Jean Patou Adieu Sagesse, Deux Amours, Que Sais Je Relaunches

Jean Patou is relaunching three fragrances from its archives: Adieu Sagesse, Amour Amour (now called Deux Amours), Que Sais-Je? The perfumes were originally created in 1925 and were to represent three phases of love, seduction, doubt and abandon. In-house perfumer Thomas Fontaine brought them back, along with the earlier reissues of Chaldée, Eau de Patou and Patou Pour Homme.

jean patou

Adieu Sagesse created by legendary perfumer Henri Alméras is a floral blend dominated by gardenia. It includes notes of jonquil, lily of the valley, neroli, carnation, tuberose, opopanax, civet, and musk.

Deux Amours (formerly Amour Amour), a classical floral bouquet, was created by Georges Reboul and Henri Alméras. It features notes of bergamot, black currant, narcissus, neroli, carnation, jasmine, rose, and vetiver.

Que Sais-Je?, another Alméras perfume, is a classical chypre. It includes orange blossom, apricot, peach, carnation, iris, jasmine, rose, amber, cistus labdanum, and civet.

The Heritage Collection is available at Jean Patou boutiques and counters. Via press release

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42 Comments

  • Sandra: These sound lovely!
    The only Jean Patou fragrance I have tried is Joy Forever. It’s a sample that I got at Bergdorfs.
    I am still on the fence about it. I like that it’s not a fruity, sweet frangrances like many new launches today -aiming for the younger crowd.
    I do feel elegant while wearing it. I will keep trying ..it not bad and there are parts of the dry down I really enjoy. June 24, 2014 at 7:34am Reply

    • Victoria: I like Joy Forever, but it drydowns to be all musk on me. Not a bad thing, of course, but I miss all other nuances. Perhaps, it’s some musk I’m sensitive too, but I wonder if others experienced the same thing. June 24, 2014 at 9:41am Reply

      • Sandra: On my the dry down is soapy and almost second skin like. I don’t get much musk! Body chemistry is so different.
        I do like the elegant feeling that I get when I wear it. June 24, 2014 at 9:53am Reply

        • Victoria: I think that the soapy part you’re getting is the musk. I smell that too. And yes, it smells elegant and soft. June 24, 2014 at 12:20pm Reply

  • Ines: Well, all I am going to say is – I’m rather optimistic when it comes to smelling them. 🙂 June 24, 2014 at 9:39am Reply

    • Victoria: I’m looking forward to trying them. The originals are beautiful, especially Adieu Sagesse with its romantic gardenia twist. June 24, 2014 at 9:40am Reply

  • Annunziata: I love Joy and 1000 and know I must try these. But I yearn for a reissue of Colony. It is so weirdly beautiful. June 24, 2014 at 10:40am Reply

    • Victoria: True, Colony was bizarre but compelling. I’d love to see a great twist on it or a faithful reissue. Another dream reissue for me would be Vacances. June 24, 2014 at 12:21pm Reply

      • Maggie: Victoria, according to Denyse’s post of 17th April, Vacances will be one of the trio to be re-released in 2015, along with L’Heure Attendue and a third which she hasn’t confirmed, but believes might be either Normandie or Colony. June 24, 2014 at 10:13pm Reply

        • Victoria: Thank you. I read at some point that the whole collection will be released over time, so it would be wonderful. I would love for them to bring back the whole coffret of perfumes, the way they used to be sold at one point. June 25, 2014 at 10:26am Reply

        • Carrie: I have wished so long for Vacances that I am almost too scared to try it. How can they possibly recreate the perfection of Vacances with modern ingredients? I do not want a modern interpretation of Vacances. I want Vacances. June 25, 2014 at 7:22pm Reply

  • sara: I want to try them all! Any idea where Patou shops or counters are located on the East Coast? Thanks! June 24, 2014 at 10:44am Reply

    • Victoria: There must be one at Bergdorf Goodman, but I’m not sure. If I find out other details, I will update this post. June 24, 2014 at 12:22pm Reply

  • Marsha: Well, all I’ve got to say is Frag Name of the Day will probably get some hits today! June 24, 2014 at 11:50am Reply

    • Victoria: Oh yes, Frag Name of the Day is a terrific site. So, it’s fun to visit just to browse around. June 24, 2014 at 12:22pm Reply

  • Jillie: More years ago than I care to remember, I used to go to a little shop near Hyde Park Corner and buy from the eccentric lady owner perfumes that had been decanted into bottles that looked like those that contain cough syrup. They were unlabelled, but she would explain what they were – various Carons, some Faberges and these from Patou. I loved them all, and I was so thrilled to be able to own these beauties without spending very much money. My favourite had to be Diorissimo in the end, but what an Aladdin’s cave of treasures that tiny shop was. Smelling these re-issues will bring back a lot of memories. June 24, 2014 at 12:04pm Reply

    • Martyn: Presumably a few less years than that ago (because I was all grown up by then) there was a similar shop in Brighton, called the Vanity Box. It’s been gone for donkeys’ years now, but when my mum would come down to the coast to visit me, she’d make a beeline for the shop, and she struck up a friendship with the rather fearsome woman who ran it, to the extent that my mum would come away each time with half a dozen unlabelled bottles clinking in her handbag. June 24, 2014 at 12:24pm Reply

      • Jillie: Martyn, I reckon that woman in the Vanity Box must have been a distant relation of my lady’s. Although I knew someone far more like her for fearsomeness: it was in Chiswick – a French lady whom we called the witch as she was so frightening. She had a quite astonishing display of perfume and took me under her wing.

        Your mother was a person after my own heart! June 24, 2014 at 12:41pm Reply

    • Victoria: It sounds like a dream place for many of us. 🙂 I can just imagine the scents as you describe the place. One of my favorite boutiques was Caron’s, a beautiful, jewel-box of a store in New York City. It eventually closed, and Caron moved in the back of a hairsalon, and I still miss the genteel atmosphere and gilded perfume fountains. June 24, 2014 at 12:26pm Reply

      • Jillie: Except that my little shop on the corner wasn’t beautiful at all! Higgledy-piggledy and piled with very ordinary chemist-shop type things, and so small you couldn’t even swing a kitten let alone a cat (only room for about two customers at a time). And yet, stashed behind her counter, were these gorgeous elixirs and she was so enthusiastic about her fragrances. I wonder how she came to have them? June 24, 2014 at 12:37pm Reply

        • Victoria: That’s even better! I love these kind of chaotic, dusty, eccentric places. Caron’s boutique was definitely posh, but it was also quite crammed and as a result felt less intimidatingly perfect. 🙂
          And I was also wondering how the lady managed to have all of these perfumes around for decanting. June 24, 2014 at 12:48pm Reply

          • Jillie: I think she must have had another location (maybe her home?) where she decanted, and would then bring the bottles into the shop – there was nowhere for her to put anything large. It was such an eccentric setup now that I think about it, situated in Hyde Park tube station, to the right of the escalators just before the exit. She probably did a roaring trade and I was in there most mornings on my way to work. June 25, 2014 at 3:24am Reply

            • Victoria: I have a vision of her apartment being full of different perfume bottles and decanting equipment. She really seems like a character. June 25, 2014 at 10:25am Reply

              • Cornelia Blimber: I have a vision of a lady with big earrings, mumbling the names of perfumes , filling bottles and having a black cat. June 26, 2014 at 1:28pm Reply

                • Victoria: What a great vision! 🙂 June 26, 2014 at 1:59pm Reply

  • Alicia: An aunt of mine became desolate when she could no longer buy Amour Amour. It was her one and only. I don’t remember the fragrance. My mother wore several classics, mostly Guerlains and Carons, but sometimes Joy, which I confess not to be quite my cup of tea. I will try the three Patous, of course,but given my love for gardenia, I might buy Adieu Sagesse.
    Victoria, I am leaving for an extended trip to South America, will visit the Iguazú Falls, and stay for the whole opera season of the grand Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires, about three months. Thus I will be absent from your blog, but certainly not forget it. Enjoy all the delightful fragrances and flavors of the summer! I intend to enjoy the austral winter,perhaps putting in practice some adieu sagesse. June 24, 2014 at 12:07pm Reply

    • Victoria: I’m looking forward to trying them too. I don’t have strong memories associated with the originals, but I have them, and I like them very much. So, it would be fun to compare.

      Enjoy your trip, Alicia! It sounds incredible, between visiting the Falls and attending the opera. I look forward to hearing from you whenever you return, and I wish you a wonderful time. June 24, 2014 at 12:28pm Reply

  • Elizabeth: I am so happy to see Que Sais-Je? on the list. I tried a few drops from an old miniature once, and I was enchanted. It smelled like a rich floral chypre with an interesting hazelnut note. I hope that the new version will at least come close to the old. June 24, 2014 at 12:51pm Reply

    • Victoria: I hope so too! The hazelnut note might have come from aging, though, but the rich floral chypre part is also how I think of this perfume. June 24, 2014 at 12:58pm Reply

  • Cornelia Blimber: Hi Victoria! I got an answer from Patou(I asked about the civet): ”Nous allons vous répondre après consultation de notre parfumeur maison.” So they take it seriously. I hope the civet will be synthetic in Mille.

    I hope Que Sais-Je? will make it to Amsterdam! I love chypre and peach notes. June 24, 2014 at 1:16pm Reply

    • Victoria: Thank you very much for the update! Hope that they will reply with further details.

      Meanwhile, I’ll be making a beeline for the boutique when I return from Ukraine. June 24, 2014 at 2:24pm Reply

      • Cornelia Blimber: I received a friendly email from Thomas Fontaine: there is no civet at all in Mille, not natural and not synthetic. The informations in the press are sometimes inaccurate.
        If you want informations: http://www.jeanpatou.com

        So one can buy a new bottle of 1000 without the vision of a civet in a cage. June 25, 2014 at 5:33pm Reply

        • Victoria: 1000 used to contain civet, and I smell it in my bottle. That’s part of Kerleo’s formula. But probably Thomas Fontaine’s most recent version doesn’t anymore, so you don’t have to worry about it one way or another when you buy your next bottle. June 26, 2014 at 1:26am Reply

          • Maggie: Again, per Grain de Musc:

            “The Jean Patou line-up has been restored by Thomas Fontaine to its original formulas with the help of the former in-house perfumer Jean Kerléo – inasmuch as new regulations would allow. A living encyclopedia, the 80-year-old Kerléo was often able to suggest equivalents for discontinued ingredients.”

            Perhaps M. Kerléo was able to suggest a civet equivalent. June 26, 2014 at 10:24pm Reply

            • Victoria: I doubt it, because there is no replacement for civet. It has such a unique scent, and it makes all the difference. Synthetic civet is not a perfect replacement for natural, but it is a wonderful (and a rather expensive) material. Then, perfumers can use other base notes like castoreum, animalic musk, leather, but civet is in a class of its own. It’s like black pepper. You can use other spices to give a warm effect, but nothing but pepper will give you that distinctive taste.

              On the other hand, today’s fragrance lovers have less of a taste for rich notes like civet, so perfumes get reformulated not only to accommodate the regulations but also the changing tastes. June 27, 2014 at 4:45am Reply

              • Cornelia Blimber: I don’t know what to think. My bottle of Mille, a dearly loved perfume, is almost empty. I cannot smell whether there is natural civet in it or not, I don’t know what it is like. Well then, I suppose I have to trust Thomas Fontaine. he says that he regrets to say there is no civet whatsoever in Mille. June 27, 2014 at 8:32am Reply

                • Victoria: Anyway, civet used in most prestige brand perfumes today is synthetic, so there should be no ethical qualms with that. It’s actually a common enough note among classical perfumes, because it (whatever provenance) gives an extraordinary richness and complexity. June 27, 2014 at 8:57am Reply

  • solanace: These sound great, especially ´Que sais je?´. June 24, 2014 at 4:38pm Reply

    • Victoria: It does, doesn’t it! June 25, 2014 at 10:30am Reply

  • Mark: Hi Victoria, according to the Patou website, the third re-release (2015) will be Colony, along with L’Heure Attendue and Vacances. June 27, 2014 at 1:41pm Reply

    • Victoria: Thank you, Mark! I’m looking forward to it. June 27, 2014 at 3:10pm Reply

  • Zoe: Hello!
    I’m planning on buying the Adieu Sagesse as a christmas present for my little sister. She has beautiful red hair, and I read somewhere that the 1925 original was created for redheads…
    I looked at loads of scent descriptions and it sounds amazing!
    When I found out it was discontinued I researched a bit and found this relaunch. However I read that the scent is totally different now (with rhubarb, coconut and grapefruit or something?).
    Is that true at all?
    I honestly don’t know anything about perfumes, so I’d be really thankful for any help. 🙂
    Thank You! November 22, 2017 at 1:43pm Reply

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