrobe, think of a nice tailored grey suit, dark brown slip on loafers, a crisp and bright white shirt and no tie, but a subtle little pocket square in dark amber or purple. Think fresh shave and designer sunglasses in dark brown or dark tortoiseshell. Scent - 7/10 Drydown - 10/10 Sillage - 6/10 Bottle / packaging - 10/10 Performance - 7/10 40/50

This is by far my best of the Kemi Blue line. Wow I love this and it makes me only love Xerjoff the more. I remember how I picked this as a sample out of about 10 samples. The more I sprayed the more I loved. I pulled the trigger on a full bottle and now our love is full blown. It's hefty and leaves a presence not like that expensive house that markets skin scents as exceptional. Performance is top notch. Scent is different and not the regular. It tickles my fancy it tickles my nose sweetly. You should enjoy this.

This is incredibly beautiful. Love that spicy caraway and thyme - reminds me so much of Cartier Declaration. The bottles in the K collection are incredible too. So luxurious with a cool gothic architecture feel to them. Will definitely be picking one up in the near future.

Real artistic perfumery.. .green, bitter, spicy, medicinal, sweaty.... U have to appreciate different perfumes, weird perfumes to like this one.

Amazing intoxicating fragrance and is another example of why you cannot always take this site seriously.

The smell of an ancient god of earth , a myth in some african culture

Though listed in the mids, the cedar, caraway, and smoke are the first things I detect, even earlier than the clary sage and cade oil that hit right after and I guess it's the fir and thyme that are the cool forest notes that accompany it as it settles in for the first few minutes. That smokiness is obviously the tobacco note, but this isn't a sweet or pouch tobacco, it's the smoke that comes from an expensive cigar, which combined with the fougere notes gives an old-man vibe to some. Gradually, the oud, sandalwood, and patchouli get stronger and I then realize they were there all along. My favorite part is about 45min to 1hr in when the sandalwood is more noticeable than the cedar, but they're both still there with the other notes. Nothing sweet here at all to my nose at first, but eventually it's a teeny bit sweet. Overall, smoky with a hint of freshness, dry spicy and green. Not quite barbershop, but certainly not modern blue/green/club designer fragrance. The projection is interesting in that the further I move it from my nose, the more the cedar and fir notes dominate and the closer I move it to my nose, the stronger the patchouli and oud are. Not going to wear this around my wife, so I couldn't tell you the distance of projection, but it will be noticeable without dominating the whole room you are in. Only got 4 hours on skin, but it hangs around on clothes for a while. If you judge fragrances by performance, you will not be pleased. When it's all said and done, the drydown smells a lot like if you added oud to the original Polo green so for some odd reason, I like it. As a frag enthusiast, I strangely enjoyed this at home, alone. Alone, because even my dog left my side and sauntered across the room to the couch. Anytime I wear this, I will make sure I have the house to myself for several hours and will scrub this completely from my skin before my not-frag-enthusiast wife gets home. There's NO WAY I would ever actually wear this in public anywhere at any time with anyone. I won't even wear it at home anytime anyone will ever be around in my house. Can I justify the cost of a bottle, especially with the already too large collection of bottle I own? No, not even a little. But if I manage to work through the 2ml sample I didn't pay for, I will probably buy a 5ml decant to have as a just in case, because though some might question my sanity at this point, I do enjoy this relatively useless fragrance. Who COULD pull this off in public? Well, super-hot model quality women dressed to the 9s trying to attract billionaires that like cigars, people that do not care what anyone thinks, Sean Connery, and that most interesting man in the world dude. And let's be honest, it'll really only be fitting on Sean Connery and the old Dos XX guy.

Aromatic herbal woody scent that is the most interesting and also the most challenging of the recent Xerjoff Kemi releases. The scent opens with herbal notes of cade oil, sage, fir and thyme. The heart gets even more aromatic with caraway, tobacco, and labdanum. The perfume settles on a powdery bed of cedar, sandalwood, synthetic musk, slight patchouli and oud. The masculine leaning scent has moderate projection and good longevity. It is somewhat meditative and has an interesting noble character, but it is not for every taste, and is unlikely to find mainstream appreciation. Enjoy!

Nearly full bottle up for swap or sale Not worth the price. The bottle is lovely and I do enjoy a medicinal, herbal scent like this. But for 100 bucks max. Nothing about this is worth the price. Longevity, meh. Projection, non-existent after 30min. Smell, okay (to me). I big disappointment from xerjoff.

Holysm smells great. It starts out powerfully green and herbal. It reminded me in a way of the opening of Interlude Man, but not oregano, just strong and herbal. As it dries down it seems to get drier and bitter - that might be the caraway, but I didn't notice a distinct caraway scent. Dry tobacco also becomes obvious followed by the woody base. Struck me as very masculine; ridiculous to classify Holysm as unisex. Not one for the bubblegum boys. I really thought I found a winner here - great scent from a spectacular bottle. As time progressed, my disappointment grew. Performance was only moderate. Sillage was good for about an hour. Performance nose dived after the hour and half to two hour mark. After about 5 hours, it was a barely perceptible skin scent. Very disappointing for the price. Pass for me.

€140 for this seems just right. I would summerize this as Smirky below but on me it perorms better. At least 7h+. I would think the main accords summerize this well enough. I've sampled some of the K-collection and this + Aqua Regia seems to be my winners. 4/5 and a versatible scent. Not like the winter heavy Oud stars like Gao, Ceylon, Alexandria 2/O etc.

The top notes made me say ‘MaShaAllah’. A bold pepperminty, holy blend of greens that stay no longer than 5 minutes. Then comes the patchouli which reminded me of PDM Haltane. It shows up says hi and leaves, in seconds. And then the WOODY DUSTY DRY LEAVES, that remind me of a vintage cupboard, with cassettes and dusty diaries. The wood stays.

I couldn't find a very different, elite scent. There are much better ones under this brand; I wouldn't spend this money.

Not sure if it's my decant, but I'm completely asnomic to the majority of the notes. All I can detect are the fir and a non-descript woody note. Projection and longevity also appear to be poor.

To be completely honest, I bought Holysm because the bottle looked really great, and I finally wanted to add my first Xerjoff fragrance to the collection. I am so glad I chose Holysm, because first of all, the bottle is absolutely gorgeous — and more importantly, the fragrance is captivating. This fragrance, in my opinion, pays tribute to the men's fragrances of yesteryear: thick, dense, fougère-type compositions. But don't be fooled — it is incredibly sophisticated and elegant. I would describe it as very dark green in color, with some gray thrown in. I always get an association of a wooden dry sauna, pine and fir, alongside syrupy eucalyptus with pleasant spices in the heart. My nose doesn't detect any tobacco or oud at this point. My favorite thing about Holysm is how dynamic it is — you will smell it throughout the entire day, and it will reveal new facets with every passing hour. It gets noticeably sweeter towards the dry-down. This would be an absolutely wonderful choice for a night out — dressed up, think suit and tie — but I can see certain people rocking this on a daily basis as well. Incredibly underrated in Xerjoff's lineup. I highly recommend Holysm — grab it while it's still available on discounters for a great price. To sum it up, Holysm doesn't really ask for your attention — it commands it. In a world of safe, crowd-pleasing and somewhat boring releases, this is a fragrance for those who know what they want and wear it without apology. A dark, green masterpiece hiding in plain sight.

Damn...I typically consider myself to have a pretty wide, expansive fragrance palette capable of appreciating all sorts of ouds, civets, musks & castoreums, but this is just welp... not my cup of tea. This is just straight green, piney, bitter, coniferous, stemmy -vegetal woodiness. This is a very dry, ferny, bitter, stern, no nonsense fragrance. Smells like a wooden bowl full of leafy and cuciferous vegetables and pine cones. Not a salad, just a bunch of dry leaves, pine cones & broccoli in a bowl. I greatly prefer Hayat to this as Hayat has much more going on to my nose, and is more balanced and multifaceted (floral, sweet, woody, citric etc). Holysm to me has a sort of stale, molded wood type of smell to it thats hard for me to find appealing. This reminds me of something like Creed Royal Mayfair. A very stern, staid, bitter, buttoned up no nonsense type of fragrance. Holysm is very well made & blended but just like Royal Mayfair was for me, its just too many of the wrong elements together in one fragrance for my preference. 5.5/10

Hmm, empty review section. Without looking at the notes or accords: Herbal-medicinal type opening, a little bit out there if I'm completely honest. Cough syrup vibes. Definitely some derivative of the fougère scent profile. Up-close: Mild freshness, like a pine needle or something among those lines. Think the word I'm looking for is camphorous. Definitely aromatic without a doubt. This smells older masculine. Longevity I'm thinking very good, sillage is mid. €290 for 50ml is a little bit poor on this. After pyramid/accords: cade is very prominent throughout, I don't really get a lot of oudiness but the woodiness as a whole is prominent as well. Something here is giving it a bitter vibe which might be the caraway. Don't really pick up much on the tobacco. I'm not big on green fragrances as a whole, my experience goes as far as some Creed's and Roja's so I can't really say if we have anything that smells like this. From the scents I've tried, the scent that likely gets closest is Nishane's Unutamam.

Caraway feels spicy like cumin here and dominates the opening for me. Then something aromatic like Byredo Los Santos comes along, to evolve to the most likable stage of Holysm - where the sweet uplifting resinous side of Chopard Aigile comes through and finally ADO Noir by Night drydown comes along - synthetic woodsy notes with animalic ambery patchouli amplifies in a very round fashion to linger on (for more references on the animalic drydown - think also Jimmy Choo Amber Kiss or MFK Grand Soir ...). I enjoyed my journey with this fragrance. It is, however, masculine. I have no particular contempt for any of the mentioned perfumes, so it’s no wonder this one feels ok to me. But I don’t imagine it safe for broader audience.

Ambroxan bomb that vaguely smells like African Leather. Not really that unique, heavy cumin note juxtaposed against a huge ambroxan overdose. It’s like a blue designer fragrance with some cumin notes. Not a fan. Edited Definitely not a fan. It’s like a mixture of Reckless Leather and Gucci Guilty Absolute with a big African Leather accord. Uninspired. Unoriginal. Highly synthetic and headache inducing.

This doesn't smell the same as Arso but it's in the same ballpark. Very woody, earthy, and a touch smoky. It's quite nice but not exceptional.