The best known of Patou's perfumes is " JOY", a heavy floral scent, based on the most precious rose and jasmine, that remained the costliest perfume in the world, until the House of Patou introduced "1000" (a heavy, earthy floral perfume, based on a rare osmanthus) in 1972. Before JOY, the House of Patou released many other perfumes, many which were to celebrate particular events. For example, Normandie (an oriental forerunner to perfumes such as Yves Saint Laurent's Opium) celebrated the French ocean liner of the same name, and Vacances (a mixture of green and lilac notes) celebrated the first French paid national holidays.

Steele, Valerie, ed. (2010). The Berg companion to fashion. Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic. pp.553–555. ISBN 978-1-84788-563-0.Far from commercial scents, Joy is an artisanal-fragrance intended to express the peak of years of refined sensory art by Jean Patou. It has been available in shops since 1930. This long-lasting parfum lasts throughout the day with just a few dabs since the percentage of essences is quite high. Most eaux de parfum have between 15-20%. Oriental-scents, such as this one, are indulgent and exotic, fusing aromas such as vanilla, musk and spices together and oftentimes featuring an amber accord. Add a Little Romance It was a floral but compared to the powerful bright floral scents of the 80’s it was so subtle, it was almost invisible. Unable to find any ‘joy’ wearing this perfume for my personal pleasure, I decided to purposefully try and gauge the male reaction to it. It's floral, VERY floral, the most floral scent of all, but it's not natural: instead of something wild/nature-like, it smells like a greenhouse full of Jasmine and Rose that release all their fragrance into the hot, humid air, some of the flowers even starting withering in the heat, but still releasing its perfume, still singing with all the voice they have.

JOY is a fragrance with an interesting history: conceived as the epitome of luxury and extravagance, its formula included an unprecedented amount of Jasmine of Grasse and May Rose, two of the most expensive ingredients in perfumery. It was SO expensive to produce, that even the perfumer warned Patou that it was “impossible” to be commercialized. If that wasn't enough, the Wall Street crashed, bringing thousands of rich families to ruin and generating the biggest economic crisis in history, the “Great Depression”. After that it did settle down into a lovely mix of rose, musk and vanilla. Sweet as the finale is, I can't envision tolerating the first two stages to make this a keeper. It is possible that I applied too much, so I will give it one more chance with a smaller application. This was my second attempt, but I like to give any fragrance three tries. Last year Joy was sadly discontinued but I am a proud owner of perhaps the last two bottles of edt and edp. I don’t think I will wear Joy except maybe on María Félix birthday, as a tribute but I will keep it as a treasure of that golden era now gone forever.

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What I think has caused a lot of confusion, is that these bottles need to 'sit' for a while. I've experienced this with a lot of the more recent Patous. Is this because of some chemistry thing that has to do with ingredients? Could it be restrictions at the time of production? Is it a sign that there are a lot of natural ingredients in them? I wish someone would give me the answer, but who is that person going to be? They clearly don't want mere consumers to know more intricate details of how they are made. That would not do! In any case, if someone is patient enough for Joy Forever to finally come out of its shell, you will be very pleasantly surprised. Something I was fearing has happened. The house of Jean Patou is now dead when it comes to fragrance production.... The acquisition of the brand by LVMH was the final sign that things were coming to an end, and when they released a perfume called Joy under the Dior umbrella, it was clear that nothing good was going to happen with the original Joy, launched by Jean Patou in 1930. About 30 years ago, it was very rare that the same name was taken given - chosen for fragrances by different companies, but nowadays it is so very frequent. And I do not like it at all. (I'm thinking about the "Guess" by Guess and the "Guess" by Marciano or "Idole" by Giorgio Armani and now by Lancôme. Nothing alike, nor in bottle designs nor in smells, by 2 companies that have nothing to do with each other neither. Etc... After the closure of the haute couture business the company has continued to produce fragrances under the Jean Patou brand. Patou also produced fragrances for Lacoste, when Patou acquired the license in the 1960s, [6] and Yohji Yamamoto in the 1990s. [7] Jean patou is soon becoming one of my favorite perfume houses,it's a shame that it's perfumes are so difficult to find here

Moreover it instantly gives you a feeling of an engineered perfume, worked out, with a concept, a strong concept.The smell? Elegant, very ladylike, powerful, a mix between N5 and First by Van Cleef and Arpels but on steroids. Not for everyone and for sure many will dislike it. However I adore it for what it is and how wonderfully it performs on my skin. Dark rose, indolic jasmine, strong tuberose and stinky civet but worked out so perfectly one has to surrender to it’s bizarre beauty when you really appreciate classic jewels from a glorious and gorgeous era.

I had been habouring a 10 ml travel size of Joy EDP for a few years. I cannot recall how I got it. Several days ago, I sprayed it on to test it. Stand aside modern Chanel, and make way for Jean Patou. Joy stands up there alongside Chanel No.5.

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Glamorous, seductive, confident, secretive and classy is the kind of woman I'd envision wearing this fragrance. I am a fan of mostly clean citrus floral fragrances, and when a friend gifted this to me I read the notes here and was convinced it would be a disaster on me. I mean, bananas in a perfume would be a notion difficult to conceptualize for most women who haven't worn Enjoy yet. Even if Enjoy doesn't work for me, I'm thrilled that this scent has so many fans and that the house of Patou is continuing on through another generation of perfume lovers Jean Patou as a company suffered from going through the years of economic recession, but it had a contradictory approach: when things got tough, luxury was boosted. Even when the company was in difficulties, and so was its clientele, Patou's approach was always to surprise the market with seemingly nonsensical products. That was the case of Joy, the quintessence of rarity and supreme opulence. When in 1929, Jean Patou smelled the unreleased sample of what was to be Joy, he loved it, but the perfumer told him it would be impossible to release it in the marker, for the essences that had been used were too expensive, and impossible to use commercially due to the prohibitive price. Jean Patou took this answer and turned this perfume into a marketing strategy, announcing Joy as "The World's Costliest Perfume." It was a success! I recently have become of lover of Joy, Sublime, and especially 1000, which all also bring rave comments from whoever is around me. All of these scents are so different from each other, but all have that extremely special base that makes this line so gorgeous. They aren't for the very young or yuppy-types who all act, dress, talk, and, yes, scent themselves the same with the latest boring bottles lining the dept. stores, Sephora, Ulta, etc., shelves. These are class perfumes, and I even keep the beautiful boxes they come in. Joy Forever has interesting notes that do not bore or copy the syrupy sweet fragrances of the time, and manages to make JF a modern, unique daytime scent thats always appropriate. Silage is low and close to the body. Over sprayers/heavy handed users rejoice! You can get as lavish as you want! Longevity I get 4-6 hrs in my wearing and I do advise to spray on skin and clothing. Remember this is more for a discerning customer than most.. so give Joy Forever multiple wearings. It was bright and refreshing at first for this viIntage enthusiast.. then it began to haunt me and I grew to love this one. I believe great fragrances reveal themselves over multiple wearings.