Jusbox Perfumes brand profile

Jusbox: the company

J Jusbox Perfumes is a niche fragrance brand from Italy. It belongs to Beauty San s.p.a. Group, which has been active in perfume & beauty distribution and creation for over 30 years. The brands under its Italian distribution include Profumi del Forte, Ligne St Barth, Juliette Has a Gun and Molton Brown. Furthermore, Beauty San holds the worldwide perfume license for the Italian fashion house Costume National and has developed its own skincare line Tuttotondo.

Jusbox was launched in May 2016 by the sibling duo Chiara Valdo and Andrea Valdo who are the joint CEOs of Beauty San. The creative part of their work takes place at V-Monkeys lab, a project for experimentation and imagination. They chose the name both because they like monkeys (who doesn’t!), and admit to sometimes feeling like cute little monkeys when playing around with ideas.

The first Jusbox collection of four scents was initially available exclusively at Selfridges in London. Today, Jusbox is sold in luxury department stores and fragrance boutiques around the world and has its own flagship store in Milan, while the brand’s official home is Florence (Beauty San’s headquarters are in Prato, a community next to Florence).

Jusbox founders

Jusbox founders Chiara Valdo and Andrea Valdo share excitement for music and passion for fragrance. They even say perfume runs in their blood, because their parents met in a perfumery. Their mother was a buyer for an Italian store chain, and their father worked as an area manager for a beauty company.

As children, they were surrounded by scents of cosmetics and perfume (especially powerful florals that were fashionable in the 1980s), and also exposed to a wide variety of music – from jazz to classical. As brand founders, they chose to bring these two passions together because scents and music are equally capable of bringing back memories and triggering unfiltered emotions.

Chiara’s favorite smell is coffee. Andrea loves the scents of leather and licorice. Both associate their hometown with the scent of jasmine. In terms of music, Chiara prefers the 1980s when she was a teenager, because it was a joyful decade full of energy, creation, colors and expression. Andrea’s favorite music era is the 1960s and 70s – the creative time when blues, jazz and rock’n’roll evolved and coexisted.

One of Chiara’s personal perfume favorites from Jusbox is Black Powder, which she admires for its decisive character and determination. Andrea, who admits to quickly getting bored by too much of anything, switches his scents often, but also appreciates Black Powder for its rebellious character and enjoys Good Morning for its sparkling and positive mood.

Jusbox concept

Born from the founders’ love of music, the brand combines it with perfume. Each Jusbox fragrance pays homage to music icons and genres that have significantly influenced generations and shaped culture, and translates the language of music through scent. This artistic and unique approach results in fragrances that evoke memories and emotions representing the melodies and the lifestyle of their history periods, and offering a product that stands out in the crowded artistic perfumery landscape​.

For Andrea, approaching the world of fragrance through music has the additional advantage of making it easier to access for people who don’t speak the language of scent ingredients, accords and raw materials. It’s a way to decode the sometimes complicated and overwhelming world of scent through something everybody can relate to – music. Everybody has their favorite genres and artists, and for most people, talking about songs is easy. It’s an effortless entry point for experimenting with perfumes that evoke a specific atmosphere of the music.

Every Jusbox fragrance has a playlist, inviting the listeners to dive in into the sounds that inspired the scent composition. The playlists can be accessed on the brand’s website and on Spotify.

Listening to the songs while smelling the fragrances is a particularly immersive experience. It helps you feel the links between scent and sound on a deeper level, capturing the mood of the era that produced the melodies, and revealing how the noses behind the perfumes constructed aromatic connections to various music styles.

List of Jusbox perfumes

Since its inception in 2016, Jusbox has released 19 perfumes. All are still available in various on- and off-line stores around the world, although some might be missing from the brand’s catalog on its official website. Time will show whether that’s because they were discontinued, or due to temporary supply chain glitches.

Cheeky Smile and Black Powder are among Jusbox bestsellers, with the 2023 addition Carioca Heart quickly closing in.

Most Jusbox fragrances are eaux de parfum with very high scent oil concentration of 18-25% (the brand discloses the exact percentage for each fragrance on its website). In addition to the edp collection, there are two extraits de parfum with 30% concentration – Golden Serenade & Suit of Lights.

Here is the complete up-to-date list of Jusbox fragrances in chronological order:

1. Beat Café (2016): a woody amber fragrance. Perfumer Dominique Ropion. Main notes: cognac, tobacco, leather, black pepper. Inspired by folk rock music, Beat Generation cafe meeting spots, and Bob Dylan’s songs of the 1960s USA.
2. 14 Hour Dream (2016): amber scent. Perfumer Antoine Lie. No top notes, goes straight to the heart and base accords. Main notes: patchouli – 70s favorite fragrance oil, and vanilla. Captures the essence of psychedelic rock, the 1970s, and Pink Floyd’s legendary performance at the 14 Hour Technicolor Dream concert in London’s Alexandra Palace in 1967.
3. Micro Love (2016): clean, ozonic-woody. Perfumer Dominique Ropion. Main notes: ozonic, apple, cedarwood, ambergris. Inspired by the blend of rock music and digital technology pioneered by U2 at their Zoo TV Tour in 1992.
4. Use Abuse (2016): a musky floral perfume. Perfumer Antoine Lie. Main notes: incense, tuberose, jasmine, clean synthetic musks. Celebrates the energy of Queen’s music and Freddie Mercury’s exuberant personality, along with the consumerism euphoria of the 1980s.
5. Black Powder (2017): leather scent. Formula by Julien Rasquinet. Main notes: suede accord, blackcurrant. Represents grunge born in Seattle, Nirvana’s offbeat emotional songs, and Kurt Cobain’s rebellion against social norms of the 1990s.
6. Feather Supreme (2017): floral, lipsticky. Perfumer Dominique Ropion. Main notes: rose, white flowers, patchouli. Inspired by soul music, the sound of Aretha Franklin’s powerful velvet voice, feminism and social changes of the 1960s in the USA.
7. Feel ‘n’ Chill (2017): green ozonic. Perfumer Dominique Ropion. Main notes: water, watermelon, fig, coconut water. Inspired by lounge music and acid jazz from Ibiza’s beach clubs of the 1990s.
8. Live ‘n’ Loud (2017): oud & amber with sublime coca-cola vibes. Perfumer Dominique Ropion. Main notes: amber, natural oud, cinnamon, cardamom. Inspired by unstoppable energy of a live rock concert.
9. Cheeky Smile (2018): molecular woody amber. Perfumer Dominique Moellhausen. Main notes: Iso E Super, Ambroxan, Ambercore, Amber Extreme, Cashmeran. Plays homage to Acid House, the rise of DJ culture, and the first house parties in 1988 London. Fun detail: Cheeky Smile is housed in the first fluorescent bottle in the history of perfumery. The glass glows in the dark, just like the outfits of the party people in the darkness of the first house club temples.
10. Green Bubble (2018): green-woody cannabis. Created by Julien Rasquinet. Main notes: grapefruit, marijuana accord, absinthe, cedar. Inspired by reggae‘s signature bubble rhythm, and the green paradise of Jamaica.
11. No Rules (2018): unconventional wood & leather. Creation by Antoine Lie. Main notes: lavender, aldehydes, vinyl, saffron, birch. Represents punk music and fashion of London in 1978.
12. Golden Serenade (2018): intense smoky oud & amber. 30% extrait de parfum. Perfumer Julien Rasquinet. Main notes: oud oil LMR, incense, patchouli heart LMR, saffron, vanilla, amber. The only fragrance with a golden bottle & cap, Golden Serenade celebrates the first Gold Record in the history of music, awarded to Glenn Miller on 10th February, 1942, for the jazz serenade Chattanooga Choo Choo.
13. Siren & Sailors (2019): musky fruity-floral. By Julien Rasquinet. Main notes: rose, peach, rum, musks, patchouli, leather. A tribute to Amy Winehouse’s warm and scratchy voice and her fragile yet rebellious style of Soul performed in the atmosphere of Camden Town clubs in the 2000s.
14. Night Flow (2020): fruity leather. Perfumer Julien Rasquinet. Main notes: leather, raspberry, saffron. Dedicated to rap music, and specifically to the atmosphere of the night of the fateful blackout in New York on July 13th, 1977, that fueled the spread of this genre.
15. Suit of Lights (2021): luminous musks. 30% extrait de parfum. Perfumer Julienne Rasquinet. Main notes: orange blossom absolute LMR, jasmine sambac absolute LMR, clean musks. Celebrates Michael Jackson, extraordinary performer and the King of Pop, and his way of bringing black music rhythm of funk and soul to a global audience. The iridescent bottle carries a cap adorned with a Swarovski crystal symbolizing Michael Jackson’s iconic rhinestone-studded glove and black sequined jacket, as well as the prestigious Diamond Award for Lifetime Achievement given to him on November 16th, 2006.
16. Spring Dance (2022): fresh floral musks. Perfumer Dominique Ropion. Main notes: jasmine sambac absolute LMR, grapefruit, clean musks. Celebrates classical music and captures the violin crescendo of Vivaldi’s La Primavera, the first concerto in The Four Seasons he composed in 1730.
17. Good Morning (2022): ozonic musks. Created by Dominique Ropion. Main notes: mandarin, magnolia, Egyptian violet leaf absolu LMR, musks. Inspired by classical music and the sublime sounds of Morning Mood Suite from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt, composed in 1876
18. Visionary Eye (2022): unconventional iris. Perfumer Dominique Ropion. Main notes: iris – orris ultimate MD LMR, musks, lavender. Inspired by David Bowie’s time in Berlin in 1976.
19. Carioca Heart (2023): tropical mango cocktail (full review). Fragrance by Julien Rasquinet. Main notes: mango, pineapple, ambroxan. Inspired by the sound of bossa nova emerging in Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s.

Technical specs

Jusbox works with some of the most renowned Master perfumers in the world: Dominique Ropion, Antoine Lie, Julien Rasquinet, and Dominique Moellhausen.

The house prides itself on using precious ingredients and raw materials. For perfume creation, the brand partners with the American fragrance producer International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) that owns the prestigious LMR Naturals lab in Grasse. IFF and LMR Naturals are renown for the innovative and environmentally friendly aroma chemicals extraction techniques.

Although your mileage may vary, most Jusbox perfumes boast great performance in terms of projection and longevity. Following consumer preferences, the creators pay special attention to the sillage and put extra effort into making their formulas long-lasting.

Jusbox is a typical Italian luxury company that looks for best quality and design for every element of their product – the best glass bottles, the best quality caps, the best packaging, the best interior designers and materials for its store. And it shows – you don’t need to be an expert to feel the quality of the glass, the printing, and the details as soon as you hold a Jusbox bottle in your hand.

The company is invested in sustainability and eco-friendliness. A big part of it is making sure all their components are Made in Italy. This supports many local manufacturers, allows a tight control over the supply chain, and greatly cuts transport footprint.

Design

The music inspiration is also evident in the visual design that references the history of music recording and playback techniques. Jusbox packaging is not just an aesthetic choice. Every detail is a symbolic representation of the brand’s core concept of combining music and perfume.

Bottle Design: Jusbox perfume bottles have the capacity of 78 ml (or 7.8 ml for travel sizes). This specific volume is a tribute to the first phonographic discs that were played at a speed of 78 revolutions per minute (rpm). These early discs played a significant part in the early history of recorded music and are an iconic symbol in the music industry today.

Bottle Cap: The cap of the bottle celebrates one of the most well-known playback mediums in the history of music: the vinyl record. Today, vinyl records have become a symbol of music appreciation and the analog era of music recording.

Packaging: The outer packaging of Jusbox perfumes resembles a CD box in both the shape and proportions of the box, and the experience of opening it, which reminds of opening a CD case. Compact Discs (CDs) once revolutionized the music industry, providing a digital format for music storage and playback.

Lyric Book: Inside the box, there is a ‘lyric book’ which describes the inspiration behind the perfume. This is another nod to the music industry, where booklets are often found in CD cases, providing listeners with the lyrics and stories behind the songs.

By incorporating these musical elements, Jusbox creates a multisensory experience that goes beyond the scent itself, invoking nostalgia and the emotional power of music through its visual and tactile design components.

Jusbox flagship store

Jusbox has opened its flagship store in Milan, in Via della Spiga 1, right at the center of the luxurious Quadrilatero della moda fashion district. It’s a beautiful and impeccably designed space that offers a very immersive (shopping) experience and invites its visitors to stay and slow down for a bit.

At its center is an interactive Jukebox that lets you play with music and fragrance at the same time. Press a button and listen to the music while smelling the corresponding perfume that smoothly rolls forward.

In the backroom, there is a collection of vinyl records that you can listen to (or buy) while relaxing in an interior that re-imagines the 1970s design in a modern way. Throughout the store, there are numerous interesting and funny details that delight the gaze and the mind.

The place doesn’t feel like a traditional shop, it’s completely stress- and pressure-free. As if it were made for getting away from the busy life and bustling streets first, and selling only second.

The palazzo it inhabits also has a lovely garden that lends itself perfectly to summer parties, one of which I attended in 2022.

JUSBOX PERFUME REVIEWS