Beauty Care: Xerjoff Golden Dallah Perfume Review

Xerjoff Golden Dallah Eau de Parfum is an aromatic, spiced coffee and cocoa concoction with creamy vanilla. It was definitely heavier on the spices–particularly clove and cinnamon for me–through most of the wear, though they were more dialed down in the drydown when the amber started to amplify.

It is described, in brief, by the brand as a “journey through accords of coffee and fresh spices.” Here are the notes:

top notes: exotic spices
heart notes: coffee absolute, incense, amber
base notes: cocoa, tonka bean

It opened with a smoky, aromatic spice mix–likely clove, cardamom, possibly cinnamon–wafting over a half-filled cup of espresso, nutty and roasted, with creamy vanilla and a touch of powdered cocoa. The “coffee absolute” note was a whisper, though, with sweet incense and winter spices being the stars., but I’d argue that the coffee aroma helped to blend those two together to create true harmony.

After letting the fragrance settle on my skin for about 15 minutes, the coffee intensified, while the composition became smoker, more chocolaty and less creamy, as if it had concentrated into a thicker elixir. Clove seemed to linger the most of the spices, drifting in and out of range for me. It grew warmer, darker, and more resinous after a half hour of wear, lightly spiced, somewhat nutty, and smoothed out.

The wear was more linear after the first hour through the fourth hour; Golden Dallah progressed towards a lightly smoky, more ambered, darker, and resinous drydown with little in the way of coffee and much tamer, more muddled spices. The tonka bean was most present in the drydown, adding a more vanillic sweetness.

Application

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 0.7ml sample vial dabbed to the underside and topside of my wrist area on my left arm. I used an unscented moisturizer prior to applying the scent as this is also my swatching arm (aka, incredibly parched at any given moment) as I found scent did not hold well here otherwise.

I purchased my sample in January 2022; fragrances are known to be reformulated over their lifetime , so be mindful of when a review was made, e.g. a review from 2010 may not reflect what the same-named perfume smells like in 2022.

Longevity

It lasted for eight hours until it was a skin-scent and about 12 hours before it was quite difficult to detect on my skin. The sillage and projection were moderate with the sillage dropping faster than the projection within two hours of wear.

Personal Thoughts

It was like but not love! If the coffee feel had been stronger with less overall sweetness–more of a nutty, roasted offering–I think I would have really enjoyed it. I would definitely wear it again, and I look forward to re-sampling later on!