The twentieth century was the century of scent. Perception of perfume shifted from hygiene product to beauty one; compositional complexity at the hands of perfumers including Ernest Beaux, Germaine Cellier, and Edmond Roudnitska established perfumery as an artform; new materials and the rise of synthetics took scent in new and wonderous (and oft times ghastly) directions; and, consumerism democratised it, putting perfume within reach of nearly every man and woman. Houbigant kicked off this seminal olfactory century with the launch of Le Parfum Idéal at the Exhibition Universelle in Paris in 1900 before Coty defined the chypre structure, Jean Patou marketed the world’s most expensive perfume with Joy, CHANEL outsold all other perfumes with N°5, Brut defined the scent of a man, and Calvin Klein permeated the corridors of high schools across the globe. The twentieth century really did establish perfume as a mainstay of bathroom vanities and dressing tables the world over. Fittingly then, the last major perfume launch of this century was a celebratory one, a golden one, a triumphant commercial success: Dior J’adore.
Launched just in time for Christmas ’99 and the biggest New Year’s Eve party ever, the concept behind J’adore was gold and its hypnotising effect. Perfumer Calice Becker managed to evoke the captivating glow of precious metal with an intricately woven composition that delivered its radiant quality through a beautiful progression of accords, from the vivid green opening to the abundant floral heart and polished drydown. This golden concept, captured beautifully with an ad campaign that saw the sylphlike Carman Kass emerge from a pool of liquid gold across the pages of beauty magazines and billboards and set to Barry White for television, proved to be gold for Dior with J’adore becoming an immediate commercial success.
J’adore’s genius was the clarity of contrast in its abstraction; bracing green ivy leaf freshness set against soft peaks of Chantilly cream sweetness, cut again by the richness of plum and blackcurrant compote, then again alleviated by a floral accord so well-conceived it rarely shows more than a hint here and there of its actual blooms – jasmine, rose, violet, champaca, and lily-of-the-valley – and, finally, settling into woods and incense reminiscent of those found in Serge Luten’s seminal Féminité du Bois. Like the precious metal that inspired it, J’adore gleamed against the skin, at times dazzling in its brilliant radiance, then glowingly more subtly but no less glamorously in shades of burnished amber.
Reworked and reformulated in the 20 years since its launch, J’adore is still available in its original guise, J’adore Eau de Parfum, retaining much of the character that made it so instantly recognisable. Lost at the cost-cutting, bouquet-pruning hands of Dior’s current in-house perfumer François Demachy however is some of the trademark iridescence of the Calice Becker’s original 1999 composition, though the golden shimmer does endure, spawning an entire family of J’adore flankers, some more intriguing than others. Having amassed as many of these flankers as I know to exist, but excluding limited edition bottles and concentrations (the hair mist, for example), herein are my thoughts on the very many guises of J’adore from the original Eau de Parfum – albeit in contemporary form for sake of attainable reference – right through to the latest flanker, J’adore Infinissime.
So, without further ado;
J’adore Eau de Parfum – Still a scintillating green-tinged, fruit-laden white floral, but less ambered and lacking the jammy plum of Calice Becker’s original. More salad than compote, the fruitiness is fresh with melon-pear-peach, and the florals are weighted heavily in favour of magnolia and rose, less so the jasmine. Pretty, but not quite as sensual as the Charlize Theron ads would suggest.
J’adore Eau de Toilette – Originally a dewier version of the Eau de Parfum launched in 2002, the Eau de Toilette was a stunner with its ivy-leaf greenness, crisp fruits and weightless but deceptively rich florals. It became and remains a more citrus-magnolia focused proposition in 2007 before eventually being replaced by the 2016 Lumiere formula which is back again with the Eau de Toilette moniker. Confused? Me too.
J’adore Extrait de Parfum – Demachy’s J’adore amplified in concentration to the point that is resembles more closely Becker’s original, though it leaves me cold. Something is amiss here.
J’adore Summer Fragrance (2004) – Adorn Becker’s original J’adore bouquet with orchids and a seemingly endless number of champaca stems and you’ll land on something that smells like this 2004 summer release. Warm and heady, if ever there was a J’adore flanker to revive, this has to be it.
J’adore L’absolu (2007) – Sweet-green jasmine with more emphasis on rose and ylang-ylang, L’absolu is an intensely rich take on the original that lacks some frivolity, likely because there is no greenery to lend contrast here. A dower beauty.
L’or J’adore The Absolute (2007) – An even more floral take on J’adore with sweet pea’s gentle- and parma violet’s not-so-gentle sweetness replacing the original’s fruit notes, and champaca and magnolia replacing the lily-of-the-valley and jasmine. Ultra-feminine, L’or J’adore is more pretty than it is elegant.
J’adore Le Jasmin (2007) – Le Jasmin is beautiful in its photorealistic rendering of a leaf-and-all jasmine bush, but it is so very fleeting (not helped by the fact that is is alcohol free), so far removed from the J’adore DNA that it seems pointless.
J’adore L’eau Cologne Florale (2009) – Miss Dior Chérie L’eau in the J’adore bottle. A prim and pretty composition of orange blossom, magnolia and Italian citruses. So refreshing, so unrecognisable as a J’adore flanker.
J’adore L’or (2010) – An extrait concentration of the finest Grasse jasmine and rose essences set against tonka and patchouli amber. L’or (2010) should be loved for what it is – a sweet, creamy white floral – but there is little to no semblance of J’adore here.
J’adore L’absolu (2012) – Laundry fresh jasmine in a handblown Murano glass bottle that really, and probably deliberately, steals the show for this release. Not worth the price it commanded at launch, certainly not worth the money it commands in today’s secondary market.
J’adore Voile de Parfum (2013) – La Mer. This smells of my Crème de la Mer moisturiser (think Nivea Creme if you aren’t familiar). Soft powdery iris with a hint of rosewater over a barely there J’adore white floral accord rendered almost aquatic in its weightlessness. This feels more Prada than Dior.
J’adore Touche de Parfum (2015) – A jasmine-rose-iris bouquet more CHANEL than Dior in style, atop a base of vegetal ambrette, sandalwood and musk, this is beautiful beyond words. The love child of J’adore L’or (2010) and Guerlain Samsara, J’adore Touche de Parfum is a J’adore flanker only in name.
J’adore Lumiere Eau de Toilette (2016) – Airier, slightly “greener” with a salty-sparkly-lemon edge, Lumiere is a citrus-magnolia forward take on J’Adore with a jarring assemblage of neroli and sandalwood vying for prominence just back from the fore. A pretty enough citrus-floral, but hardly recognisable as J’adore.
J’adore L’or (2017) – Like the L’or before it (2010), this rendition is a rich oriental leaning white floral that has little in common with the J’adore DNA. Stunning in its own right, better too than the 2010 version.
J’adore in Joy (2017) – Salt? Salt and fizzy peachy florals. J’adore in Joy is like those unfamiliar cocktails one is served in a salt-rimmed glass on a hot Mexican beach. Ylang-ylang and tuberose only add to the beachy feel. This is J’adore on holiday in the tropics. Odd, but I like it.
J’adore Absolu (2018) – Zero fruit. Zero green. All white floral. Absolu is a beautiful citrus nuanced white floral whose starring role is a humid magnolia in full bloom despite the supposedly heavier handed inclusion of jasmine essences here. Stunning, but not identifiably J’adore.
J’adore Infinissime (2020) – With all the sweet fruity-green-floral familiarity of the original, Infinissime is so much richer, so much more sensual. In lieu of the current Eau de Parfum’s melon-pear-peach sweetness, Infinissime opens with the sun-kissed warmth of blood orange before sandalwood and pepper lend a humanly humidity upon which the voluptuous floral heart blooms with creamy ylang-ylang, decadent tuberose and come-hither jasmine. Infinissime is J’adore with the Gabrielle Essence treatment, J’adore with newfound sex appeal. My favourite rendition of J’adore to date.
Dior J’Adore Eau de Parfum, Eau de Toilette, Extrait de Parfum, Absolu, In Joy, L’or, Touche de Parfum, and Infinissime are available at www.dior.com and Dior boutiques.