We’re in a sex recession. According to the Institute for Family Studies, the number of Americans engaging in sex weekly has dropped to record lows with fewer than half of those surveyed — 1,000 men and women — getting it on on a regular basis (but don’t tell that to gay men). Olfactorily speaking, however, people have been indulging their inner freak with perfumes meant to imitate the primal, filthy scent of sex, and it’s more apparent than ever when we look at some of this year’s fragrance drops.

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Cherry Cheng, founder of cult-favorite fragrance Joussaince, discusses defiling classic beauty, erotic olfaction, and fragrance as feminist practice with Arabelle Sicardi.

Forget vanilla: the buzziest new fragrances feature notes of sweat, leather, and hot, plasticky latex.

It doesn't get more classical than a chypre fragrance. The scent profile has remained an enduring icon within the fragrance space since it was used by perfumer François Coty in his 1917 scent, Chypre.

A suggestion of hot skin flushed with cumin and softened with the chicest pressed powder is as pert as it is refined. Orris and musk (breathy, though primal) keep the perfume close—no doubt to rouse curiosity.

Likewise, a new project by indie fragrance brand Jouissance is proving just how intertwined fragrance, sex and mainstream culture are becoming. Founder Cherry Cheng has delved into the world of erotic literature – something she herself is passionate about. The brand’s new limited-edition online library boasts a curated collection of first and collectable editions of literary works such as Simone De Beauvoir's ‘Brigitte Bardot And The Lolita Syndrome’ and ‘The Sadeian Woman,’ by Angela Carter. All, Cheng says, have helped to inspire ‘the brand’s olfactory world.’

Jouissance, the fragrance house known for its sensual approach to scent, has just launched an online bookshop — and it’s exactly what you’d expect from a brand called Jouissance (Google what it means in French).

A self-described "grandma scent," Les Cahiers Secrets harks back to a time when perfume was considered a true delicacy—rare, symbolic, and cherished. "Our LCS is a tribute to these timeless creations and the vanished era they evoke," says Cherry Cheng, founder of Jouissance. As such, the spicy floral is meant to evoke the little delicacies found in everyday life: good coffee, silk stockings, and skin "so luminous it glows in the dark."

Cherry Cheng always longed for a perfume that centred the female gaze so, she created her own in 2023. Jouissance Parfumes is a subversive perfume brand translating erotic literature into scents, with the female gaze in mind. Inspired by classic vintage perfumes and books we read beneath the sheets, celebrating the female artists, writers and fictional characters who taught us to fantasise and to desire.

Beyond its bottles, Jouissance cultivates dialogue between scent, literature, and art. The house also offers a rotating selection of vintage books—including Nin’s diaries and Story of O—alongside limited-edition visual works that extend the tactile, poetic experience of its perfumes.

Anaïs Nin’s bawdy diaries-made-juice, this is powdery and soft thanks to heliotrope, orris and a pressed powder note, but all the while cumin and musk hint at activities between the sheets. The London perfume designer Cherry Cheng worked with female British perfumers specifically to capture the sensual intelligence, emotional daring and understated moodiness that was required for translating feminine erotic literature into scent.

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Jouissance tells stories through its scents, and La Bague D’o expresses its fairy tale meets fantasy tale with notes that aren’t easy to ID at first sniff. There are top notes of steel chains, pink pepper, and orange flesh; it has a fully floral heart of rose, jasmine, geranium, and violet; and the base blend features amber, anamalic, musk, and patchouli.

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“It’s an incredibly emotional and affirming moment,” says founder Cherry Cheng. “Liberty London is an institution that has long stood for heritage, exquisite craftsmanship, and, more recently, through the thoughtful revamp of its beauty space, visionary curation. For Jouissance to be recognised and invited into that world, after only one year of business, feels like a powerful endorsement of the vision and ambition behind the brand.”

L'une relève le défi des choses au lanaade. L'autre carte le muet.
l'indicible, l'impalpable. Poète et parfumeur ont ceci en commun
qu'ils distillent la complexité de leur propos en peu de lianes.

Cherry Cheng’s fragrances—which are now available at Liberty—combine her love of scent and literature, from Anaïs Nin’s diaries to Anne Desclos’ The Story of O. Kitty Grady speaks to the founder at her home in London to find out more.

Speaking plainly, there is no other brand identity, realized fantasy of packaging, and quietly sexy experience with myself that approaches what it feels like to receive one of the Jouissance perfumes, held as they are in a tidy box like one might find holding antique jewelry—cream on the outside, gathered ripples of ballet slipper pink satin cushioning the bed on which their elegant glass flacon reclines. Artwork tucked under tabs redolent of an Edwardian writing desk and stationery, with type on the labels that evoke early twentieth century publishing in France and elsewhere.

I cannot express deeper gratitude for a brand so considerate of how the parts of their products arrive, open, and express a clearly defined ethos. For me, time slowed, paused; I could feel my breath and blood flow; the erotics of the whole assemblage excites sight and touch with quietly romantic cues that accumulate around the sprayed application. This is a paragon of what I believe many of us want from our experience with perfume. It felt like a waking dream that I still feel awe over.

I have a rather excessive collection of body lotions, butters and oils because I am obsessed with moisturising top-to-toe after every shower, but I was interested to learn that when it comes to fragrance longevity keeping your skin moisturised is crucial. “Hydration is key and perfume lasts longer on moisturised skin, so apply an unscented lotion or matching scented body cream before your fragrance,” says Cherry Cheng, founder of Jouissance.

Jouissance, a house inspired by femininity and a heritage of French erotic literature, has a truly bold take with En Plein Air. Beginning with an energetic, almost sour, rush of citrus, it mellows into a gentle musky scent that sits close to your skin. It's a simple but distinctive scent, perfect for a day by the beach.

“Fragrances are entering into this space of taking control of sexuality, of owning sexuality and sensuality in a way that’s extremely personal,” [Douglas Little] continued. With this, brands and houses are approaching sexuality in new and innovative ways. For example, Jouissance, a fragrance brand created by Cherry Cheng, offers scents inspired by erotic literature from feminist trailblazers. For Cheng, employing these voices in her products is an intentional pivot from how the fragrance industry has historically approached sex.
“Traditionally, in fragrance marketing, a lot of the strategy has been focused on targeting female customers but to cater to an image of male desire. Marketers had always been men who try to guess what they think women want,” she said. “We come from a place that’s coming from female desires.”

The London-based brand was founded by Cherry Cheng during lockdown when our emotional connection to scent (and lack thereof) became ever more apparent as we were separated from both one another and the outside world. But it wasn’t the absence of a lover’s eau de toilette, or lamenting the smell of freshly cut grass that inspired Cheng to start Jouissance — with her nose planted firmly between the pages of vintage French literature, she became enamoured by erotic storytelling and the wayward women who penned it. As Cheng dove deeper into the annals, she created fictionalised accounts of these women in her head, even detailing their scent.

Due to its prohibitive cost, orris absolute is customarily used sparingly in perfumes, like a dollop of caviar. A perfumer needs to use enough so that it can cast its spell, but not so much that it makes the perfume too expensive... I love it in Jouissance's elegant Les Cahiers Secrets.

"This is a major moment for us - our very first official presentation in France! And not just anywhere: in Grasse, which is such a symbolic place for anyone who truly loves perfume. We’ll be sharing samples of our latest creations, developed over the past few months, and offering a sneak peek at some exciting artistic collaborations on the horizon."

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“Amber fragrances are known for their warmth and richness,” says Voelkl. “They often have a sensual and long-lasting profile, built from ingredients like vanilla and offer balsamic, mineral, and ambergris-like notes.” According to Cheng, it’s a scent profile that pairs very naturally with the human body. “Amber, musk, and other animalic notes harmonize with your skin rather than mask it, which tends to meld beautifully with the body’s natural scent,” she explains. A perfume that aptly fits this description is L’Air de Rien by Miller Harris. Originally created for Jane Birkin, Cheng recommends it for its slightly powdery, quietly provocative blend with notes of amber, musk, and moss.

Brat summer this, hot girl summer that—IDK what type of summer we’re about to have, but I do have an idea of what summer 2025 will smell like. “It’ll be all about lightness but with an undercurrent of intimacy and nostalgia,” says Cherry Cheng, perfumery student and founder and creative director of Jouissance Parfums. “Expect familiarity reimagined in quieter, more personal ways.” Cheng pictures “sensual minimalism—dreamy yet grounded, where clarity and emotion coexist.”

Vintage-inspired perfumes are having a moment, but rest assured, Les Cahiers Secrets is nothing like your grandmother’s perfume. It was on her vanity before she met your grandfather—very much what Marilyn Monroe would’ve worn to bed if she were more Anaïs Nin than Hollywood starlet. In fact, this is a skin scent your sexiest protagonists would adore: a warm flush of heliotrope and pressed powder in musk, sublimated by cumin for corporeal heat. It’s unexpectedly sensuous, like a Victorian nightgown—modest in silhouette, but completely sheer in the light.

“A good citrus perfume is all about balance, as while citrus notes helps to lift the composition of a fragrance and impart freshness, brightness and clarity, their staying power can be fleeting,” explains Cherry Cheng, founder of fragrance brand Joussiance. “However, paired with natural notes like neroli, orange blossom, petitgrain…soft woods or light musks, you can round out a citrus scent and help the citrus to shine for longer.”

As the aesthetic of reading becomes more popular, we consider whether it's become the incentive we need to keep buying books, by inviting four women using social media to boost their book-based businesses, to discuss the crossover with our digital world.

Despite all of the new citrus perfumes on the market, I keep going back to this scent from the London-based brand Jouissance. It's easily the freshest perfume in my vast collection and the one that smells like the most fitting for the season. It's like the brand took the best scents of spring—juicy citrus, rain, and a touch of just-cut grass—and bottled it up. I can practically guarantee it's sure to stand out as a bright and uplifting scent in anyone's fragrance collection.

The London-based Jouissance has an air of old-world luxury, with scents inspired by vintage perfumes that come housed in peach satin-lined boxes. En Plein Air has citrusy top notes of bergamot, lemon and grapefruit rounded nicely with a musk base.

Les Cahiers Secrets Eau de Parfum comes from the diaries of Anaïs Nin and her literary community in 1930s Paris. Unabashedly vintage-inspired, it transports you to a hazy apartment filled with traces of face powder, lillies, and musk. This scent doesn’t announce itself to the room but makes itself known in small moments, like the flip of a book page or the ruffling of a linen sheet.

Whether it is BDSM, explicit memoirs or the warm and sensual state of sexual fever – there is a fragrance for you. If you cannot decide then THE COLLECTED WORKS is an excellent place to start. This is where I started and LA BAGUE D’O is now my go-to scent.

En Plein Air crackles open with sharp notes of lemon, an almost oily grapefruit peel, and bitter bergamot. The excitement eventually settles into a lovely, musky white floral with just the hint of the promised outdoor air, but the citrus lasts quite a while, much longer than many other perfumes I’ve tried. It’s an undeniably bright perfume with just a hint of musk that stays close to the skin: wear this to the office when you have secret plans after work that you’ll be daydreaming about all day. These days, my only after-work plans are my night classes in Italian, where I’ve received so many compliments while wearing En Plein Air that I’m coveting the beautiful full bottle.

Speaking of Jouissance, a perfume brand I recently discovered through Instagram. I had the privilege of speaking to the founder, Cherry Cheng. We both share the love of both film and literature. I was able to smell her curated selection of perfumes beforehand and I can say they are amazing and so unique.

Jouissance perfumes capture the tension of lust with the addictively unnerving play between what we find repulsive and attractive drawing us in with a maddening limerence.

The brand offers a transgressive perfume proposition – one that moves away from clean, “safe,” unobtrusive scents and instead dives into more surprising olfactory combos that provoke sensation and curiosity. These include dirtier undertones and aldehydic pops to push boundaries – much like the most suggestive stories.

It’s Valentine’s Day a week today, and if you haven’t already got a thoughtful gift for your special someone, we thought we’d step in with some romantic objects of desire this week. First up is our new obsession, a divine scent from Jouissance Parfums. Jouissance are innovators in the field, drawing inspiration from erotic female-centred literary works, and combining scent with art in an entirely new and delicious way. This scent, En Plein Air, blends citrus notes with the rain – does it get any better? – and pays homage to Catherine Millet, and her 2002 hit erotic memoir. Oh and of course the feeling of grass on bare skin, too…

From the moment I first laid eyes on Jouissance’s perfectly sculpted bottles, nestled in a bed of pink silk, I was intrigued. The packaging alone is as seductive as the scents within—each one tempting you to get closer... Inspired by erotic literature penned by women and the allure of vintage perfumes, they offer distinct personalities that feel both intimate and evocative.

Defined by the use of originally animal-derived ingredients like civet, musk, castoreum, and hyraceum (although one could argue that oud and ambergris also carry animalic facets)—but now made possible through synthetic variants like skatole or plant-derived ingredients like indole—these scents have a certain funk to them. A funk that can border on the sweaty, fecal, or urine-like but in the right doses are downright sexy. After all, sex is not a sanitized act, so why should the fragrances emulating or alluding to it be censored? [... ] The 2024 brand launch, Jouissance, which focuses on female desire in literature and art throughout history, gives its scents like La Bague d’O an erotic edge with musks and animalic notes.

[LES CAHIERS SECRETS] It’s the scent of flushed skin and antique boudoirs, with notes of powdery heliotrope, soft musks and a touch of cumin to keep it from feeling too demure.

“The mission of Jouissance is to foster a vibrant community where artists can freely explore their erotic imaginations and exchange creative inspirations, united by a shared love of perfume, art, literature, and cinema.”

It’s delicate territory, and one I tread quite often – when girls call powdery fragrances “grandma perfume,” they do a disservice not only to their grandmothers but to their senses of smell. That said, I love not only how unabashedly powdery Cahiers is but also how sweaty it is. The fragrance is primarily cumin and lily, two notes often associated with underarms and funeral homes, yet in the right hands, can be some of the most gorgeous. Its drydown yields a sort of expired body powder tang that reminds me of Diptyque’s Fleur de Peau, and is outright addictive to someone like me. I’ve found myself reaching for this on days when I just don’t know what to wear and want something to cover me like a second skin or gauze of thinly veiled fabrics.

[LA BAGUE D'O] Like some mirage descending from the pages of Dangerous Liaisons, via the set of Eyes Wide Shut, it is lascivious, tender and visceral. Pink pepper and geranium inject brightness. Rose and violet bring the curves. And in the base, musks and unabashedly animalic notes turn up the heat. It’s an explosive mix, which is precisely why it works so beautifully.

You can’t help feeling a tiny bit suspicious when a brand claims their perfumes will explore the vast and irreducible topic of female sexuality. Surely that’s all just grand marketing, you say to yourself. But if their opening threesome is anything to go by, then Jouissance are going to take their assignment very seriously indeed — and nowhere is their earnestness more evident than in La Bague D’O.

I chose my fragrance based on notes that I felt would most suit me, but honestly, the references for En Plein Air, inspired by Catherine Millet, evokes both intellectual detachment and a secret rendezvous at the witching hour. And while the notes, a base of musk with white flowers and rain, topped with bergamot, lemon, and grapefruit offers a whiff of effervescence that is bright and clean, it has just a twinge of sensuousness. When I wear it, I often feel enlivened and really feminine, but it's not overt. Just a bit like I have a secret.

Aside from being packaged beautifully in a pink satin-lined box, and housed in a vintage-inspired bottle, it smells divine; starting with a burst of sweet and floral rose and then easing into something warmer and velvety. Spritz to feel like a glamorous starlet of the silver screen.

When it comes to fragrance, the French approach favours niche boutique perfumers over big blockbuster brands. Jouissance has just three scents, each inspired by vintage perfumes and female creatives. Les Cahiers Secrets is a blend if fresh cut lilies, pressed powder, and musk.

One of my biggest goals of 2024 was to open up my fragrance collection to scent profiles that still smell like me but with something unexpected sprinkled in. The Les Cahiers Secrets Eau de Parfum by Jouissance hits the nail right on the head with a second skin–like base backed by warm spices. To me, the star note has to be the delicate and sweet fresh-cut lilies.

Options abound at the 600-square-foot store [Stéle NY], whose assortment of niche fragrances ranges from Jouissance’s erotic novel-inspired scents, to Mabelle O’Rama’s floral-infused odes to her motherland, Lebanon, to China’s Aromag, best known for its Wild Garlic Eau de Parfums.

I’m glad to have been introduced to Jouissance — a UK brand that aims to explore female-authored sexuality. Les Cahiers Secrets is a charming take on sweet, powdery iris — all gentle blushes on white cheeks — but the real standout is La Bague D’Or. A veritable Madame De Merteuil beckoning you to an orgy in a velvet-lined boudoir, it is both filthy and regal, pushing out its central rose note with buxom insistence. Imagine a lecherous Portrait Of A Lady and you’ll get a sense of how it operates.

The very beautiful and even romantic La Bague D’O reminds me of a classically composed perfume with its choice of ingredients and rather formal structure. It doesn’t contain any jarring notes but rather beguiles with its enigmatic hidden charms.

I wonder if this was the one that was made first, because this really seems to encompass what the brand’s trying to do.
We’re back with Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons but she’s kind of parting the velvet curtains and inviting us to a full-on orgy. The Michelle Pfeiffer character is there as well. She’s thrown all decorum to the wind. A few extras from Eyes Wide Shut have joined in. Some are wearing Venetian masks. Some aren’t bothering. And everything is kind of covered in this haze of white, strongly scented talcum powder… It really really is deliciously lascivious.

Described as a powdery ‘grandma scent’ you’d be forgiven for thinking this perfume would be far from sexy... What Jouissance does, however, is twist convention on its head by taking inspiration from the erotic novels of women in literature. Les Cahiers Secrets is therefore described as the scent for those who ‘want to smell like the only woman in an avant-garde literary circle’ and so, alongside the arguably old-lady powdery notes, you’ll also find spicy cumin and earthy orris root which rebel from the convention of traditional powdery perfumes.

I love a fragrance house that tells a story through its scents and Jouissance embodies this ideal completely. Currently, the brand has three fragrances on offer, each inspired by the books of three erotic writers. Of them all, Les Cahiers Secrets is my favourite, blending together spicy cumin, white florals and musk notes, it’s powdery yet possesses an unexpected twist.

Inspired by erotic literature, Joussiance is transforming and translating words on a page into scents on skin. And while Joussiance perfumes and the stories which inspire them are in many ways abstract and intellectual, on skin, the response is visceral. With inspirations like sexy grandma, al fresco sex, and sacred submission, the sexual nature of these fragrances is the point.

It's less 'art through a sexual lens' and more sex through an artful one, and when I first smelled all three scents I was excited, especially by LA BAGUE D'O, which is this aldehydic, animalic floral that dries down flawlessly.

[EN PLEIN AIR] One of three debut fragrances inspired by erotic writers of the 20th century, this bottle honours writer and critic Catherine Millet with bergamot, grapefruit and musk.

...our featured collection this week comes from the new house of Jouissance Parfums, who are bringing powdery, vintage, and very high-minded sexy fragrances to the market.

Little details, all carefully attended to, create a cohesive presence catering to the intersection between a very modern post-coquette girlblogging clientele and the overindulgent, highly aestheticized women’s erotic literature predating mid-20th century feminist psychoanalysis. Finally, a niche perfume house for young women who liberally describe situations as ‘Kafkaesque’ and have notifications enabled for the Anaïs Nin Twitter bot.

Jouissance is an outward extension of founder Cherry Cheng’s admiration for literature from the female viewpoint. It was during the pandemic when Cherry found herself cosied up in her reading nook, flipping through pages that all had a recurring theme of sexual desires explored by women that were truthful and sometimes brutally so. Cherry shares that the “brands’ name descends from French literary theorist Hélène Cixous’ seminal 1975 essay, Le Rire de la Méduse, where Cixous connected women’s experiences of erotic pleasure to their creative prolificy.” Reflected as the focal point for Jouissance – to encourage creativity across literature and art through various mediums. Cherry has immersed herself in the fragrance universe as she’s training with a renowned French perfumer, aiming to bring new and fresh concepts to her brand. Since the brand was birthed during lockdown, the team is excited to bring more Jouissance activations to further grow their community.

There’s something subtly erotic about a good Jouissance perfume. The burgeoning fragrance brand knows this, having found its point of departure in pleasure and the “books we read beneath the sheets”.

“Wear En Plein Air if you want to smell like an unassuming art critic on her way to an orgy,” teases Jouissance’s cheeky description of this fragrance. I was sold instantly. This bright, citrusy, and fresh scent is the epitome of sensual meets nature chic. It’s one for lovers of grass imprints on bare skin, fresh linen sheets, cotton undies, and early mornings in the French countryside with a bouquet of white flowers in hand. A delicious scent for warm days and nights, but bold enough to become your olfactory signature.

Describing Jouissance as a ‘perfume brand’ almost feels like doing it a disservice. Straddling art, literature, critical theory, eroticism, and more, Jouissance is as much focused on the fragrances it sells as it is the imaginative world built around them.

Pink pepper grows on a different plant to the black variety but is often blended with it in both perfumery and cooking. “It’s fresh, spirited and sparkling with a rosy overtone,” says Jouissance founder Cherry Cheng, whose latest launch, La Bague D’O, works with the berry to “defile” a floral bouquet.

The world of fragrance often takes inspirations from unusual places, but how do you bottle the transcendent escapism of erotic literature? A new brand, Jouissance, endeavours to do just that. The three scents in the first collection are inspired by three French authors from the 20th century - Anaïs Nin, Catherine Millet, and Pauline Réage.

The brilliance of Jouissance perfumes however is not just in their scent, but in how they promote female authors that have been cast to the literary shadows thanks to their celebration of female eroticism.

...each fragrance is a tribute and opportunity to “shed new light on the controversial legacies” of iconic women.

...while we’re warned never to judge a book by its cover, we should also perhaps avoid judging Jouissance by the innocent connotations of its pale pink, silk-lined box which belies the subversive undercurrent at the heart of its creation.

Jouissance, in the theoretical sense, aptly describes what it feels like to experience the creations of Jouissance, the brand. Les Cahiers Secrets, based on the writings of Anaïs Nin, is, at open, so vulgar you can’t stop sniffing it. Powdery orris and fresh lilies are rudely interspersed with whiffs of sweaty cumin and animalic musk. It’s clean and dirty, gorgeous and sordid all at once.