Mango, salt, and limestone skies: a first sniff of Jovoy’s Ha Long Bay

I have a soft spot for fragrances that don’t beg to be liked. Jovoy Parfums just dropped one of those with Ha Long Bay, a scent that looks you in the eye, then opens the window to the sea.

Billed as an olfactive nod to François Hénin’s years in Vietnam, Ha Long Bay homes in on Xoài Cát sand mango from Hoa Loc. If you know that fruit, you know it is not a dessert cart mango. It is satin-fleshed and perfumed, with a green-blush that sits between skin and pit. On skin, the opening reads like slicing that mango at a pier. Ripe, yes, but there is salt in the air and your knife taps something mineral.

Don’t expect a tropical cocktail. The mango here feels more like a texture than a syrup, the way peel smells when your fingers warm it. I get a saline lift, a brisk breeze that keeps the fruit standing tall, plus a faint wet-stone effect that clicks with the name. The result is clean without being laundry-clean, lush without stickiness. It is the opposite of the neon-fruity genre that made so many of us swear off mango notes.

There is a story in the dry down that I like even more. The fruit recedes, a soft woodiness walks in, and the sea note turns from splash to mist. It wears close but not shy. On a cool day I wanted three sprays, in heat two was perfect. If you live for chewy gourmand density, this will feel too breezy. If you crave clarity with character, you’ll probably lean in the way I did.

The house is marking 2026 with a celebratory spotlight on Ha Long Bay, which makes sense. It is polished but personal, the kind of release that feels lived-in rather than briefed. Credit where it’s due, Jovoy remembered that fruit can have spine.

File this under mango for grown ups, sea air without sunscreen, memory over marketing. If your nose is tired of saccharine tropics, this one might change your mind.