XerJoff
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The mandarin and bergamot arrive as a unified citrus burst, sweet rather than tart, with an almost candied quality that suggests this won't be a typical fresh fragrance. Within minutes, saffron begins its metallic, leathery intrusion, creating an immediate tension between brightness and depth.
Jasmine emerges in full force, powdery and sweet, cushioned by cedar that's been smoothed down until it's almost creamy. The saffron continues to weave through, preventing the florals from becoming too pretty, whilst the first whispers of vanilla start to warm the base notes like a promise of what's to come.
What remains is a second-skin composition of vanilla-laced musk with castoreum adding a subtle animalic quality—clean yet slightly feral, sweet but grounded. The cedar persists as a woody ghost, just enough structure to prevent the base from collapsing into pure gourmand territory, whilst the musk ensures everything stays close, intimate, personal.
Blue Hope is a study in contrasts—a fragrance that plays the sweetness of citrus and florals against the darker, animalic pulse of castoreum and musk. Carlo Ribero has crafted something that opens with the brightness of a Mediterranean morning, all sun-warmed bergamot and mandarin, before revealing its more complex intentions. The jasmine here isn't the green, indolic variety; it's been sweetened and softened, almost confectionery in its presentation, whilst saffron threads through the composition adding a leathery, slightly medicinal edge that prevents the whole affair from tipping into dessert territory.
What's most intriguing is how the cedar provides a structural backbone—not the pencil-shaving dryness you might expect, but something rounder, almost vanillic in its warmth. This wood note acts as a bridge between the fruit-forward opening and the decidedly sensual base, where vanilla, musk, and castoreum create a skin scent that hovers between clean and carnal. The castoreum brings an animalic whisper rather than a shout, that distinctive leathery-musky quality that makes the sweetness feel lived-in rather than saccharine.
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3.5/5 (125)