Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie 
Creed

Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie by Creed (1982) is claimed to be the perfume created for Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, ruler of the Second Empire of France. Of course, those who know history will say that 1870 is awfully close to when the Second Empire was abolished after the French Army was defeated by the Prussians, but I'm not here to debate the validity of Creed's usual dubious historical claims. What I am here to say is this represents one of the few remaining "historical recreations" from Creed's early days as a publicly-accessible boutique brand, before Olivier Creed really began courting affluent male buyers that fell for the status and prestige his perfumes like Green Irish Tweed (1985) imparted, and is a survivor from that early period when Creed was a bona fide niche brand themed around classic French perfumery. As such a classic exercise, Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie is an exceedingly indolic jasmine perfume the likes of which "fallen women" have enjoyed for a century or more, but also works well on modern men thanks to its animalic, naturally musky undertones.

The smell of Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie sits somewhere between an oriental chypre like Estée Lauder Youth Dew (1953) and a musky civet-powered powerhouse fougère like Yves Saint Laurent Kouros (1981). The opening is bright but quickly-fading bergamot that smoothly moves into a full blooming jasmine that contains both the clean hedionic aspects like something such as Diptyque Olené (1988) is focused on, but also the deeply indolic "fleshy" tones of something like Lust by Gorilla Perfume (2010). This of course claims to pre-date those, and even if it wasn't created in 1870, it probably did due to the huge musk profile that pegs it as late 70's/early 80's by design. A light rose pairs with this jasmine note, and a bit of salty ambergris (likely ambroxan in modern batches) takes us into this civet/civetone base, rounded by a plush sandalwood note and a bit of vanilla. Wear time is long thanks to that musk, feeling good enough for winter use but maybe too cloying for summer in spite of the jasmine focus, and very unisex. Recommended use is for romantic engagements and evening events.

Lovers of indole, animalic tones, and heady jasmine perfumes overall should be all over this if the scary Creed prices are acceptable. Luckily the house doesn't gouge the feminine-market line anywhere near to the extent of their masculine releases due to a much smaller female audience that doesn't buy into the hype quite like guys seem to, but close to $300 is still no small change regardless. A lot of this floats on the gray market too, and fans of long-gone Creed Orange Spice (1986) that don't mind switching out the orange and neroli for bergamot and jasmine would do well to check this out. Otherwise, Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie is something of an acquired taste that sits distant from the clean citrus and white floral compositions of their 21st century output, and evidence that Creed is capable of so much more than mass-appeal haute bourgeoise juices when the brand puts its mind to it. Most worthy of investigating for fans of jasmine. Thumbs up.

Hail jasmine empress
Long-lived by ancient virtues
Growing young again.

Hairspray aldehydes with rose and jasmine over sandalwood, ambrox, and a full chypre structure. The florals smell more like grandma's fancy guest soap than realistic flowers, but the sawdust-smelling sandalwood and the sour greens of the chypre ingredients keep this more masculine than you'd think, especially when smelled up close. In a way, it's like Bois du Portugal with flowery soap instead of BDP's fusty bergamot and hawthorn.

All in all, I'll give Jasmin Impératrice Eugénie a qualified thumbs up - I think it's nice in the way an old perfume smells nice, but the chypre elements give it an unbalanced bitterness that's a little jagged played against the round, soapy florals. And I've never been a big fan of hairspray aldehydes. But I still think this is fun and worth trying.

This is another beautiful classic scent from Creed. For the longest time my assumption was that it would be a heavily floral dominated fragrance based on the title. I was wrong! Yes there are some florals: jasmine and rose however these notes aren't the main focus of the fragrance. The opening introduces the notes of Italian jasmine and Bulgarian rose as well as bergamot. Together, this creates a rather fresh and crisp opening. The opening is short lived as the bergamot will disappear completely while the florals will recede into the background giving way to the heart of the scent. The heart introduces notes of sandalwood and vanilla. I detected a little bit of amber as well although this wasn't officially listed in the notes. The heart is supported by a backbone structure of ambergris. At the base, the scent becomes rather sweet focusing heavily on the vanilla and sandalwood which makes the drydown so irresistible to smell. Personally, I consider JIE to be similar in nature to Angelique Encens and Vanisia. They're similar in which the vanilla in all three plays a significant role in the composition of the drydown. Longevity and silage are good. I got over 8 hours in longevity while the silage was above average for the first several hours and average/below average towards the end. JIE is better suited for the colder weather as the scent projects quite well. I would consider this more of a unisex fragrance as the florals aren't the dominating notes of the scent. If you enjoy vanilla-based fragrances then I highly recommend trying out this one as well as Angelique Encens, Vanisia (Note: it's actually more amber-based), and Sublime Vanille. Overall, JIE is another masterpiece from Creed.

Jasmin Imperatrice Eugenie is a rich floral that certainly has jasmine in it, but is not a jasmine soliflore. The bright bergamot opening is over in a flash and the florals--rose and jasmine--come together and smell much more like hyacinth to me. The house note of ambergris lends a slightly salty element and the vanilla and sandalwood base give it a creamy, oriental finish. The funny thing is that to me, this 145 year old fragrance smells a lot like two modern hyacinth-heavy classics, Estee Lauder's Private Collection and Escada's first woman's perfume. With its rose/jasmine nexus, this could easily drift into the Joy camp, but is nothing like that famous perfume. If the Empress Eugenie actually wore this, then she was way ahead of her time. To me this is a rich, elegant floriental reminiscent of ladies who lunch, as suitable today as it was when Eugenie was having her imperial dejeuner au palais.