Top Notes 
Bergamot
Mango
Turkish rose
Violet
Heart Notes 
Amber
Clove
Jasmine
Leather
Base Notes 
Oakmoss
Peru balsam
Tobacco
Vanilla
NicheOnly
123 Reviews
NicheOnly
3
Four-figure façade
Anticipation. Expectation. And ultimately, disappointment - a story all too familiar along my journey of trying to find the best releases for 2025. This time around I find myself in the aisle with the limited edition and premium price products as Italian niche house Xerjoff has launched three new entries into the Sketchbook collection, all limited to 150 bottles with price points between €1,100 and €1,300 per 100ml. While I do now have statements up for both P.13 and P.18, I opted to kick off with P.70 as I exchanged opinions with several people who received their samples at the same time as I got mine and they told me this was the easiest-to-wear (given I've now smelled all 3, I'd tend to agree with them). What does the experience entail?
I chose to wear P.70 twice because I found the first wear somewhat non-descript, largely driven by the unexpected lack of sillage and the insufficient amount of development. In both wears, P.70 featured a prominent one-two, particularly in the open: there's a tropical fruity mango and/or melon, and an oriental-animalic-musky Western oud in Xerjoff's signature style. The thoughts that I wrote down on the fruity parts differed from wear to wear, occasionally having nuances of Casamorati - Dolce Amalfi Eau de Parfum and on other occasions, even Erba Gold. However, the oud (which shockingly isn't even listed) develops much more in-line with Xerjoff's historic catalogue and is easily comparable to fragrances like Ceylon, Malesia (2017), Mamluk and others. Somewhat surprisingly, there's not a lot of depth to the fragrance beyond those notes. In accord terms, I'd describe the general structure as spicy-oriental-animalic-fruity-woody. I've listed fruity this far down the list, because I feel like it doesn't play a large role in the deep dry-down (beyond hour 2 or so).
There are some flaws, but I think there's no way around the elephant in the room: the valuation/pricing. P.70 is the most expensive of the 3 releases, retailing at €1,300/100ml. Incase it wasn't apparent in the previous paragraph, I couldn't figure out where P.70 as a fragrance brings significant value beyond the other Xerjoffs that feature this oud, all of which are priced between €275/50ml and €540/50ml. That is until the obvious answer dawned on me. You see, the Occam's razor for Sketchbook is the revenue: a few years ago Xerjoff launched Sketchbook with P.33 for €450/100ml, but earlier in 2025, they also launched P.33 Blank Page Edition for €295/100ml. The only difference between the two products is the gold decal that you see on the original's bottle and for those decals, they are charging you €155. Lets take that same mindset to these limited edition releases: Xerjoff launches fragrances with chains, barbed wire and a cage either around the bottle or embedded into the glass. If they charged you €155 for some gold paper from art class then what do you think they'd ask you for the additions made here?
As for the scent itself, I am rating it 6.5 (meaning it's good, but not great) and having smelled all 3, that means P.70 was the worst. The main flaw, if we can call it that, is the lack of depth: there's just not enough to this fragrance beyond that musky-animalic-spicy oud. The alternatives, just within XJ's own catalogue, have more nuance to them and overall, the broader market continues to offer superior options in the fruity-oud genre. The performance on P.70 is also rather light with 8-10h longevity as sillage never extends beyond arm's length (albeit P.13 and P.18 also perform much more like Extraits with average-to-moderate sillage). To close out my thoughts, the pricing on P.70 set an expectation that for Xerjoff is completely unattainable. Had P.70 been released at the same price point as Ceylon, a fragrance that I own, the expectations would've been lower and if we approach these fragrances with the assumption that they'd retail €300/50ml or €500/100ml, I would likely have featured P.13 and P.18 towards the edge of 2025's top 10. For now, those 2 scents will sit towards the middle of my rankings with other high 3, low 4-figure products like Boadicea's Opal.
I chose to wear P.70 twice because I found the first wear somewhat non-descript, largely driven by the unexpected lack of sillage and the insufficient amount of development. In both wears, P.70 featured a prominent one-two, particularly in the open: there's a tropical fruity mango and/or melon, and an oriental-animalic-musky Western oud in Xerjoff's signature style. The thoughts that I wrote down on the fruity parts differed from wear to wear, occasionally having nuances of Casamorati - Dolce Amalfi Eau de Parfum and on other occasions, even Erba Gold. However, the oud (which shockingly isn't even listed) develops much more in-line with Xerjoff's historic catalogue and is easily comparable to fragrances like Ceylon, Malesia (2017), Mamluk and others. Somewhat surprisingly, there's not a lot of depth to the fragrance beyond those notes. In accord terms, I'd describe the general structure as spicy-oriental-animalic-fruity-woody. I've listed fruity this far down the list, because I feel like it doesn't play a large role in the deep dry-down (beyond hour 2 or so).
There are some flaws, but I think there's no way around the elephant in the room: the valuation/pricing. P.70 is the most expensive of the 3 releases, retailing at €1,300/100ml. Incase it wasn't apparent in the previous paragraph, I couldn't figure out where P.70 as a fragrance brings significant value beyond the other Xerjoffs that feature this oud, all of which are priced between €275/50ml and €540/50ml. That is until the obvious answer dawned on me. You see, the Occam's razor for Sketchbook is the revenue: a few years ago Xerjoff launched Sketchbook with P.33 for €450/100ml, but earlier in 2025, they also launched P.33 Blank Page Edition for €295/100ml. The only difference between the two products is the gold decal that you see on the original's bottle and for those decals, they are charging you €155. Lets take that same mindset to these limited edition releases: Xerjoff launches fragrances with chains, barbed wire and a cage either around the bottle or embedded into the glass. If they charged you €155 for some gold paper from art class then what do you think they'd ask you for the additions made here?
As for the scent itself, I am rating it 6.5 (meaning it's good, but not great) and having smelled all 3, that means P.70 was the worst. The main flaw, if we can call it that, is the lack of depth: there's just not enough to this fragrance beyond that musky-animalic-spicy oud. The alternatives, just within XJ's own catalogue, have more nuance to them and overall, the broader market continues to offer superior options in the fruity-oud genre. The performance on P.70 is also rather light with 8-10h longevity as sillage never extends beyond arm's length (albeit P.13 and P.18 also perform much more like Extraits with average-to-moderate sillage). To close out my thoughts, the pricing on P.70 set an expectation that for Xerjoff is completely unattainable. Had P.70 been released at the same price point as Ceylon, a fragrance that I own, the expectations would've been lower and if we approach these fragrances with the assumption that they'd retail €300/50ml or €500/100ml, I would likely have featured P.13 and P.18 towards the edge of 2025's top 10. For now, those 2 scents will sit towards the middle of my rankings with other high 3, low 4-figure products like Boadicea's Opal.
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