Remember the olden days when a gift with purchase was something that was actually nice? Not something seemingly picked from the pile of leftovers from the SA’s taking the really good stuff and the good stuff they gave to the clients who spent real money? Yeah, so do I.
Remember with fondness the heady (literally) days of the ubiquitous fruity-floral? Where no rosebud or sprig of jasmine had a chance of standing on it’s own without being paired with lychee, cumquat, and/or raspberry, preferably ones that had sat in the hot mediterranean sun for too long? Yeah, neither do I.
So in a GWP for a minor Kiehl’s restock from Neiman Marcus was included a large carded sample (or to be more accurate, a large card containing a sample) of Xerjoff’s latest (I guess) Torino24.
I have heard of course about Xerjoff and according to Neiman Marcus there are a bunch of them including a few Torinos. If you have smelled them please do chime in with your thoughts.
Notes (from Fragrantica): Top notes are Mango, Bergamot, Mandarin and Plum; middle notes are Orange Blossom, Pink Lotus and Styrax; base notes are White Musk, Moss and Patchouli.
Apparently this is meant to evoke the memory of “that come with the friendly indoor tennis match for Xerjoff’s fourth year as Silver Partner for the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin” and “the rubbery core of the tennis ball that bounces off the indoor court to the wooden tennis racket in hand”. Yes, they wrote that. Now I have never opened a tennis ball so I don’t know how accurately they’ve gotten that down and I haven’t played tennis with a wood racquet since I used my mom’s when learning in the 70’s. (In the interest of full disclosure, this may have been the last time I played tennis, period.)
The opening for me is big, fruity, floral, and weirdly metallic. Like the friendly tennis match was played with Ginsu knives and citrus fruits. The poor flowers manage to fight their way briefly in before getting stomped down by some very unfriendly tennis shoes. After about 45 minutes the whole shebang sort of collapses into a conventional, if very nice, men’s scent.
I once rented a car and received not my compact but a minivan in a shade of beige so self-effacing I dubbed it “champagne inoffensive metallic.” That’s pretty much the drydown of this.
Torino24 ia available at Neiman Marcus at $230 for 1.7 ounce. It’s already available at discounters for much less. My sample was a gift with purchase from Neiman Marcus.
Tennis anyone?
Images: My iPhone, Pexels, Wikimedia Commons
This sounds ghastly and I’m DYING to try it, just so I can sneer at it Tom.
Portia xx
No tennis for me. I tried but it’s not for me, either to play or to watch.
Xerjoff never really got too much interest from me. I’m not sure why. Maybe there were just too many of them. I did try Irisss, (created in 2008) – how could I not. That was the only other iris perfume I loved. SL Iris Silver Mist is cold. Irisss is warm. Xerjoff reformulated Irisss. I did know a place that had an original bottle of Irisss for sale several years ago for $725 and it sold.
Tom, Tom, Tom. Your review is undoubtably better than the product. Thank you!