Where perfume becomes literature, Jouissance Parfums draws on Anaïs Nin, Catherine Millet and ‘Story of O’ to reimagine erotic texts as fragrances that blur the boundary between body and language.
At the heart of this project is Jouissance Parfums, founded in 2022 by Cherry Cheng as an exploration of the intimate dialogue between fragrance and literature. The name itself comes from psychoanalytic and feminist theory: in Lacanian terms, a form of pleasure that destabilises the subject, while in the writing of Hélène Cixous, jouissance becomes an erotic and mystical abundance—an uncontainable force of female creativity. From this radical idea, the house has built its vision of perfume as text, body and language intertwined.
This conceptual depth is woven into three perfumes that read like erotic novellas. En Plein Air is inspired by The Sexual Life of Catherine M. Its overdose of citrus and white flowers recalls Millet’s audacious confessions, conjuring the hedonistic thrill of cruising: grass imprints on bare skin, underwear clutched in one hand, the soft touch of a stranger’s lips, Rohmer films at La Cinémathèque Française, typewriter keys cataloguing explicit encounters, and the witching hour spent somewhere secret.
La Bague D’O is an olfactory homage to ‘Story of O’ by Pauline Réage (Anne Desclos), the infamous 1954 novel of submission and liberation. Here, a bruised-hued floral bouquet of rose, jasmine and violet is bound by metallic notes recalling chains of steel, while patchouli and castoreum lend an animalic edge — a perfume that mirrors the text’s collision of beauty and abjection.
Les Cahiers Secrets finds its source in Anaïs Nin’s unexpurgated diaries from 1931 to 1934, written during her Paris years. It translates Nin’s confessional intimacy into an iris-based composition dusted with cumin and spices, evoking skin flushed and feverish. Alongside references to perfumes Nin herself loved, like Mitsouko by Guerlain, the fragrance glows with the quick intensity of female friendships and the radical tenderness of women’s language.
But Jouissance’s story doesn’t end there. The brand is preparing a second collection, currently in development, promising new olfactory narratives fueled by the same literary and feminist ethos. Their presence is also growing: the line has been introduced in iconic retailers such as Liberty London, marking a step beyond the niche perfumery community.
Beyond its bottles, Jouissance cultivates dialogue between scent, literature, and art. The house also offers a rotating selection of vintage books—including Nin’s diaries and Story of O—alongside limited-edition visual works that extend the tactile, poetic experience of its perfumes.
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