Jovoy Rouge Assassin (2012): Cocottes, Garçonnes & 1920s Paris, All Smelled of Lipstick {New Perfume}
Parisian niche perfume house Jovoy are releasing new perfumes this fall of 2012; among them is Rouge Assassin (Killer Red Lipstick). The fragrance, composed by perfumer Amélie Bourgeois of Flair, aims to recreate scents of made-up femininity and Parisian nocturnal world, all bottled in one flacon, including the buttery scent of red lipstick and a whiff of rice powder on skin.
Two archetypal women of the period inspired the composition: the short-haired, leggy, emancipated garçonne of course, but also the cocotte, with her more turn-of-the-century connotation of a much less emancipated sort with a generous clivage peeking through frills and flounces, "the mistress of these gentlemen"....
These two types rarely mingled, co-existing rather in different circuits of pleasure (cigarette, alcohol, outdoors vs. perfume, aphrodisiacs and closed quarters, we can well imagine). Both types however used makeup. For Jovoy, it's also an opportunity to pay homage to their earliest customers, the cocottes of the Second Empire.
