Long before Outlands and other new Amouage releases started making the rounds with younger fragrance enthusiasts who pride themselves on being in the know, former Amouage Creative Director Christopher Chong delivered a scintillating 12-year run that frankly deserves a commemorative plaque:
Interlude.
Lyric.
Epic.
Memoir.
Honour.
Beloved.
Fate.
Journey.
Bracken.
Myths.
Beach Hut.
Figment.
Imitation.
Reflection.
Portrayal.
… Oh yeah, and the first 11 fragrances from the Opus Collection.
I’m probably missing a couple. And yet, whenever these names come up, fragrance people trade that same subtle look academics give each other when someone cites a paper nobody expected them to remember. It’s a nod that says: Yes, we’ve read that era. We lived that era.
The one that still gets the most attention? Jubilation XXV Man.
I presently call myself a fragrance house agnostic, I don’t currently have much undying loyalty to any brand. I try to keep an open mind to every fragrance I encounter. But that 12 years under Christopher? It is very hard to fault.
Since Chong left in June 2019, nothing from the house has given me that same jolt of excitement or sense of creative clarity. They tell stories that one remembers long after the base notes fade away.
That doesn’t mean I like all of them. Journey Man to me smells very close to Memo African Leather, which I own. As for Overture Man, it’s a favourite of many old-Amouage fans, yet for me the cumin in it is too much, it smells sweaty, not something I’d wear.
These inclinations and dislikes are normal. Put 10 frag heads together and ask them which one was their favourite and you might well get 10 different answers. What they would probably agree on though is that overall what came out of the house before was nothing short of genius.
Business analysts may applaud Amouage’s recent success, but many longtime fans quietly agree on one thing: the house needs to reach back. It does seem Amouage is trying to rekindle the spark from its earlier golden stretch. And truthfully, I think that’s a smart instinct.
Look at the evidence, Amouage’s “Exceptional Extraits”, special edition fragrances all released in the last few years. Eight of them so far, with five being updated Chong compositions. Higher oil concentration, higher stakes and theoretically higher artistry.
Among them, Jubilation 40 clearly wants to be the star pupil. The “40” nods both to its 40% perfume oil concentration and to Amouage’s 40th anniversary, which I thought was a clever bit of symmetry. Amouge’s marketing department must have felt smug about that one, I know I would have for coming up with that. So, when I saw a listing for Jubilation 40, the bottle and story behind it checked off all my boxes.
When Dep Ensu Aggarwal, a well-known seller in Canadian fragrance groups, announced he had several bottles of Jubilation 40 coming in for far less than retail, 369 CAD, I knew that getting one at around half of retail was almost like discovering a unicorn.
The seller clearly said that whoever signed up had to commit. I signed up without hesitation. Normally this would not have been an issue.
I broke my cardinal rule: always sample first. I ignored it because, one, I trust Dep, and two, the price he offered was so good it felt like I was getting away with something.
Amouage needed Jubilation 40 to do well, and I needed it to reconcile the house’s present with the past. I so much wanted this to be a win.
𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 (𝐭𝐨𝐨) 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝
Part of my excitement Jubilation 40 harkens to Jubilation XXV, an earlier special edition flanker of the original Jubilation.
A local seller offered Jubi XXV to me for under 200 CAD, but I insisted on wearing it before buying. I sprayed it at his front door, wa
lked away thinking I had discovered a forgotten treasure … and an hour later it had vanished from my skin as if it had other appointments.
Obviously I didn’t buy Jubi XXV. But when I first heard Amouage was releasing Jubilation 40, it seemed like the natural solution: more oil, more depth and allegedly a richer, more regal approach. Many people claimed in the several reviews I watched and read that 40 righted all the weaknesses of XXV, mainly the performance problems.
When my car had problems this week, I really couldn’t afford to remain philosophical about Jubilation 40 any longer, it would not be the financially responsible thing to do. I had to dig into the fragrance much more to be sure getting it was the great idea I had immediatly felt it was.
I went to Niche Essence—the only retailer I know in Toronto carrying it and so many others from Amouage past and present—to see what the Jubilation 40 bottle looked like in person. Honestly, that bottle looked gorgeous . The inside is painted a rich gold that genuinely looks like it belongs in a museum exhibit labelled “Luxury, circa now.” At Niche Essence I was told all their bottles are 20% off for BF (Nov 28-29), which is still much higher than what Dep was offering.
My first sniff was nice. But not earth-shattering. I needed more data.
I reached out to Talha Zubair, one of the biggest Amouage enthusiasts in the city and generally a solid guy, and bought a 5 ml decant. We met downtown, he gave me his thoughts (glowing), and I sprayed it on immediately.
Here’s the honest, unvarnished truth about why Jubilation 40 didn’t end up working for me, despite its many strengths.
𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡
Jubilation 40 opens exactly the way you’d hope an Amouage would: smooth incense, lively spices and a blackcurrant note that’s surprisingly charming. As it wrapped around me, my first thought was that I could be in love.
But here’s the issue, there are two things about this fragrance that don’t do it for me. One, the scent. Jubilation was groundbreaking when it first came out, no doubt. But this fragrance as interesting it seemed at first was not ground-breaking. I’d say the scent was an 8.
I prefer fragrances with a strong voice. Not necessarily a shout, but at least a confident stage presence. Jubilation 40, being an extrait, chooses instead to sit quietly in the front row and observe.
Alcohol provides projection; oils provide longevity. Most of the time, extraits stay closer to the skin. There are exceptions, enough that I keep giving them chances, but this general rule still applies.
While Jubilation 40 lasts admirably long, on me it stays close to skin. Not shy, exactly, but definitely very restrained. I noticed it much more for a moment when I moved or sat in my car, which was pleasant, but it never gave me that “Ah, there you are!” moment I crave in a scent I’m spending real money on.
Many people love this kind of subtlety. I completely understand the appeal of a scent that doesn’t introduce itself to the entire room. It’s refined, it’s elegant, it’s polite.
It’s just I’m not always in a polite fragrance mood.
I have no problem with short-lived scents if their opening is bold. Last night I bought Guerlain Mitsouko EDT, and while it doesn’t last long, those first two hours it projects, before it becomes a skin scent like so many Guerlain frags I’ve experienced, are so beautifully assertive that you know what? I really don’t mind.
I must note that my skin chemistry often swallows fragrance, so I wondered if that was happening again with Jubilation 40. But no, it was still there hours later when I brought my hand up to my nose.
The longevity was undeniable. The volume was my issue, I could hardly hear it. I was wearing one spray on each side of my neck too, yet I could barely smell it.
I’d give the projection a 5 and the longevity a 9. I think that’s more than fair.
𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
Fragrance preferences are personal, and Jubilation 40 is undeniably well-made. The bottle alone could double as home décor. The scent is luxurious, thoughtful and exactly the kind of thing many people will wear proudly.
It’s not ground-breaking for me, and here’s the rub. Even compared to other fragrances within Amouage’s canon it just doesn’t blow me away. It’s good, not drop-dead gorgeous. To me, it doesn’t feel like the culmination of 40 years of olfactory greatness.
I’m not going to like it just because of the name or every other TikTok influencer seems to be talking about Outlands. It just isn’t what I look for. I kept wanting it to step forward just a little more, to raise its voice and call out to me, even if only slightly. It carries not of the reverberating presence I knew I would get from a Christopher Chong release. I will find a way to wear my decant until it’s done, and then that will be the end of that.
I’d give it a 7.4/10, mainly because I wanted more projection. Even though it’s an extrait oil level at this price point it needs to be perfect for me to recommend it.
Writer’s note, April 2026: Score updated from 6.8 to 7.4 following extended experience with the fragrance and reflection that has provided broader context for this assessment.
