Perfume Review: Amouage Jubilation 25...and a Prize Draw

The recent Amouage releases for women, from Eau and Esprit d’Amouage to Reflection, were underwhelming for me, not living up to the high standards of what I consider to be Amouage “classics”, Gold, Dia and Ciel. Actually, the quotation marks are not necessary here, because, as far as I am concerned, the latter three are indeed classic scents, since they possess the timeless quality of true classics which lifts them above trends and fashions. In contrast, the later offerings from the company were nothing but nods to trends, attempts at appealing to the young, fresh- and fruity- loving audience. To me, they robbed the line off its regal, luxurious, elegantly exotic splendor. When a company decides to become young, hip and/or approachable for wider audience (and I am not talking prices here, heaven knows, there is a lot of overpriced fruity-floral drivel on the market), it is all downhill from there, with scents going from bad to worse (I wanted to cite Dior here as an example, but I still haven’t smelled the three new scents, and so I will hold my peace.). Long story short, I did not have high expectation for the Jubilation collection, created to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the House of Amouage. I don’t think I have ever been proved more wrong …except for that one time when I was told that the White House did not in fact have an electromagnetic force field protecting it…but I digress. With Jubilation 25, Amouage is back to its former magnificent self. As much as I admire Gold and love Dia, I am almost tempted to say that the new women’s perfume is even better. Jubilation 25, while retaining the sublimely elegant spirit of earlier creations, has a much more pronounced exotic feel, and in that, it seems to me better representative of the House. Gold and Dia seemed to me utterly European, or just French, if you will. In Jubilation 25, West finally meets East and the Omani origin of the line becomes much more obvious. It is as if Femme Rochas and Lutens’s Arabie had a passionate love affair, which resulted in a child who inherited Femme’s chic voluptuousness and the very French élan and Arabie’s dark good looks and tantalizing mysteriousness. Jubilation 25 smells like a Perfume supposed to. “A woman should smell like a woman, and not like a rose”, said Coco Chanel (quoted in Michael Edwards Perfume Legends, page.45), in other words, a Perfume should not be obvious. A Perfume should smell complex, it should make you wonder what IS it that makes it what it is, and almost not wanting to find out. With notes of tarragon, rose, lemon, ylang-ylang, davana, labdanum, frankincense, amber, musk, vetiver, myrrh and patchouli, Jubilation is a complex blend, intricate and harmonious. In contrast to the relatively fresh top notes, the heart seems shockingly full-bodied. The creaminess of ylang and the booziness of davana, combined with an ambery accord and the sweet, sweet myrrh, create an effect of astonishing richness. Add to that patchouli and what I would swear is cumin, and it all is almost Too Much! But here is where the perfumer’s (Lucas Sieuzac, whose future in perfume, judging by this scent alone, is dazzlingly bright) magic comes into play. I don’t know what it is that keeps the extravagant opulence within the limits of endurable; I don’t know what – miraculously! - makes the scent as sublimely elegant as it is robustly luxurious, but something does. Perhaps the spirit of the great Edmond Roudnitska has been watching over the creation. Refined and lavish, exquisitely classic and alluringly exotic, luxe, calme et volupté, Jubilation 25 is THE best scent to come out this year …no, make it the last couple of years. If the praise seems excessive, it is because it is deserved. Please try it, when you can. In fact, let’s have a prize draw. If you would like to receive a sample of Jubilation 25, please say so in your comment. Three winners, randomly chosen, will receive a small vial of the scent each. I haven’t done this in a while, but the perfume demands for it to be done…and so I am leaving you with Baudelaire’s Invitation to the Voyage, the poem that transports me to the same –golden, idyllic, seductive- place as Jubilation: My child, my sister, Think of the rapture Of living together there! Of loving at will, Of loving till death, In the land that is like you! The misty sunlight Of those cloudy skies Has for my spirit the charms, So mysterious, Of your treacherous eyes, Shining brightly through their tears. There all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace, and pleasure. Gleaming furniture, Polished by the years, Will ornament our bedroom; The rarest flowers Mingling their fragrance With the faint scent of amber, The ornate ceilings, The limpid mirrors, The oriental splendor, All would whisper there Secretly to the soul In its soft, native language. There all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace, and pleasure. See on the canals Those vessels sleeping. Their mood is adventurous; It's to satisfy Your slightest desire That they come from the ends of the earth. — The setting suns Adorn the fields, The canals, the whole city, With hyacinth and gold; The world falls asleep In a warm glow of light. There all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace, and pleasure. (Translated by William Aggeler) Jubilation 25 is available at Amouage.com, €190.00- €225.00. According to Christopher Chong, the creative director of Amouage, the Jubilation collection will launch in the US in 2008.