Joy Perfume Discontinued

Let the MARY!s come, but this makes me very sad.

"Joy" was my mother's favorite perfume. I loved it's unique scent and classic bottle. I have been aware of it for all of my life.

[quote] From Wikipedia: "Joy does not smell like a specific flower . . . the whole point of its formula was to achieve the platonic idea of a flower, not one particular earthly manifestation. Joy is composed primarily of a combination of jasmine and rose; 10,000 jasmine flowers and 28 dozen roses are required to create 30ml of the parfum, contributing to its high retail price." As late as1991 it was still being advertised as, "The costliest parfum in the world," and in 2000 "Joy" was voted "Scent of the Century" by the public at the Fragrance Foundation FiFi Awards, beating its rival "Chanel No. 5."

My abuela loves this perfume to this day. That and "Moment Supreme", I think it is called. She is 95.

OP You can thank Bernard Arnault. Instead of just using a different name, he bought the company to acquire the rights, so that he could discontinue the classic Patou fragrance, thus freeing up the name, which was then used in the new Dior fragrance.

Where can you get the original stuff (not so old that it's degraded) and how do you know it's the older version?

The eternal question of which perfume was the most delightful fragrance, Joy or Shalimar? Sad that's gone now.

Joy was one of those special perfumes you could sample at fancy department stores, but never actually own, according to my mom and grandma.

This makes me sad. It was my late mother's signature fragrance.

It freed up the trademark for my signature fragrance, coming soon!

Do they still make Degema?

R8, Detchema was made by Revillon. It looks like some version of it is still available in France.

Judy Garland wore Joy.

My mom is in her late 70s and it’s her favorite perfume. She’s going to be so devastated when I tell her it’s been discontinued. I wonder if there is an alternative that is very similar?

Nice to know Judy Garland wore it.

:-( It was one of my mom's favorites, too. I always thought it was far superior to No5 which always smelled like grandma soap to me.

R4 If you can find a vintage bottle, it's probably not degraded. I have a 50-year old bottle that belonged to my mom, with just a smidge still in it (the perfume in the crystal bottle), and it still smells wonderful. I sniff it every once in a while and it reminds me of her. They made perfumes so wonderfully in those days, they lasted forever.

What happened, does the Joy fragrance not appeal to today's woman? Is it too expensive? Outdated?

JOY (perfume)

Joy was created as a reaction to the 1929 Wall Street crash, which had diminished the fortunes of Jean Patou's wealthy American clientele. Despite its elevated price and the depressed economic environment, Joy became a success and has remained Jean Patou's most famous fragrance. Patou was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2001. In 2002, Patou launched Enjoy, a contemporary take on Joy meant for younger women.

Joy is composed primarily of a combination of jasmine and rose; 10,000 jasmine flowers and 28 dozen roses are required to create 30ml of the parfum, contributing to its high retail price. Joy also contains other flowers such as ylang ylang, michelia and tuberose.

R13 Today's women want perfume that that ultra-sweet perfume that would make a diabetic go into shock. They have ZERO taste.

There hasn't been a really interesting, complex, woman's perfume in years. They're all trying to smell like Viva La Juicy now, which is hideous.

I've got a 40 year old bottle still fully wrapped I grabbed when my mother died. Perhaps it will be worth something in a few years.

R16 Keep it in a cool, dark place. That will help preserve it.

Does the Jean Patou company exist anymore? They made many lovely fragrances.

What is a good women’s perfume to wear at the office?

[R19] White Shoulders cologne is a great classic floral fragrance. Less expensive then the perfume and smells just as good.

Patou has entirely folded. Not just the one perfume. new bottles still quite available online. very large vintage stock out there. all aspirational women once had bottles of parisian parfum. but sad to see Patou go

I've heard good things about Cher's newest perfume, Eau du Couture. I've read it's unisex. Anyone wear it?

People say its the exact same smell as her last one!

I think any perfume that is so popular that a majority of women wear it (as with Chanel No 5 and Joy) is seen as dated a generation or two later. Young women don't really want to smell like Grandma.

Joy is really great grand ma for a young person.

Joy was a provocative perfume. It was a little bit punk. It was a big fuck you as well to launch the "costliest" Parfum the first year of the Great Depression!

R24 true. I find it difficult to smell certain Givenchy, Dior, Cacharel, and original cks on myself, because my grandmother and mother have worn them so extensively. I can’t even share my sister’s Creed & Versace without feeling weird.

Luckily I prefer niche, anyway.

I'm sticking with Wind Song by Prince Matchabelli.

Yes, it costs more.

But I'm worth it. Thank you, Mr. Prince!

R27- Your wind song STAYS on my mind!

Dior's Joy is represented by the ever elegant Jennifer Lawrence.

Fuck Dior. All my homies hate Dior.

Patou had many iconic fragrances besides Joy. Sublime and 1000 are beautiful even through reformulation. If you can find old Patou Homme, Vacances, Colony, etc, they are good as well. Their last perfumer relaunched a number of these sents in totally new formulations with the molecules available. They were not well received but they are in fact very very sophisticated. Which is why they were not well received - plus they didn't match the old scents. They couldn't, anyway.

Perfume is for old whores.

You might find vintage Joy on eBay. I purchased a big unopened vintage bottle of Diorella on etsy, and am on the hunt for Geofftey Beene Red. Can't find it anywhere.

I love the Tom Ford fragrances. but they are so fucking crazy expensive.

"Promise her anything, but give her Arpege."

Evening in Paris was the favorite of my Aunt Mae. Also like Park and Tilford.

Old lady perfume

This fragrance is seduction in bottle according to this infamous movie clip at 1:12

Joy was marketed as “the most expensive perfume in the world,” so most female stars wore it at one time or another. I know Marilyn Monroe did, alternating it with the less costly Chanel.

[quote]R31 Perfume is for old whores.

And?

I prefer Jungle Gardenia.

My grandmother loved this perfume, she passed away last year and this post reminded me of her 😢.

Since it was expensive and she was not rich, she used it sparingly and displayed her treasured bottle on a mirrored vanity tray in her room.

[quote]Judy Garland wore Joy.

And sometimes drank it if she was out of Blue Nun.

[quote] The eternal question of which perfume was the most delightful fragrance, Joy or Shalimar?

Certainly that's been my experience!

I ponder this when hiding from the rape gangs.

My mother, who is in her early seventies, bought 15 bottles several years ago when the news hit. She had a good relationship with a sales person at Neiman's and they snagged them for her. And like someone upthread mentioned, she was told to keep them unopened in a cool (but not refrigerated), dark place until needed. It depressed the hell out of me when she said, "I'll probably be dead before I can use all these."

[quote] I think any perfume that is so popular that a majority of women wear it (as with Chanel No 5 and Joy) is seen as dated a generation or two later.

But then they come back in fashion, like Jicky or Mitsuoko.

I still wear old-fashioned men's fragrances like Caron's Pour un Homme or Guerlain's Habit Rouge. They still smell fantastic to me.

I did not doubt that joy would never be the same once Dior (meaning Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE) bought it.

I believe peace of mind and the chance for happiness are next on the block.

I see the Gap playlist nut bag has found a new obsession to bang on about.

Except for the fragrances made by the most enormous houses--Chanel, Dior, Estée Lauder, Guerlain--most fragrances become eventually reformulated. Even with the big houses they sometimes reformulate the compositions to save money on expensive (or even, in the cases of oakmoss and civet and musk, newly prohibited) ingredients.

The House of Robert Piguet used to have the most remarkable complex fragrances in the world (like Fracas, Bandit, and Baghari), because the brilliant head perfumer, Germaine Cellier, mixed together already existing complex compounds rather than individual notes. When the house went under, their scents became revived under a new owner and the original names, but they could not figure out how they had been originally formulated. They basically had to create skeletal versions of the original scents, with nothing of the original complexity.

Big corporations don't go for expensive natural scents.

Estee Lauder ruined Aveda when they bought it. Horrible reformulations to save money.

I was never a fan of Joy and thought Shalimar was too "sweet". I enjoyed White Shoulders and Cinnabar years ago, along with Raffinee.

My preferences today are Poison and Silver Rain.

Interesting to hear about Cher's new perfume. I loved her Uninhibited when it was released, but it was only around for a year or so.

Cher knows a fair amount about perfume. Uninhibited was basically based on what she had created herself and worn by mixing two older perfumes together, a vanilla-dominant one and a patchouli-dominant one.

R42, So did Ann Miller.

^^ that sounds like Angel.

My Aunt Joy always wore Joy. My mom is still a Chanel No. 5 gal.

In the 1980s, I worked for an advertising agency whose CEO's wife would douse herself in Giorgio Perfume.

We always knew she was somewhere in the building when she would visit.

R50, The scent of Shalimar makes me cough.

Not surprised at all. They've already reformulated Joy and my old obsession, 1000. They're but a smelly, unfocused mess of their former selves.

If a company does a reformulation, they shouldn't be allowed to use the old name. Just name it Synthetique Fruity-Floral, Molecule Nombre Dix or some such pretentious name for their nastyass juice.

Generations of young people will grow up never even experiencing the beauty of a classic perfume composition.

R51, about 30 years ago, there was a small perfume house called Jean Laporte, on Madison Avenue. An ex knew the family who owned/ran it. They had lovely scents, and I guess some celebrities were mad about them, and also worked with them to create their own fragrances (for personal use, not for mass sale). Anyway, I know he said that Cher was a client, and I think Michelle Pfeiffer, but don’t quote me on that one.

I still wear Mure et Musc, but they made a nice vanilla scent that wasn’t sweet and cloying. I wish I could go back in time and hoard a bunch of my favorite old scents.

"If you like Joy by Jean Patou, you'll LOVE Happy by Gene Patty!"

[quote]R44 My mother, who is in her early seventies, bought 15 bottles several years ago when the news hit... It depressed the hell out of me when she said, "I'll probably be dead before I can use all these."

Can I have her perfume?

How long does it take for a bottle of perfume to expire? I have a bottle from 2005. Is that stale or whatever?

R61 not sure, depends on the juice and how it was stored. Which scent is it? Is the bottle a spritz cap, screw top, dropper or rollerball? In what conditions did you keep it? (I.e. was the bottled stored in a dark, cool, dry place?) And how much is left in the flanker? Some scents keep better than others regardless of how they’re kept (the ones with no natural ingredients last longer), but irrespective they need to be stored out of sunlight and heat and damp, and ideally not get knocked about too much. It also helps if the bottle is a soldered/sealed spritzer, because that way no contaminants like dust or air or skin cells can enter the juice and turn it.

FWIW, I still have a few bottles from the 2000s that haven’t turned and are fine to wear. For example, my beloved Issey L’eau Fraîche, gifted to me sometime in the late noughties and kept mostly in the back of my dresser drawer, is still going strong— though it’s technically a mild fragranced water not meant to last, unlike the Joys of this world. I also have a Givenchy Electric Rose from the same time period that’s still totally fine, the same as when I got it. Then again, the other day I had to throw out a couple of niche testers bought more recently (a few years ago) that had turned rancid. You never know.

many scents last decades depending on the kind of scent and how it is stored.