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Amouage Jubilation 25
Suzanne’s Perfume Journal

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A Conversation on Arabie

A More Affordable Olfactionary

Amouage Dia (pour femme)

Amouage Epic Woman

Amouage Gold

Amouage Jubilation 25

Amouage Lyric Woman

Amouage Tribute

Amouage Ubar

Aroma M Geisha Rouge

Ava Luxe Café Noir

Best of 2009

Bond No. 9 Brooklyn

Bond No. 9 New Haarlem

Capote, Truman & Evening in Paris

Caron French Cancan

Caron Parfum Sacre

Caron Tabac Blond

Caron Tubereuse

Caron Yatagan

Chanel 31 Rue Cambon

Chanel Bel Respiro

Chanel Chance

Chanel Coromandel

Chanel Egoiste

Chanel No. 5 (vintage)

Chanel No. 22

Chantilly Dusting Powder

Comme des Garcons LUXE Champaca

Comme des Garcons Series 7 Sweet Nomad Tea

Coty Ambre Antique

Coty Chypre

Creed Acqua Fiorentina

Creed Fleurs de Bulgarie

DSH Perfumes Quinacridone Violet

Deneuve

Donna Karan Black Cashmere

Estee Lauder Private Collection

Estee Lauder Private Collection Jasmine White Moss

Favorite Fall Fragrances

Fragrances for Sweden

Frederic Malle Angeliques Sous La Pluie

Frederic Malle Bigarade Concentrée

Frederic Malle Carnal Flower

Frederic Malle Geranium Pour Monsieur

Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese

Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose

Frederic Malle Une Fleur de Cassie

Frederic Malle Une Rose

Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel

Gucci L'Arte di Gucci

Guerlain Jicky

Guerlain Parure

Guerlain Vega

Happy Solstice

Hermes 24, Faubourg

Hermes Caleche (vintage)

Hermes Eau des Merveilles

Hermes Hiris

Histoires de Parfums 1740

Histoires de Parfums 1828

Histoires de Parfums Blanc Violette

Histoires de Parfums Vert Pivoine

How I Store Decants

In Memory (w/mention of Lanvin Arpege)

Jean Desprez Bal a Versailles

Jean Patou 1000

Juliet by Juliet Stewart

Kenzo Jungle l’Elephant

L'Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubereuse

L'Artisan Parfumeur Orchidee Blanche

L’Artisan Parfumeur Passage d’Enfer

L’Artisan Parfumeur Tea for Two

La Via del Profumo Balsamo Della Mecca

Le Labo Patchouli 24

Little Lists

Lorenzo Villoresi Yerbamate

Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Eau des Iles

Message In A Bottle 

Miscellany 

Molinard Habanita

Mona Di Orio Nuit Noire

Montale Black Aoud

Montale Boise Vanille

Montale Intense Tiare

Montale Patchouli Leaves

More Roses (rose cookie recipe)

My Heart Has Skipped A Beat (summer smells)

My Perfumes Have Theme Songs

Nasomatto China White

Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline

Ormonde Jayne Frangipani

Ormonde Jayne Perfumery Ormonde Woman

Oscar de la Renta Oscar for Men

Parfum d'Empire 3 Fleurs

Parfumerie Generale Bois de Copaiba

Parfums de Nicolai Sacrebleu

Parfums DelRae Amoureuse

Parfums Karl Lagerfeld Sun Moon Stars

Pascal Morabito Or Black 

Perfume Quotes - The English Patient

Profumum Roma Acqua Viva

Profumum Roma D'Ambrosia

Puredistance I

Recipe for Socca

Robert Piguet Fracas

Robert Piguet Visa

Sarah Horowitz Parfums' Joy Comes From Within & Beauty Comes From Within

Scented Reading

Scentuous Reading: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Serge Lutens Arabie

Serge Lutens Chêne

Serge Lutens Chergui

Serge Lutens Five O’Clock Au Gingembre

Serge Lutens Miel de Bois

Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle

Serge Lutens Un Lys

Snow Days

Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure

Sonoma Scent Studio Jour Ensoleille

S-Perfume 100% Love {More}

Sweden Is For Lovers

T is for Taxes

Tauer Perfumes: Incense Extrême, Incense Rosé, Lonestar Memories, & Reverie au Jardin

Tauer Perfumes Vetiver Dance

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The Intimacy of Scent

Thoughts of a Perfume Collector

Tightly

Unlocking an Unknown: Webber Parfum 6T

Vero Profumo Kiki, Onda, and Rubj

Viktor & Rolfe Flowerbomb

What I’m Lovin’ Now

Yves Saint Laurent Nu

 
TRYING TO GET A BEAD ON JUBILATION 25

(Or, The Convoluted Conversations I Carry On in My Head)


Let me state right up front that this might seem a strange connection of dots in terms of perfume comparisons (and here is where I plead “novice” perfumista), but I have been wearing Amouage Jubilation 25 (the women’s version of the Jubilation scents) a lot recently, and somewhere in the middle of its development—and in the middle of whatever I’m doing that day—I will catch a whiff of it and for a brief instant wonder if I have put on Fracas by accident.  “This isn’t Fracas, is it?” I’ll wonder for a blinking second before the other half of my brain laughs and answers back, “No, silly.  It’s her cousin, Jubilation.”


“Ah, yes.  Jubilation, the wealthy cousin.  Or, at least, wealthy by virtue of being a kept woman, right?”  A deep sniff of my wrist confirms it, as the other half of my brain helps me sort out the confusion.


They are both smolderingly sexy and glamorous; they both possess that most coveted of feminine real estate: acres of creamy white flesh that they use to their advantage in manipulating men.  But their personalities and circumstances are markedly different.  Fracas is more forceful, likes to be the one calling the shots; she’s curvier than Jubilation and doesn’t believe in keeping those curves under wraps.  Fracas might be in the dough or she might be out, but she’ll be damned if any man is going to keep her, wealthy or not.


Jubilation, on the other hand, is a sleeker, more feline beauty (had she been in the movies, she could have played Cat Woman), and she likes to drape her long limbs in silks and furs that encircle her agile frame like a cocoon.  She carries the earthy, slightly oily tang of fur on her skin even when she is not draped in one, which causes men to conjure up fantasies involving bearskin rugs whenever they think of her.  She is more refined and aloof than her cousin, and she can afford to be: installed in a penthouse apartment in the wealthiest area of the city, Jubilation is the province of one man only and wants for nothing (except for a little excitement every now and then, a little diversion—the kind of diversion her cousin Fracas seeks, nay, commands from a seemingly never-ending legion of men).


Ahemm
.  “Yeah. Sure.  Alrighty then,” says the tiny, annexed part of my brain that goes by the name of Logic and which resides who-knows-where, having disappeared shortly after I began this strange hobby of smelling and writing about perfumes.  Logic is having a good laugh over this conversation and telling me that if I am going to draw comparisons between these two scents and refer to them as cousins, then perhaps I’d better get something down on paper.  Logic wants me to compare notes—perfume notes—between the two.  It is a set-up for failure, I realize, but I do it anyway:


            Fracas:

Top: Bergamot, Orange Blossom, Green Notes

Heart: Tuberose, Jasmine, Lily of the Valley, Iris, Carnation

Base: Sandalwood, Vetiver, Cedar, Musk, Moss


            Jubilation 25:

            Top: Tarragon, Rose, Lemon, Ylang-Ylang

            Heart: Davana, Labadanum-ciste, Rose, Frankincense

            Base: Amber, Musk, Vetiver, Myrrh, Patchouli

On paper, comparing notes, it does seem ludicrous to compare the two fragrances.  Fracas contains a potent jumble of white florals, while Jubilation 25 has only one, ylang-ylang (actually a yellow flower, but its essence is often classified as white floral by perfumers).  Fracas is a round, white floral perfume with some green notes and a woody base, while Jubilation is a floral oriental with a definite chypre vibe.  Logic tells me I can’t compare the two at all… and yet, I smell the similarities when I put the two scents on opposite wrists and even on scent strips.  Both of them are decadent, heady scents—the smell of exotic flowers grounded by something carnal.  Of the two, Jubilation 25 has more of an animalic feel to it, while at the same time being a more taut scent, keeping its sexuality in check in a way that the more aggressive Fracas is loathe to do.

Well, what can I say?  Sometimes it’s difficult to get a bead on a fragrance—and after a couple months of wearing Jubilation 25, that is still mostly the case.  I wanted to write about it for a long time, and yet no words—just useless pictures—sprang to mind.  Only when I began noticing, over time, these momentary confusions where I thought I caught a whiff of Fracas somewhere in the middle and end stages of Jubilation did I finally have any basis for comparison that I could put into words.  It might not seem logical, but to my nose, these two fragrances share a common DNA, and even if they live in separate neighborhoods, the zip codes that separate them aren’t that far apart.

Images: bottle (top) from LuckyScent.com; photo, left, by Ellen von Unwerth


Amouage Jubilation 25 is available at LuckyScent.com and other e-tailers: $265 for 50 ml; $300 for 100 ml.

Posted by Suzanne Keller, 5/10/2008.