Fragrantica Reviews Jillian Switzerland Refined Beauty
- Viktoria Vlasova
- Aug 22
- 5 min read
Wondering what fragrance lovers think about Jillian Switzerland? Fragrantica calls our perfumes refined, original, and joy-radiating. Dive into the full review and discover why your first whiff might be unforgettable.
Jillian Switzerland started producing perfumes only recently by launching its first perfume at the end of 2022. Since then, the brand's portfolio has been enriched with two more available to the public.
However, at Pitti Fragranze, which took place in early fall, the brand brought ten (!) new products in addition to three. It is a bold move, although, as practice shows, retailers like to put a more extensive collection on the shelves so that each customer, attracted by the concept of a brand, can find something to her/his taste. It is a justified strategy, especially if the brand manages to make each of its fragrances quite original, and Jillian Switzerland has definitely done that.
The brand's first three fragrances are united under the Signature Collection, and they are signed with the names of the perfumers who worked on them. Mark Buxton created Intangible, David Chieze signed Fall In Lust, and Mirella Pomina is the author of Come Out. The next ten, which make up the Luxury Collection, were developed by the combined team of LUZI Switzerland, a long-established and respected perfume developer.
The first Jillian Switzerland perfume, Come Out, was launched in collaboration with the artist Le Kinh Tai; the bottles are decorated with a print of his Whoever I Am painting (below).
The Come Out fragrance is just like the painting: bright, bold, and far from classic. Mirella Pomina expressed Le Kinh Tai's idea with a transparent, unobtrusive, and soft fragrance that combines lychee and peaches with jasmine and neroli on a cozy mossy-amber base. The perfumer wanted to recreate memories of a beautiful, warm summer.
For Intangible, Mark Buxton took a leather note as a basis, masked it with fruits and salted caramel, and wrapped it in a cocoon of blooming herbs and spices. You can clearly smell the leaves of marigolds and black currant, ginger and cardamom, vetiver and patchouli in the composition. The fragrance is pleasantly harmonious; it radiates with joy, but it is not at all smooth. The scent is all bristling with wet and sharp green needles, which hide an intricate leather and powdery "inside" of the fragrance.
Fall in Lust by David Chieze has a few points of intersection with Intangible — it's spices, herbs and an aquatic note. It seems that the two perfumers were given the same task, but each of them solved it in his own way. Chieze decided to refuse any colors, intensified and diversified the smell of spices, and his pine is not an illusion like Buxton's, but is present in the flesh along with fir balsam. At the core of Fall in Lust, green absinthe is hidden.
These three — Come Out, Intangible, Fall in Lust — seem to require more intellectual effort to understand than the much smoother and more commercial Luxury Collection line.
However, the Jillian Switzerland Luxury Collection fragrances are not without character either. They are just emphatically charming instead of low-key cheeky.
Drop Of Love is as fresh as a bright morning washed with dew. This effect is achieved by unsweetened fruits and aquatics, quite skillfully disguised as pure white lilies. Sandalwood and a woody amber accord make the fragrance deeper than a simple floral and fruity bouquet. The softest white musk completes the composition.
I Am Not A Bad Man initially makes you doubt the truthfulness of its name. It has an insidiously sweet start, and it takes time to realize that it is not cotton candy but hard candy with artificial pear flavor and lavender syrup. However, the subsequent opening also keeps within the mainstream of craft confectionery: coriander, tonka bean, mint, and cinnamon. The flavor is openly gourmand but not banal and without an overdose of sugar.
The gourmand theme is continued in Bewitching Kiss, but even more restrained; it is no longer a confectionery but a tea party in the fresh air. Notes of licorice, blackberry, and currant leaf bring this perfume closer to nature, adding associations with either a forest or a garden.
On the contrary, The Art Of Seduction seems brackish and cool compared to the two above-described fragrances. Perhaps the spices – cardamom and saffron – are responsible for this effect, and the combination of woods in the background: sandalwood, cedar, and Mysore sandalwood laced with nagarmotha.
Lake Brienz is even colder and fresher than the previous fragrance. The freshness of lake water from the alpine foothills is conveyed here not only with the help of water and ozone accords, but citrus notes, lavender, and white musk also work for this effect. Rose and a subtle fruity note make the fragrance smooth, while patchouli and amber give it depth.
Edelweiss also addresses the theme of alpine nature, a fantasy about the famous flower of the mountain slopes. The fragrance is both cool and soft, like velvety petals of edelweiss. White musk creates this illusion as if powdering the white-floral composition on a base of sandalwood and patchouli.
Love Hangover is a fougère built around magnolia and gardenia accords and the iconic attributes of this genre: lavender, geranium, tonka bean, and oak moss. However, the fragrance is far from laconic; it has the richest opening, including notes of resins, spices, and fresh fruit, but all of this is presented in semi-tones, as if effortlessly.
In Creation8 perfume, the amount of spices is increased to the maximum, accompanied by different kinds of wood, leather, tobacco, and oak moss. This is usually how the cognac theme is arranged, but here rose and mint suddenly appear instead of alcoholic notes. This is an unusual twist, resulting in the aroma acquiring a sweet-cool tinge.
Contrary to its name, Honey and Bee does not contain honey or wax notes. Rather, it is a fragrance of flowers at the peak of their bloom, whose scent should smell appealing to bees. Honey and Bee starts with life-affirming juicy grapefruit; the center of the composition is a bright bouquet of orange blossom and magnolia grandiflora flowers with their fruity, slightly marmalade tartness; the base is a very light-in-mood coumarin-amber.
I would like to note Beloved J especially: It has a delicate and multifaceted rose with a green hue and sweet pea flowers so rare in perfumes. The fragrance has a very light, almost absent base, which makes it seem fluttering, light-hearted, and very summery.
Jillian Switzerland's cooperation with the world of art continued with Vietnamese photographer Maika Elan, who created unusual advertising images in the style of Lomography for the brand's fragrances.
The brand emphasizes the high quality of all components, from perfume ingredients to glass, and Jillian Switzerland bottles are really excellent — pleasantly weighty with polished edges. According to the niche tradition of recent years, they are rather minimalistic: square bottles of 100 ml in the Signature Collection and rectangular bottles of 50 ml in the Luxury Collection. All Jillian Switzerland fragrances are presented in Eau de Parfum concentration.
Thank you Viktoria Vlasova for this heartful review on Fragrantica. Please read the original article here
Check out the Jillian Switzerland brand page on Fragrantica here.
Comments