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Jean Patou

Joy Eau de Parfum

Joy was launched by Jean Patou in 1930, in the wake of the 1929 crash. Composed by Henri Alméras and presented to the world as the costliest perfume in the world, this floral of Grasse rose and jasmine, into which go 10,600 jasmine flowers and 28 dozen roses per ounce of extrait, went out in 2018 when LVMH took its name for Dior.

Brand
Jean Patou
Launch year
1930
Perfumer
  • Henri Alméras
Gender
Women
Olfactory family
Floral
Concentration
Eau de Parfum
EAN
5050456020652 (50 ml)

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Joy Eau de Parfum

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Jean Patou launched Joy in 1930. Henri Alméras, the author of the house’s first three perfumes in 1925, composed it in 1929, when the Wall Street crash deprived the couturier of his wealthy American clients.

The costliest perfume in the world

The house presented it to the whole world as the costliest perfume in the world: making it requires 10,600 jasmine flowers and 28 dozen Grasse roses per ounce of extrait, a dose of natural materials Auparfum calls indecent. Joy kept that title until 1000, launched by the house in 1972.

Angela, of Now Smell This, recounts the legend: faced with the dark mood settling over the West, Patou ordered an extravagant perfume from Alméras, as an antidote to the crisis.

From Patou to LVMH

Jean Kerléo, the house’s perfumer from 1967 to 1998, reformulated and reissued twelve Patou perfumes in 1984. The brand passed to Procter & Gamble, with Jean-Michel Duriez as perfumer, and to Designer Parfums, which put a great many vanished references back on sale.

In September 2018, LVMH announced a partnership with Designer Parfums and took majority stakes in the Jean Patou portfolio; Joy disappeared and its name was reassigned to a new Dior fragrance. The perfume is no longer produced.

Olfactory pyramid

  1. Top notesThe first minutes
  2. Heart notesThe heart of the perfume
  3. Base notesWhat lingers

What critics say

Angela (Now Smell This) held Joy in 2008 to be a superbly balanced, womanly classic, the equivalent of a 1950s Dior suit, whose extrait turns spicy and animalic; Elena Vosnaki (Perfume Shrine) sees in it the archetype of a beautiful jasmine.

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The advertising

The costliest perfume in the world

From 1930, Joy was presented to the world as the costliest perfume in the world, a slogan carried by 10,600 jasmine flowers and 28 dozen roses per ounce.

From its launch, Joy was presented worldwide as the costliest perfume in the world. The slogan rests on its formula, 10,600 jasmine flowers and 28 dozen Grasse roses per ounce of extrait, and it held until 1972, when the house launched 1000. Angela, of Now Smell This, notes that with today’s luxury perfumes, Joy is no longer even close to the most expensive on the market.

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All Jean Patou perfumes

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