Jinx Decants

Oud-centric, animalic perfumery from upstate New York, where every distillation is listed by species, region and cook time.

Jinx is Arthur Clayton Emrick, mostly self-taught, working out of a refurbished restaurant in Canandaigua, New York, now with other hands on the bench beside him. Most of the catalogue is single-origin distilled oud oil, green and medicinal before it turns animal. The compounded perfumes run thick and vintage-leaning, and synthetics are disclosed on the page.

Origin Canandaigua, New York, USA
Known for Single-origin oud and animalics
Here 1 fragrance

Jinx Cuirassier

From $44.00

Founded: 2021Kickstarter in 2021; first collection on sale in 2022
Founder: Arthur Clayton Emrick
Concept: Oud-heavy, animalic perfume from New York's Finger Lakes
Made in: Canandaigua, New York, USA

01

From Kickstarter to a refurbished restaurant

Arthur Clayton Emrick grew up in rural Michigan, collected fragrance for close to twenty years and came to perfumery mostly self-taught, by way of brewing, winemaking and cooking. In late 2021 he raised $14,569 from 46 backers on Kickstarter for four perfumes, and the first Jinx collection went on sale in September 2022. The house runs from a refurbished restaurant in Canandaigua, in New York's Finger Lakes. In 2026 Jinx Harrow became the first Jinx perfume not composed by Emrick, and his assistant Casandra Colf has since made Jinx Ptelea and Jinx Pragma.

02

Oud, animals and declared synthetics

Jinx started out as all-natural, oud-centred and animalic perfume. The oud and the animal materials stayed; synthetics came in later and are always declared in the listing. Jinx Cuirassier is 22 per cent synthetic, a French leather set against an Arabian one over birch tar from around 1940, castoreum and Cambodian oud. Vintage materials recur, from 1952 Fritzsche Brothers sandalwood in Jinx Santal 1952 to 1965 government Mysore in Jinx JEMS10 Red Meat. The numbered JEMS editions run from 11 to 34 bottles, and collaborations have come with Elixir Attar, Sola Gratia and Zanini.

03

Copper kettles and a burnt-out stirrer

Much of the material work happens in-house. For Jinx JEMS3 Ro/Co, deer musk went into the copper kettle as a slurry with Damask rose petals and crushed benzoin. For Jinx JEMS7 Amber Jaya, Jayapura oud was macerated on whole vanilla beans and a homemade costus extract on hand-ground tonka, a process of several months that burnt out a magnetic stirrer. The oud oils are listed with their vitals: species, distillation year, wild or cultivated wood, region, still, soak and cook time. Stated extrait strengths run from 36 to 51 per cent.