Jean Patou – Joy parfum review

Joy is a legendary perfume and timeless classic, one of the most beautiful and quintessential floral perfumes in modern perfume history. It appeared in 1929, in the post-secessionist period, at the time when no one expected such a fragrance, especially from the small fashion house Jean Patou. The great perfumes were the distinctiveness of the perfume giants, such as Coty and Guerlain, but that a creative individual in inspiring collaboration with a talented perfumers can create something that will not only equal but also beat all expectations and set standards, in a way heralded the current situation where we can expect tremendous things from tiny, but enthusiastic and talented niche brands. The Next Big Thing can no longer be found in large and luxurious perfumeries, but in a small, niche, art perfume shops that hide their magic away from public attention whose only amusement is what is trendy and what is not.

Jean Patou, the creator of the brand of the same name, is one of the most essential fashion figures of Paris since the beginning of the 20th century. His skills in tailoring and tendency toward simple, minimalist dresses that looked a bit boyish and sporty, as opposed to grand dresses that were popular at that time, were refreshing and intriguing to ladies from a high society who wanted something new, someone new. The world was opening to the possibility that women will want the same thing as men, to have a career, to borrow a piece of male perception and existence and infuse them into their female sensibility. The creators who managed to do it with the dresses were instantly successful, and Jean Patou was one of those. His first collection, the entire collection, was purchased by the rich lady Lichtenstein from New York. This caused Coco Chanel’s envy, who also had the same ideas and goals: the redefinition of women’s fashion and wealthy American clients. There was no event where Jean and Coco did not exchange envious looks while drinking cocktails and soaking the gossips served in chic Parisian bars.

The incredible creativity, as well as the ubiquitous fascination with perfumes, took Jean, like Coco, into perfume world they immediately conquered, which is somewhat the characteristic of creative genius. Otto Weininger wrote it best in his work Sex and Character where he stated that the difference between talent and genius is that genius transcends talent, he can have it or not, but a genius can place his touch on different things and be brilliant. Like Michelangelo, who besides painting and sculpture, wrote the most fascinating poems, the same creative genius can transform their creativity into anything their inquisitive mind find exciting and challenging.

Jean Patou created his first perfumes in 1925, and the line encompassed three fragrances Amour Amour, Que-sais Je? and Adieu Saggese with the goal of choosing the ideal fragrant partner for every woman following her wishes, desires or what we now call the scent profile. In his salon, he made a bar inspired by the cubism of Picasso and Braque, in which the barista mixed and served the scented cocktails for his clients. In the years to come, there have been many perfume creations, but not one reached the fame and glory of the one and only – Joy perfume. Jean always said that everything he wanted to offer the world, was a pure and undefended joy he tried to capture in this, the most expensive of all perfumes, for which as much as 10600 jasmine and 336 roses were needed. Paradoxically, in the darkest and economically most turbulent period, the brightest, most expensive and most luxurious perfume in the world has appeared. From darkness comes the light…

The aura that was built around the Joy perfume was not just a matter of marketing, or at least not just marketing. Only the most selected and expensive natural ingredients were able to satisfy the taste of Jean Patou, but not in the way that some of the niche perfume houses today do, which rely exclusively on this aspect when speaking about the excellence of their products. For years Jean has been searching for the perfect formula, which will enchant the imagination of women and men throughout the Western world and provide them with – Joy. Similar efforts and aspirations that combine only natural and expensive ingredients, but in remarkable, unusual and inspired formulas can be found in the American niche of the perfume brand Parfums DelRae.

The perfume composition of the Joy perfume is floral, but with everything that nowadays passes as a floral perfume, an inevitable retreat must be made. Joy is a quintessential flower perfume, a floral perfume of all flower perfumes. All flower perfumes want to be Joy when they grow up. In the heart of the fragrance, there are two of the most beautiful roses, Rosa damascena – Bulgarian rose and Rosa centifolia – May rose from Grasse. The backbone of the Joy perfume is jasmine, freshly picked in Grasse, the best representative of the creamy, seductive, tasty white flowers that scientists claim to have an aphrodisiac effect on the human mind, in a way that we can not resist it. We are all helpless before white flowers. As in ancient Greece, when the Maenades, dominated by Dionysian mysteries, became the creatures of pure energy and desire. What does the brain know what the heart is yearning? Joy knows.

Perfumer Henri Almeras has succeeded in refining such potent ingredients and enriching them with small doses of ylang-ylang, tuberose and honeysuckle, while at the time, classical aldehyde notes, combined with peach in the opening of perfumes, prepare the nose for the feast that follows. Bottom notes indicate that you are dealing with the complex pleasure, especially the milky-woody mystical sandalwood and the challenging dose of civet, which gives this perfume the animal base and turns thoughts and emotions from a purely Platonic level to the sexy, instinctive, dionysian level.

There is some strange connection between a woman and flowers. Even when they are most vulnerable, and overwhelmed by this world and become furious or sad, only one bouquet of flowers, even wildflowers, will make them smile. How to describe the effect of the most perfect, most beautiful flower bouquet in the history of perfumery? What kind of emotion will it cause? Precisely the one the name itself indicates – Joy, pure and sincere, infinite joy.

Perfume creator is Henri Almeras.