Top Notes 
Pimento
Bergamot
Blackberry
Lemon
Heart Notes 
Bulgarian rose absolute
Clove
Jasminum grandiflorum
Siam benzoin
Base Notes 
Amber
East Indian patchouli
Frankincense
Labdanum
Musk06/03/2025
ClaireV
731 Reviews
ClaireV
1
An ambery chypre with a retro flavor and a fuzzy outline
Jitterbug's abstract construction means that all impressions received are nebulous, like someone breathing at you through wool. You perceive the totality of spice and amber without being hit with any one identifying note, but this soft focus glow is so pleasant that you soon stop trying to figure it all out. That it’s not nudged firmly in one direction or the other may bother some people, but not me.
The most striking part about Jitterbug is that is manages to recreate the slightly off, sludge-like topnotes of an improperly stored bottle of perfume. It’s the same odd but alluring mix of embalming fluid, wax, resin gunk, coffee, and hairspray that greets the nose when you open a bottle of really old Coco parfum. A touch of inky balsam or blackcurrant leaf has been added in small brushstrokes to this golden blur, adding a vintage bitterness that almost leans green but not quite.
Jitterbug’s scaffolding is equally fuzzy, with big throaty gusts of patchouli and resins muffled under sealing wax, like a museum exhibit. The raspy, bay-leaf amber of Ambre Sultan lurks beneath, waiting to warm cold feet. I’m a big fan of the way Dawn does patchouli, because she’s not afraid to butter up its rough edges with her trademark earwax amber, and yet somehow, she avoids the trap of over-sweetening the pudding. Fans of the grungy-chic of the Reminiscence patchouli fragrances (and I’m one of them) will like this drydown.
I recently bought a vintage mini of Indiscrèt by Lucien Lelong, and I think the best compliment that I can pay Jitterbug is to say that the two perfumes are really very similar. That a modern composition mirrors so closely a 1936 creation is testament to Dawn’s skill. If you know Indiscrèt and love its warm, fudgy-spicy ‘vintage Coco’ feel, then Jitterbug is a safe blind buy.
The most striking part about Jitterbug is that is manages to recreate the slightly off, sludge-like topnotes of an improperly stored bottle of perfume. It’s the same odd but alluring mix of embalming fluid, wax, resin gunk, coffee, and hairspray that greets the nose when you open a bottle of really old Coco parfum. A touch of inky balsam or blackcurrant leaf has been added in small brushstrokes to this golden blur, adding a vintage bitterness that almost leans green but not quite.
Jitterbug’s scaffolding is equally fuzzy, with big throaty gusts of patchouli and resins muffled under sealing wax, like a museum exhibit. The raspy, bay-leaf amber of Ambre Sultan lurks beneath, waiting to warm cold feet. I’m a big fan of the way Dawn does patchouli, because she’s not afraid to butter up its rough edges with her trademark earwax amber, and yet somehow, she avoids the trap of over-sweetening the pudding. Fans of the grungy-chic of the Reminiscence patchouli fragrances (and I’m one of them) will like this drydown.
I recently bought a vintage mini of Indiscrèt by Lucien Lelong, and I think the best compliment that I can pay Jitterbug is to say that the two perfumes are really very similar. That a modern composition mirrors so closely a 1936 creation is testament to Dawn’s skill. If you know Indiscrèt and love its warm, fudgy-spicy ‘vintage Coco’ feel, then Jitterbug is a safe blind buy.
