Jouissance

Transposing erotic literature into elegant fragrances

Let us approach this brand with the seriousness it deserves.

Jouissance was founded by Cherry Cheng, a London-based perfumer, multidisciplinary artist, theorist, and devoted collector of old books. The name is no accident. It comes from Hélène Cixous's landmark essay The Laugh of the Medusa, where jouissance describes a mystical abundance that binds female pleasure to an unleashed creative force.

During the pandemic, Cheng lost herself in the female erotic literature of the last century. Anaïs Nin's Unexpurgated Diary 1931–1934, Catherine Millet's The Sexual Life of Catherine M., Pauline Réage's Story of O. Reading these women, she began to wonder: what would they smell like? What scents inhabited the rooms, the bodies, the worlds of these novels?

That question became a perfume house, one dedicated to female desire in its most unguarded form, drawing its inspiration from the heroines who dared to live without apology.

The result is exactly what you'd expect, and nothing like what you'd imagine. Elegant fragrances with just enough subversion to make you catch your breath.