really showcases rhubarb as a note, paired with other, more sour citrus, like grapefruit, blended beautifully with lavender as a softening undercurrent and ultimately framed by almond nuttiness and pine that sweetens over time as the tonka bean in the base comes through.

• top notes: lavender, bergamot, grapefruit, rhubarb
• heart notes: almond, fir balsam
• base notes: wood, ambroxan, tonka bean

The opening was full of bitter citrus–grapefruit and bergamot–but quickly warmed up with spice and more balanced sweet-sour from rhubarb, which left the grapefruit tangy, less bitter, and fuller. The change between bitter grapefruit to sweet, spicy rhubarb was like a flash of lightning, and it served as a powerful reminder why testing a perfume for more than a few minutes can be critical!

Fresh pine mingled with lightly spiced, sweetened the grapefruit-rhubarb blend after 10 minutes, and then there was a nuttiness that joined over the next half hour. The intensity of the grapefruit-rhubarb blend dropped after an hour, as the balsam started to come through more heavily. It grew woodier, earthier, and slightly green with only the last drips and drops of grapefruit-rhubarb. After three and a half hours, it sweetened with tonka bean and lavender became marginally more discernible along with a bit of nuttiness. In the final stages, the fragrance was more tonka bean and less of everything else.

Application

For testing, I used half 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. 

Longevity

It lasted for five hours until it was a skin-scent and about eight 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 after two hours of wear.

Personal Thoughts

I really enjoyed the development of the scent on my skin, and it felt like a more approachable fruity scent–not ultra-sweet nor sour like lemon–blended seamlessly with other notes that created a massive backdrop that accented the different facets of rhubarb. It’s a fragrance I’ll keep filed away as potential for purchase, but only after I’ve explored the genre more thoroughly.

Available Sizes

• 100ml for $180
• 0.7ml sample for $4

Where to Buy

• Jovoy Paris
• LuckyScent

Jovoy Paris 21 Conduit Perfume Review

Jovoy Paris 21 Conduit 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.

• Jovoy Paris
• LuckyScent
• Scent Split
• Twisted Lily

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent

Jovoy Pavillon Rouge Perfume Review

Jovoy Pavillon Rouge Perfume Review

Jovoy Les Jeux Sont Faits Eau de Parfum has an opening to be remembered–incredibly fresh, green, and earthy–and smelled like damp soil, sweet greens, and cumin. The soil and cumin was ever-present for me, only getting weaker and weaker as time passed, but even as the smoky, spiced woods broke through, an inhale still brought in a strong earthiness with cumin. This combination of soil and cumin felt like it wasn’t as blended with the rest of the notes, either sitting on top or below but so distinct from the rest that it almost felt like two fragrances worn side-by-side.

Based on looking at other consumer reviews on various perfume websites, many people love it (often those who seem to have other notes sing on them, describing it as a boozy, ambery scent), while others find it hard-to-wear, due to the strength of the cumin.

• top notes: angelica, dried fruits, gin
• heart notes: rum, tobacco, cumin
• base notes: cistus, patchouli, vanilla, labdanum, sandalwood

It opened with a fresh blast from the gin, and then sharp greens that gradually became sweetly green with mounds of dirt strewn on the ground. It initially made me think of savory herbs and spices, especially as the cumin worked its way through and made the herbaceous greens drier. The dried fruits, darkly sweet, emerged after five minutes but only visible along the edges. It was still incredibly aromatic and green with savory spice.

The sweet greens were first to recede, which left it primarily a mix of earthy soil and cumin, and after 45 minutes of wear, spiced woods and sweet tobacco joined the cumin and significantly toned down the savory feel of the composition. After four hours of wear, it became quite smoky and spicy, more like incense to me, but the earthy soil and cumin combination was still there, never far from detection. It continued on in this vein and never quite lost its soil aspect, though it was very much a skin-scent after five hours of wear.

For testing, I used half of a 0.7ml sample vial, 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. It did not have much projection or sillage outside of the first hour of wear, and then it was truly a skin-scent after five hours of wear.

Subjectively, the strength and longevity of the soil and cumin duo wasn’t something I enjoyed. It felt like it was sitting under or over the rest of the notes, rather than blended, because they stood out so much throughout the wear of Les Jeux Sont Faits. Time will tell if cumin gets amplified on my skin relative to other notes, though I have not encountered it as an issue in the few scents I’ve tried that have it in them thus far.

Available Sizes

• 100ml for $180
• 0.7ml sample for $4

Where to Buy

• LuckyScent

Jovoy Les Jeux Sont Faits Perfume Review

Jovoy Les Jeux Sont Faits Perfume Review

Jovoy Paris Psychedelique Eau de Parfum was patchouli-driven fragrance where its dark, earthy, and a little camphorous. It smelled like damp soil, just ready for planting bare root roses at the end of winter. Sometimes it gave dusty, dark chocolate with a little mint, but it was earthy before everything else. The rose and geranium lifted the patchouli before amber, vanilla, and musk came through. The drydown was ambered patchouli, but this is a scent for those who like the darker side of patchouli.

• top notes: citrus fruits
• heart notes: patchouli, amber, geranium, rose, cistus
• base notes: vanilla, musk

It opened with the briefest suggestion of citrus before the dark, earthy patchouli took the stage all damp soil freshly tilled before turning to dusty, dark chocolate with a subtle mint at the end of an inhale. A whisper of rose lifted the dark chocolate up, minimized the dustiness and allowed the patchouli to regain some of its loamy characteristic. It reminded me of being in the garden, cutting back roses in the cool December air.

Spiced amber teased through the patchouli after 45 minutes of wear, only a faint whisper initially before strengthening to at least being consistently discernible by the second hour of wear. The earthy, soil-like characteristics of the patchouli were slowly eroded as the resinous amber and sweet vanilla came together and the fragrance moved towards its drydown.

Application

For testing, I used 1/3 of a 1ml 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. 

Longevity

It lasted for six hours until it was a skin-scent and about 10 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 the two hours of wear.

Personal Thoughts

It’s been an interesting journey exploring patchouli as a note in perfumery, and I love what it can bring to a perfume’s structure, though it can be too earthy for me when its the star. That being said, something like this would be excellent for layering with other fragrances to add a darker element to them.

Available Sizes

• 100ml for $180
• 0.7ml sample for $4

Where to Buy

• Jovoy Paris
• LuckyScent

Jovoy Psychedelique Perfume Review

Jovoy Psychedelique Perfume Review