Jar Parfums

No appointments are necessary to smell perfume at JAR unlike the rules to view JAR’s jewelry line which is sold at a different location. You must ring a bell to request entrance and then are ushered by an immaculately dressed man into a silent room which has one small round table and two chairs. The room is sparsely decorated in the French «ancien régime» style and painted dark aubergine. The ceiling has an elaborate crystal chandelier and, as a touch of whimsy, a mural of a thunderous dark sky with a giant lightning bolt. Each JAR perfume sits nearby on an elevated lighted stand, a shrine of sorts. Once seated, you notice that on the table are a number of glass containers which look like covered petri dishes and each contains a piece of crumpled fabric. The JAR representative’s role is to silently open each glass container one at a time and hold it up to you for a sniff of the saturated cloth. He is extremely courteous even though he will ONLY tell you the name of each perfume and nothing else. JAR’s policy is that they do not reveal any notes or comments about their fragrances. It is all meant to be a big secret! So there you are, smelling scented cloth in a glass container and you want to have a conversation about what you’re experiencing but somehow you get the feeling that it would be uncouth to say anything in the presence of the JAR salesperson.
On the whole, the JAR fragrances are extremely idiosyncratic and very expensive (for a 30 ml bottle, they range from 220 — 530 euros), and would not appeal to the mainstream consumer. I cannot imagine what the average person would think of the distinct dill pickle notes in «Shadow». However, the weirdness and cult-​like secrecy seem to be by design. It is almost as if the JAR perfume line is a side hobby for Joel Arthur Rosenthal and he really doesn’t care if his perfumes sell or not. There is certainly no pressure to buy anything but given the silence and slightly forbidding atmosphere, one doesn’t feel like lingering either.