Rouge Assassin and Les jeux sont faits Jovoy Paris

Yesterday, several new niche brands (Oriza L. Legrand, Parfum Ann Gerard among others) were introduced in the Parisian boutique Jovoy. The house of Jovoy itself presented two new perfumes—Rouge Assasin and Les jeux sont faits. We had a chance to meet Francois Henin, the creative director of Jovoy, and smell these perfumes a few days earlier, at Pitti Fragranze.  

ROUGE ASSASIN

One of them, Rouge Assasin, is created in honor of the exciting epoque of the 1920s, when the perfume and cosmetic industries flourished. The Jovoy perfume brand started at the same time as Chanel and Isabey, when Guerlain, Lubin, Houbigant and Coty were enjoying their golden age. Why did the beauty industry become so successful? Francois Henin: "This was largely due to the demography situation after the First World War. In those days many men died in the war, women had to use all their charms to win a man. Beautiful girls readily became mistresses of rich men, even if he was married. It was quite normal to date and even live together. Gifts, among which perfumes were very popular, were bought for them in the most fashionable stores. Girls were not interested in old classics, they prefered new, chic things, like Jovoy."

Fashion, especially women's fashion, was drastically changed in only a few years: short dresses, frivolous curls, hair style à la garconne, women's emancipation, smoking women, wild dancing, new music—all these things belong to the wild and exciting 1920's. 

Amelie Bourgeois, an independent French perfumer and the nose behind Lostmarc'h fragrances, undertook to recreate that epoque in two perfumes for Jovoy. In her opinion, cosmetic products of that time smelled heavily of perfumes. Rice powder and bold red lipstick smelled of orris and rose. Black contoured eyes and bloody red lips were the main accents on a woman's face. Powdery iris and rose make the main accords of Rouge Assasin. The trail is oriental, dark and appealing as the corridor backstage on the way to the dressing room of the beautiful actress. 

The notes: bergamot, rose, elemi, solar accord, iris, rice grains, ambretta, Virginian cedar, sandal, vanille, white musks, tonka beans, benzoin. 

LES JEUX SONT FAITS

The nex perfume, Les jeux sont faits, is created for men of the 1950s. Francois says: "This perfume my father could wear, and in general men of his generation. These people survived the war and the occupation. People were poor, but criminals made big money in prostitution, casinos, races, racketeering. To know this time better you should see the film 'Les Tontons Flingueurs,' one of the so-called Films Noir. The perfume was inspired by that time, when perfumes for men were unpopular, actually almost non-existing at all."

The name of the perfume is the phrase of croupiers in casinos: "Les Jeux sont Faits"  (which means "the game is up"). The composition is made up of essential, but usually illegal ingredients of that time: American imported cigarettes, British gin, local cognac and Cuban rum—almost all obtained from smugglers. There is also a bitter nuance of heated celluloid of an old film. Francois especially asked perfumers for that. "Characters from 'Les Tontons Flingueurs' were favorites of my father and his generation. To recreate this apmosphere in perfume was my respectful nod to them. It's a very manly, dry scent of the time when men were men, surrounded by very masculine scents of tobacco, alcohol, etc."

The notes: petitgrain, angelica absolute, accord of dry fruits, rum and gin, tobacco leaves, cumin, sandal, labdanum, vanilla and patchouli.

JOVOY BOUTIQUE

Photo of women from womenof1920s.wikispaces.com Photo from Jovoy boutique by Fragrantica

Serguey Borisov Serguey Borisov has been known in the Internet world of perfume under the nickname moon_fish for more than 10 years. Now he writes about perfumes for GQ.ru and Vogue.ru, and contributes on the subject for glossy magazines.