Jubilation XXV Man Amouage (2008)

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8.6 / 10 864 Ratings

Jubilation XXV Man is a popular perfume by Amouage for men and was released in 2008. The scent is oriental-spicy. The longevity is above-average. It is still in production.

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Perfumer

Bertrand Duchaufour

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Blackberry, Davana, Coriander, Labdanum, Orange, Frankincense
Heart Notes	Clove, Gaiac wood, Honey, Laurel, Orchid, Rose, Celery seed, Cinnamon
Base Notes	Ambergris, Immortelle, Moss, Musk, Myrrh, Opoponax, Oud, Patchouli, Cedarwood

Ratings

Scent

8.6 (864 Ratings)

Longevity

8.5 (638 Ratings)

Sillage

7.8 (625 Ratings)

Bottle

8.7 (583 Ratings)

View Video of Jubilation XXV Man (Vimeo)

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 01.03.2019

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Reviews

02/14/2019

7.0 7.0 8.0/10

Sickscent

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Sickscent

Kyoto Fata Morgana Tabula Rasa

I hate Arab opulence (and decadence).

Oud, rich (kitchen) spices, impenetrable dominance, animalism, dense, resinous incense and too much dried fruit are all a horror for my thoroughly Western European nose. Sure, because of its modest socialization it obstructs one's access to the realm of upper-class fragrances, but as a worker child that I was and am, I also have a biologically implemented price limit for all kinds of bells and whistles, which prevents me from buying fragrances from Amouage anyway.

I wish I could have left it at that, but the same impulse in me could have been listening to the new Tokio Hotel album, although I prefer rather off-beat and aggressive music, brought me to the big and legendary 25 from Oman, which I like much better than almost all comments here could suggest, much to the chagrin of my pleasure synapses and my wallet.

What's the matter with you? Because I think that this Arab is rather an artificial comme of Garcon's scent, which sometimes more, sometimes less clearly bears the handwriting of its creator and when it seems to be the synthetic sketch of a desert oasis. Although not all Incense Series Japanese fragrances were made by Bertrand Duchaufour himself, "Jubilation XXV Man" reminds much more of such transparent Iso-E-Super/Synth incense artifacts than of the other Amouage fragrances I know of.

Far away from the rich drama of a thoroughbred Arab, this exceptional fragrance flickers brightly after a short fruity berry, soaked in clove oil, reminiscent of a distant mirage and pale memory of the desires of a city in the distance, which does not exist at all. A vague idea of life and luxury ...within reach and yet unattainable. Of course, we know this mixture of dry desert wind, ethereal oud/incense and artfully woven-in dried fruit associations at least thematically from "Timbuktu", "Series 3: Incense - Ouarzazate" or perhaps "No. 02 - L'Air du Désert Marocain", but this scent falls even more into the realms of a Geza Schöns or other modern representatives of their profession. An incense scent behind a bulletproof glass pane. Abstract memories of yesterday. All components beyond the incense appear only as sparks in a constant cyber-cloud of wood, smoke and ether. Like scattered stars in a hazy sky. If Amouage only had fragrances like "Escentric 01" or
after that "Series 3: Incense - Kyoto", this one would have become the Tabula Rasa of our own history.

In the meantime, I have come to think that my impression is more that of the Europeanised reformulation of a much richer fragrance, but in this sense reformulation makes sense because it has developed into an ingenious fragrance that seems very universal and sustainable.

2 Replies

09/25/2018

Basti87

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Basti87

Greatly helpful Review 15

I waive

This jubilee XXV has been on my watch list for half an eternity. I've wanted to test it sooo long, but it should never have been. Reflection Man and Interlude Man I have already tested of this brand and I must say: Two bang scents. But I was especially curious about it, especially the many declarations of love here and also the ranking of this fragrance. Everyone has their own fragrances, which they are curious about and have high expectations before the first test. Usually too high.
In summer I bought two official samples for a fair price. This is mostly sold out in the 2ml sample there. This month I was lucky and found this one among others of this brand. For an extensive test optimal, such 2ml-samples. I bought two because I had high expectations for this fragrance.

Sometimes you expect something completely different than you get in the end. Not bad at all, but tastes are different. I had similarly high expectations for Aventus and Tobacco Vanilla, which were then disappointed. Also here.
I own and appreciate the fragrance twin Rasasi Rumz very much. That's why I had high expectations of jubilee. The Rumz goes roughly in the jubilee direction, but still has Black Afgano characteristics.
I have tested this fragrance extensively and have not ticked off prematurely, yet I do not warm up with this fragrance. It starts with a mixture of blackberries and spices. I don't notice all the notes from the pyramid, but I can smell labdanum and incense and a good portion of clove. Many people don't like cloves, which I belong to. The first two hours remind me of tobacco. Spicy stuffing tobacco. Not pure, but a few spices as well. Incense is also very present here. In addition, oud is not too present as in many oud-crackers, but the oud-touch is already noticeable. Opoponax will also be added later, which is clearly more prominent in Interlude Man than here. After about 8-10 hours it subsides a bit more gently with soft woods and patchouli.
A fragrance that I don't find so bad after 2-3 hours. Still, it doesn't suit my taste. Luckily, I'm not the only one among the many lovers here. I especially don't like the undertone. I find it slightly musty, although I like the basic DNA quite well. Especially for headaches and migraines: Take your legs and run!

The Sillage also surprises me. Rated here at 7.8, which is extremely high for perfume ratios. I don't get that much in my nose, especially after 2-3 hours. I find them satisfactory for oriental conditions (Oud, Opoponax, etc.) but rather mediocre.
Its durability is also overrated at 8.6 when compared to other fragrances. It lasts between 10 and 12 hours, with the last few hours fading away very closely. Nevertheless very satisfactory.
Of course, the evaluation is correct in both factors, but not on a scale with others.

Conclusion: It does not meet my taste, but nice that many have found their scent with this scent.
Tastes are different and that's a good thing. Similar to Tobacco Vanilla I don't score points, because I can't and don't have to :-)
Maybe I just got a fake batch. It was worth a test, since my curiosity is now satisfied.

8 Replies

09/24/2018

10.0 8.0 8.0 10.0/10

JoaoMartins

You have to experience it first. You have to!

I'm not a fan of reviews per se, where you read the notes, the longevity, the ranking system and the reviewer's personal opinions etc. I prefer stories that explain you how a fragrance makes a person feel/experience. So here's my Jubilation XXV story.

I remember exactly how I felt the first time I smelled this one. Got a 10ml (vintage) decant of it from eBay because where I live there's not a single niche store in a radius of 200km. One evening at home I sprayed only one shot in my wrist. I closed my eyes and somehow it transported me to a farm. There I was wearing a waxed country coat and a pair of wellies. I didn't like it very much at the time to be honest. Smelled very mature, very complex and I wasn't very interested in comprehending that smell that was really reminding me of being near an horse stable. My 10ml decant sat down in the shelf for almost a year.

Fast forward to June 2018: I visited NYC for the first time and grabbed a lot of decants with me. One day I decided to wear Jubilation again, because why not? Nobody is going to judge me for smelling like I'm wearing a waxed coat in NYC. It was raining! Oh my my my, that smell got into my soul. My nose kept getting sniffs of it blended with those odours from that incredible city. I was there trying out the most high end Xerjoffs, Rojas, MFK, Nicolai in every god damn niche store that I found, but that smell... that smell kept on coming all over those magnificent scents. I was in love. The next days I ran out of that precious 10ml decant. That fruitiness, that complex smell, with a resinous and woody base and pungent blackberry opening just stuck inside me. I kept on dreaming about it. When I thought of New York I could smell Jubilation XXV all over the place. I kept imagining it and smelling my empty decant and trying to deconstruct its blend into ingredients in my mind.

Back home I kept on using Timbuktu, which for me, somehow, reminds me a little bit of Jubi. Not the same thing. Not the same feeling. It wasn't enough for me, although it was created by the same hands of that gorgeous Amouage. I had to get a bottle of it, and so I did. Ok it's not the vintage non magnetic cap. it's from Oman and it's the magnetic cap. But who cares? I love this perfume. It warms me, it calms me down and it transports me every time and I think that's the best thing that a perfume can do for you: transport you to another place! There's no price for that!

4 Replies

09/17/2018

7.0 6.0 6.0 8.5/10

Pepdal

Jubilation Man

One of the most lauded releases from Amouage's masculine line. I am reviewing from a decant of the current magnetic cap version of this fragrance. Enjoy.

06/25/2018

5.0 6.0 7.0 7.0/10

DasguteLeben

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DasguteLeben

Greatly helpful Review 16

Then a Duchaufour

Amouage Jubilation XXV is not an oriental, but a fragrance. Bertrand's handwriting is so large and concise that he would actually need his own classificatory genre. And D. is not a genius artist, but a declared genius craftsman who, like van Dyck, Rubens and Rembrandt's picture factories, produces in series, which is why many of his creations, no matter under which branding, can appear like self-plagiarisms because they are variations on the same theme. Jubilation xxv is an evolution of the 2006 Paestum Rose fragrance from Eau d'Italie, the basic structure is an axis of a dry fruity rose note and modern frankincense reinvented by Duchaufour and Buxton for the Comme des Garcons Incense series. The typical olibanum scent is massively embedded in velvety woody components such as Iso-e-Super and Cashmeran, which produce a diffuse dry-woody spicy aura that can almost be described as the basis DNA of 21st century niche perfumery, so characteristic is it across all the brands that buy their components and recipes from the three major fragrance and taste multinationals. XXV was quite a hype at the time, it was clearly aired and from the beginning it was too synthetic, although more bearable than the even more violent Paestum. I sold the flacons in the old design that I caught at the Harrods sale at a profit and invested them in vintage Tabarôme, among other things.

Now one can of course ask oneself what is the point of pasting over the most precious Omani frankincense essence with standardized industrial scent chords, if the former were more than PR clatter. Or you could ask which normal earner spends more than €200 on a now ubiquitous type of incense, if perfume consumption was rational. Or one could ask how Duchaufour comes out of this creative impasse, when he once reached the perfect equilibrium with Timbuktu, who had been reformulated in the meantime. However, all these questions make me feel a little melancholic. As well as the fact that XXV, in comparison to what Amouage & Consorts are doing today, is being pushed inflationarily onto the market as if the perfume industry had collective bulimia, still recognizable substance and aesthetic programmatic (if not mine). I can't tell whether this fragrance has been cheaply watered down in the meantime, like Memoir Man. Anyway, there are more important things than (such) perfume. Vintage fragrances, for example, and perfumers who still practice their art free of the knack of relentless profit maximization. A Duchaufour on it!

8 Replies

05/15/2018

9.0 8.0 8.0 9.0/10

Rsi

Rsi

kings pull over

Very sensual! I love the scent!! If you are not living in the middle east I would recommend this more for fall/winter as this is very complex scent. I love the fruitiness and the oud accord combination that gives this very masculine, strong vibe. Definitely needs some character to pull this off!

02/01/2018

8.0 7.0 8.0 8.5/10

Smora

Very helpful Review 6

Complex Oriental

Scentrack: Nas - The World is Yours

Supernaturally natural. Fruity, resinous, incense smoky, dry and not a slightly brutal. Fascinating is possible to smell almost every listed note of this fragrance. Byzantine complex formula and yet every note is served. Most of them are not pronounced and live with each other in perfect harmony. Blackberry and opoponax are just a little bit stronger. Bertrand Duchaufour is an oriental wizard, succeeding from this note rashomon to create a harmonious work.
Beautiful example of Arabian and French perfume cuisine chimerism. Like the smell of Beirut in its golden age. The gift of the Three Kings. Wearing this I feel like a million $ (not 1 Million).

Rating: 8.5/10

10/14/2017

6.0 7.0 8.0 7.0/10

Carlossp

Helpful Review 2

A good Oriental fougere

It is a perfume with a number of components, at first you can think it will be difficult for such amount of components.

The start is wonderful, spectacular with a fruity that disappears immediately, seems to fade for a few minutes.

I like every time more in its evolution, not to overwhelm in any moment any of its notes, makes it a wearable perfume for day to day, not needing a lot of spray is available for day to day.

The stick that I put it is that it can be somewhat linear, but it is beautiful. Normal stela and Longevity.

07/24/2017

8.0 8.0 9.0 9.5/10

Giesta40

One of the best

This perfume has a great longevity and projection. The blackberry is very dominant in this frag, I can smell this top note for hours and hours... the frankincense is also very proeminent to my nose. The other notes are also quite distinct. Very good stuff!

03/14/2017

Helpful Review 8

Fruity - incense - aromatic

By far the best of Amouage IMHO? This is like Keith Haring paints Caravaggio; a serious perfume made by an artistic mind and jovial ingredients that proclaims cutest fruity notes mingled with bewitching frankincense and lavish ambrosial dry down. It's enticing, friendly, sexy, divine and dedicated to pleasure. Let me exceed my limits and say it's like an orgy in heaven! Everybody's invited!
5/5

11/12/2015

MasterLi

Greatly helpful Review 8

Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh...

I have a huge amount of respect for this fragrance. It is a rich, deep oriental which is mysterious, opluent, & regal. The ingredients are top notch, the perfumer is one of the best in the game. The house is expensive. What more to say?

Well, for me, it's a great one, but I have smelled this kind of smell before, namely in Yves Saint-Laurent - Opium pour Homme both the EdT and EdP versions. Now that doesn't mean that this one is not unique. In fact, I see this as a better, improved, "niche" version of those fragrances.

Oman is a country famous for the production of Olibanum, or frankincense. It has the best in the world, and Amouage have used the best kind here. In fact, every ingredient is blended well. You get dried, aromatic blackcurrant and bayleaf, honey and cinnamon, followed by incense, sweet myrrh and opoponax. There is also even a hint of oud, but in my opinion it's not prominent.

I think I would enjoy wearing this one. It's in my style for sure. However for the time being I have my Opium pour Homme - Eau de Parfum, which for me represents a really high and luxurious kind of fragrance for my tastes and needs. I would say try first to see if Jubilation XXV is to your liking. I highly recommend it for people who like heavy, rich and complex kind of scents. Really high quality stuff here. Almost a perfume fit for a king in my opinion.

10/24/2015

9.0/10

GMK

GMK

Helpful Review 3

luxurious Oud

This is wonderful stuff , cleary top favourite of mine from Amouage , along with Epic Man, JXXV is resinous, smoky and , very incensy , woody oriental which has a hint of some Gucci's fragrances for men but far more better and high quality then those, Awesome blending of so many notes never get cloying , A trail of Myrrh and Olibanum makes it dark smoky and sexy.

06/19/2014

jtd

jtd

Greatly helpful Review 11

borders

The founding concept of Amouage is the hybrid that results from a meeting of cultures. Eastern materials and sensibilities, Western methods and composition. Omani direction, European perfumers. Combining cultures shifts power and transforms identity. It's not easy and although the outcomes can’t be predicted, some consequences can be expected: assumptions will be exposed, borders will be redrawn, mores will be dissected, and the full ramifications will play out over a timeframe of generations.

Notions of beauty reflect cultural ideals and changes can be examined as bellwethers of larger societal change. Early hybrid models of beauty, such as Amouage Gold (1983), might appeal to one generation, seeming opulent and dramatic, yet not meet the needs of the next-generation. To them the style might be objectionable, ie. offensively orientalist or melodramatic.

To a younger perfume wearer or someone new to all perfume, the original Gold Woman looks like the perfume equivalent of The King and I, dated, out of step, presumptuous. Jubilation XXV reflects more of the contemporary school of multiculturalism. It exposes differences rather than smoothing them over. Each perfume is a reflection of the perfumer’s sensibilities and artistic approaches. Guy Robert, who composed Gold, is a classicist, and therefore a traditionalist. Gold is considered both Robert’s crowning achievement and the realization of Amouage’s goal of ‘the finest, damn the expense.’ The fact that the apotheosis of French perfumery came from Oman might have shocked at the time, but can be seen as a best-foot-forward approach sometimes taken at a meeting of polite strangers.

Bertrand Duchaufour, perfumer of Jubilation XXV (2004) is more of a postmodernist, and is known for breaking down form in order to rebuild it into the vision he prefers. There is a logical through line from his previous work to Jubilation XXV. From his work for Comme des Garçons, where he stripped wood down to its essence, to his use of fruit as spice, to his fascination with frankincense, there is a direct line from his seminal Timbuktu to Jubilation XXV. I don’t mean to imply that by having come after Gold, Timbuktu is the product of a more enlightened sensibility. The multi-culti world-arts philosophy that Timbuktu’s post-modernism refers to is starting to look a bit long in the tooth in retrospect.

From Shalimar to Opium to Ambre Sultan the perfume industry is so steeped in cheap 20th century Euro-orientalism, that its cultural bigotry, often couched as fantasy, often passes unnoticed today. Gold and Timbukto are styles of a cultural myopia that is common to the perfume industry despite long-standing criticism. (Don’t get me started on by Kilian’s full-blown orientalist new lines. It makes the 1920s French Oriental fantasy perfumes seem positively PC.)

So, here's the thing. Does any of this after-the-fact interpretation matter? My point is that it matters if you bring yourself to it. If you give it your attention, an art object, a perfume, can be read. It deserves examination and deliberation. Consideration and pleasure are two non-mutually exclusive sides to perfume use. Why not take both?

Here’s the real fun, though: what if your experience of a perfume doesn't fall in line with the reading? Which side is true? Critical thinking and the pleasurable use of perfume are both parts of the art of perfumery. But the two aspects collide for me. Gold does have that King-and-I feel to it, that old-school western colonial flavor. It's a flavor I would kindly call distasteful, and more likely call historically naive and ignorant. Yet despite my better angels, I love Gold. It is sumptuous, it is decadent. I love to spray it on and embrace the extravagance! Does this make me a hypocrite? My cold, poststructuralist soul tells me that Jubilation XXV should win my heart, that I should refuse the the thoughtless chauvinism of Gold. But in spite of my appreciation, I actually don't like Jubilation XXV. On anesthetic level, it's not pleasurable or satisfying. On the compositional level, it feels as if Duchaufour tried to shoehorn the entirety of an Arabic sensibility into a bottle of Timbuktu.

Perfume discussions very infrequently play out as an argument of gut versus intellect. Why not? The uncommonness interests me. There is a contemporary assumption that perfumery is not, cannot be, an intellectual practice, neither for the perfumer nor the wearer. This presumption is false and goes unquestioned because we’re not taught to think about or discuss perfume. The Gold versus Jubilation XXV argument tells me that there's much more that can be unearthed from perfumery than we imagine. If an art-form works rigorously with aesthetics, intention and expression, as perfumery does, then it holds that our discussion should rise above opinion and preference.

Let’s be thoughtful about perfume.

1 Replies

06/30/2013

Steve0580

Very helpful Review 5

The Champagne Of Fragrances

It has a nice, light, fruity, champagne type of smell and it's not overpowering.

The sillage and longevity were quite surprising to me.

I thought it died off after about 6 hours but apparently, it was still much stronger than I'd expected. Just because I couldn't smell it very much, I assumed it had become a skin scent.

On my way home after work, I stopped at a gas station and got something to drink. As I was standing by the machine, the girl behind the counter said "Oh, you smell so good". This was very surprising indeed, considering that she was about 4 feet away and I'd sprayed it on 10 + hours earlier.

12/28/2012

10.0 7.5 5.0 8.0/10

Drseid

Greatly helpful Review 6

One Of Duchaufour's Best...

Jubilation XXV has a nice ginger note in the opening that really smells incredible, evolving into a pleasant spicy amber oriental base. Unlike some others who find it hard to wear this scent (even many who like it), I feel Jubilation XXV is very versatile if used in moderation and I actually find it quite masculine smelling personally. Extremely well made, but it gives me only average longevity of about 5-6 hours. Well-done Bertrand Duchaufour! 4 to 4.5 stars out of 5.

06/21/2012

6.0 6.0 8.0 7.0/10

Gold

Very helpful Review 4

A Class Act

A grown-up, very spicy, very incense-based scent which sends out pretty definete vibes. It has many good credentials in the perfume-world and it clearly deserves them. The person who wears this stuff has impeccable taste and probably made this scent his/her signature. Warm, intoxicating, with its haunting mix of amber and incense, this fragrance was made to impress. This is what I'd call a Class Act!