Jovoy Paris

Jovoy Paris perfumes come from a Parisian house with two beginnings. Blanche Arvoy founded Jovoy as a perfume and cosmetics maison in 1923; the name then went quiet for more than eighty years until François Hénin revived it, a relaunch the house dates to 2010. Hénin, who spent years sourcing raw materials in Vietnam before working in Grasse, remains its founder and artistic director.

Jovoy works like a publishing house rather than a laboratory. Hénin writes a brief and commissions an independent perfumer to answer it, so each fragrance carries its own author's style: Cécile Zarokian's dry papyrus-and-vetiver Private Label, Jacques Flori's patchouli-rich Psychédélique, Véronique Nyberg's mango-and-leather Ha Long Bay, and Vanina Muracciole's brown-sugar vanilla Fire at Will.

The house also runs Jovoy Parfums Rares at 4 rue de Castiglione, near Place Vendôme in Paris, a shop that stocks hundreds of independent perfume brands and calls itself the embassy of rare perfumes. Because Hénin sells other houses' work every day, Jovoy releases its own fragrances only when there is a gap worth filling, which is why the line skips trends in favour of strong, distinctive compositions.

New to Jovoy? Start with Fire at Will if you love rich vanilla and amber. Every Jovoy Paris fragrance here is an authentic full bottle.