Jubilation XXV smells different

I recently acquired a decant of Jubilation XXV from an individual online (who, I believe, acquired their own full bottle from an online source). I also have an official sample which I've had for a couple of years (kept dark and cool!). When I sniff them one after the other, I cannot help but notice a distinct difference between the two.

The official sample smells more, shall I say, ethereal and transparent; the most obvious difference is a pronounced lower, rounder note in the new bottle (along with a more subdued quality of "golden sunshine" than I get from the original sample). They both smell good, but the juice in the official sample seems to possess a certain magic that is missing or, in any case, less obvious, in the new bottle.

So, what I am wondering is: is the difference most likely due to:

a) natural deviations in smell from one batch of perfume to another due to different-smelling raw materials
b) reformulation of the perfume by Amouage
c) "reformulation" by parties other than Amouage

If anyone here has both an older bottle (and/or sample), and also a newer one, do you notice any difference between the two? Please help me to understand what is going on here.

TIA!

Thanks all for the responses!

I suppose that the difference could be due to oxidization; I don't really have enough experience with decants to have an informed opinion on the matter. I shall add, for the synesthetes among us, that the shimmering choir of soprano/treble voices, oboes, and flutes of the original XXV is now rounded out by softly played bass clarinet and bowed contrabass. If I go from the new decant back to the old sample, I find that the smell of the original is overpowered by the new one, and I have trouble even detecting it.

hedonist222: you doubt C, but is it impossible or even unlikely that expensive niche perfumes are being copied? I recently had someone tell me that their TF Tobacco Vanille, full bottle purchased online, had a metallic smell that wasn't there in the sample they sniffed (nor do I detect anything metallic in the bottle I have here). So how do we go about explaining that? I'm sure there are many possibilities, but at this stage of the game is it wise to rule out any of them?

I'm hoping that we'll hear from at least one person who can state that they have smelled XXV from both a few years ago and a 2011 bottle and let us know how they compare.

SOS: Thank you for pointing me to that thread! (which I would have come across prior to posting had I searched for "jubilation reformulation" rather than "xxv reformulation").

In there, you wrote, I asked Christopher Chong and he said it hasn't been reformulated and that the extrait was never put into sample vials. I don't know what to make of it - the two juices were distinctly different in a way I highly doubt was simply a matter of aging.

Interesting how, in both your case and my own, the most noticeable difference was that one version "has less body but is airier" while the other is "more masculine, deeper, fuller." (BTW, the colour of the juice in both the vials I have here is the same.)

I just sprayed from the two vials onto opposite wrists; they are without any question two variations on a theme, with my (older) official sample exuding in all its splendour that lofty, transcendent, uplifting quality, while the new decant has a more muted top, and definitely something more animalic going on underneath (which may be there, but is integrated into the composition with such superb subtlety in the original that it cannot be so easily distinguished).

I am happy to have this decant of the new stuff, but now I am concerned that it may not be possible to ever acquire what I have in my precious little sample vial. What to do???


hedonist222: You wrote, I didn't rule out. I said I doubt.

Point taken!

Brian: You wrote, my relatively new bottle of Jubilation XXV is full of piercing woodwinds and sparkling topnotes. When I wear it, I feel like it's lifting the air around me

Yes, that's it precisely! I would, however, be surprised if it turned out to be simply a matter of the same original scent in both the vials here having lost its topnotes in one due to age/light/heat. It's like a painting that was all luminescent yellows, oranges, and gold now having, in addition to those in a more muted form, deep burgundy and maroon visible in the background. A writhing human body has been grafted on to those ethereal, lighter-than-air angel's wings.

Doing so at the moment is not so easy, but I now realize (given the evidence we have that there seems to be--for whatever reason--a lack of consistency in the nature of the juice that winds up in bottles or vials of J25/XXV) that that might be the only way to go if I only want to get a full bottle that smells just like what is in my sample vial, rather than another version of the same fragrance.

Interesting. I believe that in this case, anyway, it has not so much to do with the quality of the decant's atomizer as one can clearly distinguish between the two versions by merely sniffing at the nozzle (without actually spraying).

I am not too worried about the smell of this decant not being the same as that of the official sample, but if I do purchase a whole bottle, I really would like to be certain that it will smell like the original rather than what I have now. i've been wearing XXV the last few days, and of course it's still beautiful, but the frankincense (and cinnamon?) notes that give a certain sparkle and élan and make the nostrils flare (to suck in more of the stardust...) are simply too weak compared to the original. (Since frankincense is involved, could this be due to changes made to conform to EU regulations, after all? But then I remember you, Brian, with your new bottle that sounds just like the XXV I knew and loved...)