Jovoy Paris Ha Long Bay Eau de Parfum

What it smells like

Jovoy Paris Ha Long Bay is a woody-spicy eau de parfum that opens on mango and then spends the rest of its life refusing to be a fruity fragrance. The mango is ripe and genuinely tropical for about ten minutes, cut immediately by cardamom and black pepper — cardamom cool and resinous, pepper dry and crackling. That collision, sweet pulp against sharp spice, is the whole idea, and it is unusual enough to be worth smelling even if you never buy it.

The heart turns dark. Leather arrives first, supple rather than tarry, then cedarwood for structure, then nagarmotha — also called cypriol, an Indian grass root that smells of smoke, earth and dry leather all at once. Nagarmotha is what gives Ha Long Bay its mineral, slightly damp quality, and it is the note that makes the fragrance feel like a place rather than an accord.

The base is ambery woods, patchouli and Orcanox, a modern ambrox-family material with a salty, radiant, almost transparent woodiness. It is the reason the drydown glows off the skin instead of sitting on it. Expect seven to nine hours with strong projection early, settling into a dry, smoky-sweet wood that lasts on clothing for days.

Who made it

Ha Long Bay was composed by Véronique Nyberg of MANE and released in 2025, making it the newest fragrance in this group by several years. It is named for the limestone bay in northern Vietnam, and the reference is not incidental: Jovoy's founder François Hénin spent years in Vietnam sourcing raw materials before he revived the house, and this is the composition that goes back there.

Jovoy's own product page does not credit a perfumer for this one; the attribution to Nyberg comes from fragrance databases and trade press rather than from the house.

Who it's for

This is for people who like woody fragrances with something strange at the top. If you wear leather or nagarmotha-driven scents and want one with a fruit opening that does not feel juvenile, Ha Long Bay does that rare trick well. It also suits anyone looking for a modern woody that is not another ambroxan-and-cedar clone — the mango and cardamom make it identifiably itself.

It is unisex with a masculine lean in wear, mostly from the leather and pepper. If you want a straightforward tropical fruity scent, this will surprise you in the wrong direction; the fruit is gone within the quarter hour. If you want something with a long, smoky, expensive drydown, it delivers.

When to wear it

Ha Long Bay is unusually season-flexible for a woody fragrance. The Orcanox base keeps it radiant rather than heavy, so it works in warm weather where a comparable leather-and-patchouli scent would suffocate, and the spice keeps it interesting in autumn. Spring through autumn is its best range, and it crosses day to evening easily.

It leans evening simply because of its weight, and it suits dinners, nights out and occasions where you want to be noticed. Two to three sprays; the projection is generous for the first couple of hours.

About the house

Jovoy Paris has two beginnings. The first was in 1923, when Blanche Arvoy founded Jovoy as a Parisian perfume and cosmetics maison; the name then went quiet for more than eighty years. The second came when François Hénin — who spent years chasing raw materials in the forests of Vietnam before a spell in Grasse — revived it, a relaunch the house dates to 2010. Jovoy operates as a publisher rather than a laboratory, commissioning independent noses such as Cécile Zarokian, Jacques Flori, Véronique Nyberg and Vanina Muracciole, and it also runs Jovoy Parfums Rares at 4 rue de Castiglione, a step from the Place Vendôme, which calls itself the embassy of rare perfumes. Ha Long Bay Eau de Parfum is available at Redolia Perfumery as a full 75 ml bottle.