(Note: WordPress doesn’t support the Mac sign for a lightning bolt, so this review is a little different than originally posted- I substituted a Z for the lightning bolt icon)
My Scent Twin is a wonderful, generous (as well as pretty and funny) friend who on occasion will send me a bit of this or a smidge of that that will just make my month. Recently she sent me a little package with a bit of JAR concoctions, including the one with no name, Z. Z is commonly referred to as Bolt of Lightning, mainly because it’s very hard to pronounce or type Z.
JAR is the creation of Joel Allan Rosenthal, who specializes in Big Jewelry. Several years ago he apparently decided that the perfume world could use his touch. A few years ago, I went with my scent twin to the only place outside of Paris where you can test them: Bergdorf Goodman. I won’t go into the whole process of testing, which is in my opinion both kind of silly and yet extremely luxurious (read about it here.)
Jar fragrances can repel or seduce, sometimes both. In openings they sometime make even the great Uncle Serge seem, well, a little thin. Z (Bolt of Lightning) opens with an intense, almost assaultively green opening. Gaia writes that is smells like pickles, and she’s right. Pickles stuffed with gorgonzola. A giant vat of them that’s at room temperature on a hot day, opened by a sweaty man who’s just lit up a gauloise. I kind of loved it, but I am an odd duck. I also assume that the way that the display it on you at Bergdorfs (apply a light bit and rub it gently in) might mitigate the opening.
All of these histrionics fade rather quickly into the loveliest gardenia I’ve ever smelled. Although the note is not listed (none of them are), my scent twin had the same thing on her skin. Little prickly bits of cheese and pickle and smoke still peep out and I think it’s delicious. Lasting power is powerhouse, and like all JAR fragrances everything else you have at home will seem a little second rate.
Okay, so I love it. Z (Bolt of Lightning) is brilliant, gorgeous, transcendent. It’s also $800 for 30ML. I could insure my car for a year, get a bus pass for nine months or get an new iPhone and an iPad Mini for that amount.
I won’t be getting Z (Bolt of Lightning) anytime soon. If you can, I won’t judge. Just sent me a decant please.
Decants are available for purchase at Surrender to Chance
Image credit: Wikipedia Commons
Just the combination that you’ve conjured up, scares me a little. Do I like odd or maybe off putting perfumes, yes. I love eating pickles and cheese but to wear them? For $800, that could be 2 or 3 bottles of Amouage or maybe even 6 or 7 Serge Lutens. my wallet is sighing with relief.
I had the good fortune of smelling these with Neela Vermeire at the JAR boutique in Paris several years ago. It was quite the ritual, let me tell you; I remember it vividly. It was the day after I arrived in Paris from San Diego so I was very jetlagged and not in top form. When they put the dish containing the perfume-soaked chamois blotter for Jardenia under my nose, my eyes opened wide with alarm and I nearly had to step outside for, it made me so queasy. Fortunately for my wallet none of them appealed to me, but I did enjoy getting to smell them with Neela.
I have wondered at what point I would decide that a perfume was not worth the money, regardless of how beautiful it might be. I still don’t know exactly where that point might be, but 800 is well on the far side of what I would ever pay, even if I could afford it. But I can certainly long to smell it on someone else…
As a lover of the weird and the strange and the orphans, I’m sidling over to STC to see what a jolt of this is going to cost me. And, being the curiosity seeker, I’ll probably, well……..surrender.
Jan, have you come across Ellie and Ellie Nuit? Somebody sent me samples of them, and they are in some ways nice florals but I find something odd and offputting about them. Would you be interested in smelling them? If so, email me at wooddogs3 awt gmail dawtcawm .
Oooooooh how i have to try it! So far ive tried ‘Jarling’ and ‘Jardenia’, but my absolute favourite was ‘Ferme Tes Yeux’. Made me think of triffids.. This sounds strange and exciting -can’t wait! Whilst being all quite different scents they all seemed to have a similarity to their composition, though for the life of me I’m not sure what that is, a sort of interesting discord after the initial hit.. And how i wish i could afford a bottle of ‘Ferme tes Yeux’!
Pickles with gorgonzola, opened by a sweaty man, all over gardenias. Hmmmm… I have to say I am intrigued and slightly repulsed. ;P
OMG! It sounds absolutely and utterly worth keeping your iPhone 4s and listening to the radio Tom. Please don’t let me smell the JAR.
Portia xx