Reviews of Demi-Jour (1988)
by Dana (orig. by Houbigant)

Exhuberant, sweet, candy floral with a dominant violet note that slowly turns into a bright raspberry. If this is your type of fragrance, go for it. You'll love it. Not for me, though.

Demi Jour is a delightful powdery - floral fragrance. There is a fresh edge to it when first put on, then it dries down to the lovely warm powdery element. It is such a shame how Houbigant declined as a company; they were once at the pinnacle of perfumery and made great fragrances decade after decade. Very sad.

Demi-Jour is one of those timeless-seeming powdery soft florals that seems as though it's been around since the days of the court at Versailles - although the aldehydes at the opening give it a somewhat more contemporary feel. In my fragrance classification "system," I tend to group this one together with Je Reviens and Bal a Versailles - though it's much less spicy and lacks the incense notes that both of those have - as well as Anais Anais, though it's a touch less flowery than that. But in general, it's got that same sense of total wearability, not so commanding that it must be paid attention to, yet not so wimpy and washed-out as many of the more modern compositions around today seem to be. Also, like the other fragrances in my self-appointed category, it's comfortably affordable and widely available particularly through online retailers (well, Demi-Jour perhaps just a bit less so than Je Reviens or Anais Anais but about the same as Bal a Versailles.) The notes for Demi-Jour: top notes of bergamot, aldehydes, greens, violet; heart notes of rose, orris, lily of the valley, jasmine, ylang ylang and heliotrope; basenotes of musk, moss, sandalwood and cedar.

Demi-Jour is a light and pleasant fragrance from Houbigant. I like this one for a few reasons. It came out shortly after my husband and I got married, and while it took me a while to discover Demi-Jour, I like the fact that its launch occurred while my husband and I were newlyweds. The bottle is an exquisite cut glass Victorian design; sometimes a nice bottle doesn’t mean a thing, and sometimes an ugly bottle might house some delicious juice. Nonetheless, Demi-Jour’s bottle is gorgeous, and the juice on the inside really is nice. I like the fact that this is from Houbigant, a house that has fallen from its previous glory, but a house with an undeniably rich history; and lastly, I like Demi-Jour because it’s a light and pretty floral with a nice aldehydic ping and an appealing zing of green. D-J reminds me quite a bit of Quelques Fleurs, but Demi-Jour works better with my chemistry. Encyclopedia of World Perfume classifies Demi-Jour as a floral-chypre, whilst others categorize it as a floral aldehyde. It seems to be both. The chypre oakmoss is evident in the drydown, while the violet, hyacinth and rose seem to predominate in the heart. My understanding is that this has been discontinued. However, it still seems to be readily available from etailers and eBay and is a relatively inexpensive “cheap thrill.” Available in both EDP and parfum strengths. My preference is the EDP because it has brighter notes.