Wisteria & Lavender Cologne

Let's face it: Jo Malone, in its thirty year history, hasn't exactly grown to be a darling among fraghead circles. They do obviously have a solid fanbase and have some beautiful accords in their oeuvre, having worked with respectable perfumers, but there are some gripes. These complaints include two-dimensionality, linearity, lack of "complexity," the dreaded performance issues, and a general feeling of there being something left to be desired. I for one haven't swooned over too many, but Red Roses is one of my favorite rose soliflores and Pomegranate Noir is a delight. Now, I stumbled upon Wisteria and Lavender and was mostly intrigued by the idea of a wisteria accord brought to the foreground. Now if you aren't familiar with wisteria, it is a flowering plant with woody, twining vines, its vibrant blooms often a purple hue (but they also may be white, pink, burgundy, depending on the variety) that hang from racemes in clusters, much like grapes. Many varieties have remarkable fragrances, musky, green, sweet, lilac-like, with pronounced clove and even concord grape (methyl anthranilate) tones. It just so happens to be one of my favorite flowers and would love to grow them one day. However, as spectacular as they are, they are a huge challenge as they can ruthlessly destroy anything in its path with its tendrils if it isn't kept in check. It sort of sounds like some people I know, go figure. Anyhow, the wisteria here is pretty impressive, it has that same nose feel (think "mouth feel" except with the nose, capiche?), with the lavender mercifully playing more of a supporting role, along with heliotrope. This is all so very purple it would make Prince blush. This is underpinned by a woodiness and ivy-leaf greenness, ushering in dreamy, fine milled soap musks in the dry down. Jo Malone delivers yet proper English countryside fragrance but this one does have legs. It also isn't too precious for a manly man to feel perfectly comfortable strolling through this charming trellis of wisteria.

This fragrance has been my favorite during these quarantine days. It has a slight resemblance of the first Burberry Brit Rhythm For Her, which only appears at the dry down. Wisteria & Lavender has a much thicker, bold and rounded atmosphere. It opens with this burst of english lavender - very dry, super aromatic - then a sweet and powdery note (maybe the wisteria accord? Or the heliotrope?), ascends to compete with the lavender, but they form a gentle pair sustained by this clean, comfortable white musk. There’s also a woodiness on the base, leaning towards a more masculine vibe, but completely unisex. As said, very linear, but so, so good. Perfect for casual days, inoffensive for workplace, certainly a daytime fragrance. Out of the LavenderLand trio, this is by far my favorite one. Both longevity and sillage are average, I wanted it to last longer, but you have to reapply. Wish they’d launch a 100 ml bottle of this, I’d buy 3, cause 30 ml don’t do it.

Wisteria a lavander is my favourite fragance from the new LAVENDERLAND collection by jo Malone. It is a floral, musky and powdery subtle fragance based on the lavander, but with a sweeter and for me nicer view of lavander than usually. At the same time It is, however, the fragance of the three with the worst performance. Longevity and projection are quite moderate which makes the fragance a perfume for daily time use during the everyday Life. For me It is also totally unisex. It makes me think of other JMLONDON perfumes like Wild bluebell. Scent: 8.5 Longevity: 6 Projection: 5 Quality/price: 6 Versatility: 9 Originality: 6 Global: 8

I blind bought this when it was last of stock. I was pleasantly surprised- it wasn't a soft lavender, it was a raw strong lavender. Like I was huffing a bag of freshly picked flowers. Wonderful fragrance, perfectly unisex. If I see it on Ebay I will be purchasing a back up bottle.

I bought this during lockdown on a whim from Sephora. I love lavender fragrances but wanted to smell less like the Sleepy line from Lush. I hadn't really been into fragrances before this so I wanted to give it a try. It's actually quite unisex and strong projection for a JM frag. I spray this maybe 3-4 times and you get incredible projection/sillage. It can be quite overwhelming so if you're an oversprayer I would avoid doing so (my sister could smell me across the room and I hadn't even put on very much). As for the notes, it doesn't actually read very lavender-y to me, and it can be a bit mature smelling. I hadn't thought of layering so I might layer this with another lavender-forward scent to balance it out.