There is something bizarre going on at Penhaligon's. After the very beautiful Amaranthine, which seemed to open the way to a new life to this traditional brand, we go backwards with 2 unhappy launches. According to the legend, Jubilee Bouquet was launched in 1977 in the honor of Queen Elisabeth’s Silver Jubilee but the 2010 perfume is quite far from any royal quality standards. There is an overall harshness of the composition and the feeling of a perfume that could not afford good quality ingredients. It evokes the floral rose-jasmine-violet accord of several aldehydic French perfumes popular in the 60's (like those from Nina Ricci) where the expensive rose oil, ylang-ylang and other expensive extracts have been replaced gradually by a very synthetic green hyacinth. This is not the high standard perfume, like those produced decades ago, but more the mass market version of a popular theme, as it was produced in the same period by Avon (like Elegance) or Yardley, or the fragrances used in the very popular UK aerosols (concentrated perfumes). It has little volume and is not excellent on skin though it's actually more a soap perfume than a fine fragrance. Maybe a reorchestrated version with the right ingredients would do justice to the original idea. If the past was not so great it's better to keep it under lock and let the modern perfumer create the fragrances of our times.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
