Jovoy Pavillon Rouge Perfume Review
Jovoy Pavillon Rouge Eau de Parfum opens with whiskey and sweet tobacco before getting darker, richer, and earthier with spice, leather, and woods, the latter getting a little more dominant over the first hour or so of wear before sweetening with benzoin, and then drying down to soft, spiced woods with vanilla.
Pavillon Rouge Notes
- top notes: whisky, spices, sesame, rum
- heart notes: leather, tobacco, coffee, tea
- base notes: ebony wood, vanilla, benzoin
What does Pavillon Rouge Smell Like?
It opened with notes of almost fruity sweetness and straight whisky with sweet tobacco leaf in the air. It turned darker, almost chocolaty (I imagined this was a mix of coffee, leather, and less definable woods) with an earthy quality lightly spiced and rounded out by a touch of tobacco and fruit. In mere minutes, the chocolate swirled with boozy rum in a wood barrel and became more blended and less pronounced.
As Pavillon Rouge settled onto my skin over the next 15 minutes, it became drier with a hint of leather, less sweet tobacco, and lightly spiced woods. These were blended with an underlying sweetness, which gave it some warmth. It retained a boozy edge but everything else swirled together in a tumbler, as I detected leather, tobacco, spice, rum, and wood but none stood out or felt particularly definable.
The booziness subsided entirely after an hour of wear, which was when the scent became slightly less dry, spiced, lightly leathered, and more vanilla in its sweetness (rather than as fruity has it had been in the past). There were moments where sweet tobacco was more at play, but it was not consistently something I could pull out during this phase. Pavillon Rouge shifted minutely from there before its drydown was marked by soft, spiced woods under a blanket of benzoin.
Longevity
Even with using a bit more, Pavillon Rouge had moderate sillage and light projection for the first two hours of wear, and then seemed to live quite close from there (and got closer over the next eight hours but didn’t linger for much longer).
Personal Notes
I enjoyed it but not enough to purchase a bottle. I feel like there are other scents that have similar stages but have more interesting progressions that I’d rather journey through again. I’ve seen some say it’s similar to Maison Margiela Replica Jazz Club, which I haven’t tried in awhile, so I’ll have to revisit that to compare!
Testing Methodology
For testing, I used almost two-thirds of a 0.7ml sample vial, as I have some concerns about leather being amplified on my skin (jury is still out!), which was applied 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.
Availability
Pavillon Rouge is available for $180/100ml.
If possible, I highly recommend trying a fragrance before purchasing a full bottle because fragrance can wear differently just because of skin chemistry. Skin chemistry can effect not just the longevity of a fragrance but also what notes are prominent or hidden.
Pavillon Rouge Samples
We recommend the following retailers for purchasing decanted samples (typically 0.7ml to 2ml in size). This is a fuller list, so individual availability may depend on inventory.
You know what? I may actually love this one! The description of “sweet” tobacco instead of “smokey” or “dry” tobacco makes me think of the sweeter wafts from cigars as opposed to the rank odor from cigarettes or even pipes. Then there’s a gourmand element of whiskey, chocolate, vanilla, etc. However, due to its lacking of longevity, I will test Maison Margiela Jazz Club instead.