Symphonium Parfum

Love at the first sniff. I was a bit sceptical about this one, but I ended up loving it so much. The opening is beautiful and the drydown is heavenly. Symphonium Parfum is an awesome gourmand fragrance. It opens up with citruses (mandarin oranges and sweet-ish orange) before the chocolate and vanilla start to be much more noticeable a few minutes after that until the drydown. I can also notice some notes of oud here (similar to the ouds they used in some Xerjoff Alexandria variants like Alexandria II/III) and some spiciness from the cardamom. The complexity is absolutely divine, even though the notes didn't make it look that complex. I found that Symphonium Parfum wears a bit like Dior's Feve Delicieuse/Vanilla Diorama in the drydown. Probably because of the citrus + chocolate/cacao + vanilla combo. It is also a more upscale version of other chocolate fragrances like Chocolate Greedy by Montale. It is a photorealistic and opulent orange chocolate with a twist. It is just a perfect blend. Very strong too (surprisingly), with an incredible longevity. Wouldn't wear it in a hot summer heat, but in a climate-controlled environment or in a colder weather, it should work extremely well. No joke, I sprayed other strong fragrances like Interlude Black Iris by Amouage, Ao by Floraiku, Sauvage Elixir by Dior, and so on (along with this Symphonium Parfum). Most of them have almost disappeared after around 10 hours (and after I took shower and washed my hands a lot of times), Interlude Black Iris is still noticeable but Symphonium Parfum is still going quite strong. If you like Gourmand or Citrus and Chocolates in general, this might work for you. Haven't tried the older formulation though (the EDP). The house of Xerjoff is blowing my mind. Almost every fragrance I have tried from this house has been either very good, great, or truly awesome.

I was so curious of this scent first of all because I don’t like the idea of chocolate and orange. I don’t like at all those marmalade chocolates but I was thinking if I don’t test this I will miss something. Secondly I read that this is not so obvious gourmand so I wanted to find some more sophisticated (vanilla/chocolate) gourmand in my collection. I have not so obvious gourmands but now I mean for example Lira, which is nice but I don’t want to smell like that myself. And yes! Like I was thinking about this I felt in love with this. 💛 So addictive beautiful blended scent and yes, this is really obvious white chocolate and orange and I just like it a lot even if I don’t like the smell of those candies or cookies. This is like Kinder with orange! And this really is sophisticated gourmand because it’s not so strong and screaming those gourmand notes after settling down. Everything is in the balance even if I have to admit that this is linear fragrance without any surprises. In the basenotes there is vanilla, Laotian oud, Thailand oud and musk but for all you who don’t like oud: don’t skip this because of that. It’s not animalic or smoky here, it’s just warm and sweet and many of us can’t separate that in this juice. I have read many comments that there wouldn’t be oud at all but it just gives a little bit character to this scent. This is definitely the perfume for colder days. Thank you for reading, I hope my review was helpful. I would appreciate a lot if you want to follow me on IG and/or YouTube (English subtitles): @ninamariahperfumes It gives me a lot of motivation to write more. 🤗

Tried it for the first time about 15 minutes ago. I received a sample vial from luckyscent. 0.7 ml for seven dollars! It was worth every penny. It is one of the best gourmand fragrances I have ever tried. Before you try this, you have to figure out what type of person you are. If you prefer things like Bonbon or Black opium, this fragrance is not for you. Similar to wine tasting. You have to be a connoisseur to appreciate really fine bottles of wine. It's important in order to pick up on the subtleties and nuances of the fragrance composition. If you are going to spend $700 on 100 mL, I think it is worth your while to try and fully appreciate this work of art. First of all, there is nothing synthetic going on here. The orange is completely natural. It smells like it came from your kitchen. The oud is the best you can get and also the most expensive. Everything is balanced. Nothing overpowering anything else. That is the result of an expert perfumer. The most impressive aspect in my opinion is how they handle the sweetness. Typically that's extremely hard to balance because the composition tends to lean towards too sweet, or it becomes synthetic, which is why many people cannot wear gourmand fragrances. It makes you sick to your stomach. Symphonium does not do that. It provides the space necessary for that wearer to have their own unique experience. The composition is so good that you can sit in it and enjoy the exploration of sensations, physical and emotional. If you are a collector, this is a must have.

Blind bought this after all the hype around this being the best gourmand and relaunched once again. Is it best gourmand ? Yes and no, depends what you expect from gourmand. This is gourmand that you can rock anytime and anywhere without causing headache to yourself and others but it's not super sweet like Lira for example or Italica which is pro for me but for others might not be. Chocolate and orange is perfectly blended with a hint of cardamon and vanilla at the back. It's linear fragrance, you will smell mostly chocolatte and orange with arm length projection and full day longevity, typical Xerjoff quality. Meanwhile where is the oud? I don't detect it, propably its just a backbone for the chocolate but than this should not belong in the 17/17 collection. This one and Homme should be moved to cheaper collections because they are nowhere near the quality of Pikovaya or Richwood for example. I dont regret buying this but at the same time for that price and 17/17 collection I expect much more. However if your collection is smaller and you are looking for versatile gourmand you can use anytime than you will be happy with the purchase.

Smells just like a chocolate orange, but it's not the cheap Terry's chocolate orange that I so despise -- and I like most fruit-chocolate combos! This is a freshly peeled, effervescent but perhaps slightly sugared/candied orange dipped in high quality rich, dark milk chocolate. Unlike the majority of so-called "gourmand" fragrances, which still smell perfumey, this is actually extremely edible. The tiniest hint of cardamom adds a spicy nuance that really allows the scent to pop off the skin. I don't notice the other notes in the opening, but after 60-90 minutes of drying down hints of vanilla and woods underlying the chocolate orange start peeking through. I wouldn't identify the woody notes as specifically oud if I wasn't told so, as they don't stand out much. Performance is quite excellent as well, with a consistently moderate projection over 3-4hr. I can pick up faint whiffs up to ~8hr, with 12hr+ longevity as a skin scent.