Luxor

Mysterious, rich gem. Opening feels like you are exploring a mangroves and eucalyptus Thai or Cambodian forest (I see quite an inversion in the pyramid as disclosed from the house), with a fresh, green, earthy and balsamic and almost medicinal and camphor feeling overall. Some smoke stains in the humid and striking air, shiny sun is high in the sky and charred woods after a burn which are exuding resins from their burnt barks, maybe caused by a lightning bolt some days before. You start your voyâge just trying to make your own way through the woods, trees - in other words, through the wild. After approximately one hour, scenario finally changes. You can finally see the sunlight, but you are at the doors of the desert. In the distant, close to the horizon, you can see the Giza pyramids through the hot air, with a volatile, translucent dust with dense and incense - myrrh-like qualities and smell, subtly lingering an hint of pipe tobacco, dry patchouli, harsh leather and cardamom on a spicy, cinnamon and sandalwood bed. Maybe, if you are fortunate enough, you could survive the nocturnal journey up to the other side... It evokes the idea of a rich, sun charred and freezing at once, meditative desert. Very original, exotic, for high experienced people only and just for some special occasions. Not versatile, but it really shines and has an interesting twist. Don't know if I will ever buy a full bottle, but if you like it, it could be without doubt a luxurious and particular addiction to your collection. Majestic.

This was a blind buy, and a successful one at that! They utilized myrrh in every way in this fragrance.. let me get this clear, if you LOVE resins especially myrrh, this is worth a sample/decant. Top: It starts off with this beautiful smokiness from the incense and the myrrh adds a deep resinous trait, the Cambodian oud is also presented with a bit of sweetness in the opening, there's an amazing dose of dry Ceylon cinnamon, and there's a bit of tobacco that adds dryness throughout its life. Mid: The Cambodian oud and Ceylon cinnamon take a step back and doesn't provide sweetness anymore, and you're left with an authentic smokey church incense. This is probably the most challenging part of the fragrance for my personal taste. Dry down: The Thai oud starts to feel more present from here. The cypriol oil comes in, sort of gives FM Promise vibes (but definitely not as sharp) Now for my favorite part.. the FAR dry down 6-8 hours later; at this point, everything is gone except for the dryness from the tobacco, myrrh, and Thai oud. Myrrh comes off as both root beer and licorice, the whiffs in the air make it a gamble of what you're gonna smell from it. This is a myrrh MASTERPIECE, I've been looking for a myrrh fragrance and I just happened to blind buy something that does all of it, lucky me. The oud here is mainly a supporting note for me, its definitely there but the myrrh is the star of the fragrance. I personally don't get anything barnyard/fecal about this fragrance.

Sacred Smoke, is the best way to summarize LUXOR by Xerjoff, a part of the Oud Stars Collection, paying homage to one of Egypt’s treasures, the mystical city of Luxor. As for the fragrance, it is built around a sweeter variety of cambodian oud and resins, Luxor is the type of perfume that transports you back in time, there’s a sense of mystery and antiquity in the way in which the resins are layered out in the composition alongside the spices and oud, displaying a slight animalic flare at the opening, carrying into a heart dominated by a duality of myrrh and incense wrapped in cardamon, and subtle presence of cinnamon adding a hint of sweetness. Luxor comes across as a very dry perfume, as it diffuses in the air, it smells like a combination of the hot dry desert and old books found in sacred temples, Xerjoff utilized precious materials that are thousands of years old yet they managed to combine them with exotic spices such as cinnamon and cardamom to add a modern spin to this fine essence. Luxor is undeniably unique, a departure from previous Oud Stars, and is not going to be a fragrance for everyone, if you’re looking for a lot of compliments, you can certainly go for other fine essences such as Erba Pura and Alexandria II, Luxor is more like a transportive work of art, a storytelling perfume.

Xerjoff Luxor is a 10-out-of-10 composition by the omnipresent Chris Maurice that falls within the Oriental Spicy genre. This fragrance, inspired by ancient Egyptian grandeur, is distinctly non-mainstream, and might turn some noses away... but definitely not mine. The opening is a complex array of sharp cinnamon and cardamom and leather. This swiftly matures into the heart, featuring a blend of rich, dark myrrh resins, smoky incense, and a robust pipe tobacco, grounded by dry atlas cedar. Luxor's foundation is a combo of woody thai oud and jammy-sweet cambodian oud. Together, they create nuanced animalic base. Performance is solid: Luxor consistently delivers over eight hours of longevity on skin. Its structure, which in my experience gains a "better push" in warmer conditions, makes it a rare, versatile oud that works well beyond typical cold-weather use. In my opinion, Luxor is one of Xerjoff's best and you should sample it if you are looking for a mature, complex fragrance that brings tobacco and oud(a) together in a unique way.

Cinnamon and cardamom opening. Its a nuclear opening but very quickly calms down to arms length maybe less. Heart and base u get tobacco a touch of incense and a relatively sweet oud. Honestly to me this isn’t animalic but thats just me. To me almost oud isn’t animalic just certain types of old indian oud. So u need to figure out ur oud tolerance from soft thai and malaysian ouds to hardcore assam ouds. I went through an entire bottle of this fairly quickly. If it had a bigger sillage I would’ve definitely rebought. It’s also a pity it only comes in 50ml. On a final note the dupe Thailand Oud in Cairo will have a great opening but the performance on that is miserable compared to the barely tolerable performance of luxor. Also addressing Mr. Mahdi Ellahi this in no way shape or form smells like “kaleh pache” which is basically a slow cooked broth of the sheep skull, brains, tongue and cheek. There is zero “kaleh pache” smell here to my nose.