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.

It's okay for a blind buy but I kind of wish that I had tried the silver birch & lavender and the lavender & coriander instead. It's very floral and a powdery musky type scent and it's nice but it can be very strong and a bit "old lady" smelling. Specifically old lady wearing yardley lavender scented talc body powder. Don't get me wrong, I love yardley lavender but you have to be very careful to not flood the whole house with the scent.

This one keeps flip-flopping for me between feminine fruity sweet and clean men's soap. Definitely detect some sort of wood in the background. I hardly get much lavender. There is some artificial sweetness that is slightly sickening for me in this one, unfortunately. I wouldn't care to smell it ever again.

I absolutely love lavender to the point of obsession so in the time of social distancing, I was not able to try this so I blind bought it. I never usually do this, but I have learned from experience that if you don’t buy a Jo Malone limited edition when you see it, you miss out. I was torn between this and the cardamom one, but I thought this would be safer for a blind buy. I love musk and also herbal perfumes so this seemed like a sure thing. When it arrived, I was not disappointed, however I get pure, rather masculine lavender and nothing else except perhaps something dark in the base - oak moss?. This is similar to Lavendula by Penhaligons, but not as good. It is linear, very dry lavender, herbal with not a hint of sweetness. It is too austere for me to wear by itself but I have found it is great for layering. I wear it with Prada Amber 2004 for women and Narciso Poudree, and I expect it would layer well with many other fragrances too. I am glad I have it to add a lavender vibe when I feel the craving. It is very versatile but not such a great stand alone in my opinion. It lasts a long time but wears quite close. Would be fine for office - looking forward to being able to go to the office again.

I tried all of the new lavender fragrances and they where surprisingly nice. I expected them to be more harsh and less of a smooth lavender... My favorite is the “Wisteria & Lavender” It’s such a nice, sweet, creamy, soft, and clean smelling fragrance. The blend of lavender and sweet heliotrope with the wisteria and musk is done very well. It’s quite a linear fragrance and opens with a nice soft herbal realistic lavender mixed with the wisteria which gives a little bit spice to the scent. It becomes sweeter in the mid and I was wondering where the sweetness was coming from. I guess the heliotrope is responsible for this, It’s a creamy and sweet heliotrope. In the drydown there is musk which gives it a clean soft linen feel, this mixed with the sweet heliotrope and creamy lavender is very nice. Eventually I bought the pillow spray.. “Lavender & Musk” I really don’t know why they didn’t make this into a fragrance as well because it smells so nice! It’s a clean smelling fragrance in a very sophisticated way. I would recommend this to anyone who can’t wear fragrances on the skin but want to smell good by praying something on the clothes or someone who can’t wear much fragrance to work.

This was the only one that I could find a tester for. This and the pillow spray. I love lavender and was really looking forward to trying this range. Alas, while this a a very nice fragrance it's just not sweet/deep enough for me. It is like a slightly watered down mens' fragrance with a bit of dry lavender thrown in. Like I said, it is good, but I wanted it to have more depth. I was also interested in the pillow spray which is just a basic, pretty lavender/musk scent and nothing to get excited about. The lasting power on my shirt was also very poor - gone completely within a hour. Also, the spray is very small (only 60ml) so prepare to be underwhelmed size-wise if you decide to buy it blind. For me, all lavender scents get compared to the Origins now defunct Calm to Your Senses body range. Now that was one beautiful scent. All deep and slightly medicinal. Another good one is Aveda Stress Fix, which is a close a scent to the Origins one that I have been able to find.

This scent is average and I have to disagree with the previous reviewer, this is NOWHERE close to Penhaligon's Lavandula which I own, love and adore. Lavandula is, by far, the best Lavender scent I have ever tried - nothing short of wonderful. It's very easy to miss the mark with Lavender if you don't balance it properly. I do agree with the previous reviewer in the sense that this scent is good for layering (I'd say the same for the other scents in the Lavenderland Collection) and I guess that's the good thing about JM fragrances; they're great for layering so layer away. Glad I got all three because JM limited editions do disappear quickly. Cheers!

Suprisingly Pleasant. A blind buy made just before it discontinued. I am never really a big fan of lavender fragrances as i find them very feminine. However, on my skin the lavender is masculine and spicy, softened down by the wisteria and heliotrope. By far my most complimented fragrance for its uniqueness. However, like all jo malone fragrances i’m afraid this one is incredibly linear.

Strange salty/savory lavender (from musk maybe) and very musky. No creaminess or sweetness here. I saw the heliotrope note and vanilla/almond in main accords so i thought that it woud be something like body lotion that smells creamy and powdery but this cologne has nothing to do with this. Very very good longevity.

Best Jo Malone fragrance I have come across so far. It totally smells like lazing on a warm spring afternoon with all the windows open in a house with the outer walls surrounded by ivy-like flowers. I hope they bring it back and make it part of the regular collection.