Pikovaya Dama 2018

This fragrance is just what I was looking for! I have a collection of about 40 fragrances, all niche except for 3....I have 15 Kilian's 8 Fragrance du Bois, but what I have always lacked is a high end soapy fragrance for summer. I was considering FDB Heritage and Kilian Musk Oud until I got my nose on this! Heritage is an amazing fragrance - all clean white linen, citrus and oris root without there as a fixative to make it last beyond 12 h. The problem is that it is only available in 100 mL and is very, very expensive (can't they sell it in 50 mL?) Musk Oud is great as well with very bright clean notes throughout but has a sharp green rose that is piercing and not to my taste. So I had passed on these two and given up on a clean luxurious soapy summer fragrance until I tried Pikovaya Dama. My only other Xerjoff is Symphonium (which I ADORE) but I use it in the winter and have not been to excited about the numerous other Xerjoffs I have tried until this one. It opens with a clean bergamot, aldehydes, and lemon with neroli and rose and quickly transitions into iris, nutmeg, and coriander, and eventually more creamy notes such as vanilla and sandalwood. But the overall impression is totally unique and reminds me of champagne drizzled on clean white linen. It is shockingly elegant and complex, seeming to change every 20 minutes or so, eventually landing in a white linen dry down. This is what sets it apart from Heritage...Heritage is very linear and just smells like Amouage Reflection Man with added aldehydes and citrus at the top, and oud at the bottom...side by side on my arm RM and Heritage have striking similarities, although Heritage is obviously more elegant and fresh, although does also remind me of Amouage Gold Man, which is an old man's fragrance to be sure. But Pikovaya Dama is totally unique and modern, while also being classic. It keeps changing, always clean and bright and revolving around the core of iris, and always seems youthful, but timeless, while Heritage seems more mature. With Heritage I feel I could be a crumpled old Russian Oligarch, but with Pikovaya Dama I feel youthful and sexy. It is that champagne drizzled on linen that makes one think of a tryst in a high end hotel...sexy, luxurious, classy, opulent...and I don't get where people like YouTuber TroyD say it is too opulent - it seems very wearable to me, even while Roja Oligarch - which he likes - seems too opulent for me! So after playing around with a 2 mL sample for a few hours I bought 50 mL from Harrods! Filled the hole in my collection and finally got that sexy super classy high end soapy fragrance for summer, Prada L'Homme to the power 10 at least!

This is such a complex fragrance, I already waited a couple weeks to write this, and anticipate coming back with edits as I get to know Pikovaya Dama better. Some scents are one dimensional, some are two dimensional with transitions across their lives, Pikovaya Dama is a 3D scent. It smells different based off your position in space & time relative to the wearer and when it was applied. In the opening I get waxy, soapy, bergamot upfront with a powderyness the closer you get to the application site. As it makes the first transition, the iris and rose come to the forefront, this is the most feminine stage of the perfume. I struggle with rose, Gucci Guilty smells very gradmotherly to me, however here the rose oil is very high quality and never crosses over into the "grandma territory" IMO. As Pikovaya Dama continues to dry down it moves into an opulent musky woody vanilla. I will come back to expand on the later stages as I get more wears in. I frankly don't pick up much incense, however others further away from me have commented on an incense smell which makes me wonder if it's more present in the sillage than when wrist sniffing. I've been told that I smell "incredible" & "expensive" while wearing. Conclusion: This is an incredibly elegant fragrance. While it has a *slight* feminine lean, it absolutely can be worn by both genders so long as it is paired with the right outfit and confidence. In my experience, similar to my other unisex/feminine leaning scents, women really enjoy smelling this on me, I get more female compliments on these fragrances than my uber-masculine scents (go figure /s). This is the kind of scent I would wear when dressing up. It doesn't have to be a suit, even a nice sweater and chinos would do, just no jeans and sneakers. This would be perfect when going to a wedding as a guest, or groom. Just be very careful with the sprays as this juice is POTENT and absolutely can be nauseating *if overspread*. Of the three 17/17s I have tried (this, Richwood, and Symphonium), Pikovaya Dama is easily my favorite, and the most wearable IMO. The other two are positively nuclear and frankly become sickening to me after a while despite enjoying them initially. Is it worth $700 GAWD NO. But is it worth $150-300 if you can find one on the grey market, have tried it, and can afford it? I'd say YES! For reference, I ordered my 100ml new from a discounter for $290 (after a coupon code).

One of the best things I have ever put my nose on, by far the best soapy clean fragrance I have ever smelled. This is taking a royal bubble bath at the Biltmore. Soap pearls dissolved in the silky water, the luxurious oils left on your skin. Aromas from the highest quality powders fills the air. Baby soft freshly laundered towels next to a vase of Iris flowers. Angels fanning you with wings of aldehydic bliss. It’s borderline magical, for lack of a better word. It isn’t a gourmand by any stretch, but let’s just say that if you could make a dessert out of vintage decorative soaps, well, here you go. One spray, (seriously, one spray), and all day i am cocooned in the most luxurious soapy bubble that has been lathered up into a creamy foam, powders from the Belle Epoque sweetened by the most delicate vanilla, with a touch of spicy (not smoky) incense underneath, barely a touch. Seems linear, but just takes the entire day to develop and fade into the base notes. I can still easily smell this on my skin the following day. Absolutely beautiful, a work of art. ***There are random moments in the day sometimes when I am lying in bed, or at work, or out running errands, and the imagination of this fragrance enters my subconscious sometimes it takes me several seconds to identify what the scent memory is, and I think of this accord out of nowhere, as if I briefly smelled a hint of it in the air or something and was instantly reminded of how much I adore it, as if the scent itself is cemented in my senses and when I am not even thinking about perfume at all for some reason I just start thinking about it and missing it, wishing I could experience it, take the cap off and just smell the atomizer (as I often do throughout the day). There have only been a handful of perfumes that have ever done this to me.. it is just one of those special ones that I keep wanting to go back to over and over. *** My sincerest compliments to the perfumer. I think it is a masterpiece. 10/10

Full disclosure: I’m a man and I’m in love with this fragrance. I’ve never seen this as either masculine or feminine leaning, but rather unisex straight down the middle. I thought that was important to mention. Now we got that out of the way. This is undoubtedly paying homage to the classic Chanel nr. 5 DNA. No question about that. However Nr. 5 is more like the loud teenager that sometimes seeks too much attention, and dare I say slightly outdated. Pikovaya Dama on the other hand is restrained, refined and opulent. The quality of the ingredients between the two are night and day. Nr. 5 is a lovely soap bar that you find at a random store. Smells great but you are familiar with it. Dama smells like you just payed 3000$ to enter a penthouse suite at a resort. You’re eating beluga caviar and wagyu beef from Japan. Before you’re leaving you decide to take a shower using some of their soap bars that give off an ultra clean and luxurious vibe. Nr. 5 is rich soap, Dama is wealthy soap. Yes the price is outrageous for a 100ML of this juice, clocking in at the 700$ mark. But I have tried a lot of fragrances and this is probably one of the best I have ever got my nose on. Hands down. This is the fragrance that is respectful and inoffensive, but also makes its presence known without shouting or screaming. Still very potent, long lasting and with a huge scent trail, but never obnoxious or cloying. Understated refinement in liquid form. A timeless composition. Be prepared for attention and compliments. It’s easy to like and you can literally smell how they sourced the highest quality ingredients possible to create this fragrance. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a partial for around 250$. I’m sadly not rich enough to pay retail for a bottle of this, but I cherish my partial with around 60ML left. Nothing less of a masterpiece by Xerjoff from their Stone Label range. Chris Maurice really went out of his own skin to mold this piece of art. Wauw!

For years I didn't care much about XerJoff, for several reasons. Firstly, most scents I tested were just loud and screetchy in your face and I didn't get the price tags coming with that at all. I stil to this day think that many XerJoff scents smell cheap and tacky to be honest. Secondly, they draw a specific audience at least where I live which is very young men, lacking self-confidnce and taking out loans at age 16 to just 'have' this brand no matter what the actual scents smell like. Big was my surprise when I accidentally got an original sample of 'Pikovaya Dama'. I have tested this scent about six times within the past three weeks, and I totally fell in love with it. Yes, it does smell like very expensive soap, but what it even more smells like to me is a refined way more beautiful version of Chanel No 5 extrait. It's so weird for me that in many reviews, not only on this website here, almost no one refers to the very strong similarity to the Chanel scent. It is heavy on the aldehydes, right in the beginning and they do stay strong through many hours of wearing time. They are listed here, but in other perfume forums they are not listed, funnily enough also on the XerJoff Webiste they are missing. And what people don't read, they funnily enough do not smell, so most reviewers don't even mention Aldhydes. It is the first scent of this brand decided to buy and think it is worth the high price tag. While I of course know that we live in times where 'everyone can be anything' and 'everyone can wear anything', I personally think this is a very classic, sophisticated 100% female perfume I could never imagine im my wildest dreams on a man. If you like Chanel No 5 but always thought it was too much, too cloying, too old-fashioned? Try this one instead, I'd say it's much more beautiful, especially than the current modernised versions of No 5.