London Rain by Jo Malone London: Wisteria & Violet

I’ve now had more of a chance to familiarise myself with the concept behind the London Rain collection from Jo Malone London and it really is something special.  There are four fragrances in total, each of which represents different rain settings, so Rain & Angelica is designed to evoke the atmosphere of the early morning dew in a London park at dawn, Wisteria & Violet is a soft morning shower, White Jasmine & Mint represents a sudden afternoon downpour and Black Cedarwood & Juniper is the darkest and most sensual of the four which indicates midnight rain.

There’s been real attention to detail in every aspect of the collection which fully embodies the London Rain concept.  The cover of the box that the perfume is housed in gives the illusion of an oil slick which reminds me of puddles after a downpour and the bottle itself is dark and stormy rather than the usual light and airy bottles Jo Malone London colognes are housed in.  I just love the fact that every element has been carefully considered and it’s so obvious that this is a collection created from imaginative passion.

I have Wisteria & Violet which typifies the fresh, mid morning shower with very gentle and fresh floral notes minus anything too sickly or powdery.  This is the perfect floral scent for those who find typical floral fragrances too girly, as it’s much closer to neutral than you’d expect from something that contains pretty much total floral notes. It’s quite a heavy fragrance so you’d need to go lightly, but it is gorgeous and quite different too; it isn’t something I can compare to anything else which is quite an achievement for a floral fragrance.

The dominant heart note is Wisteria and Violet with a base note of Patchouli and a a top note of Water Lily.  I was extremely excited to read that this particular fragrance can be combined with Peony & Blush Suede which is a fragrance I have in my collection, so I paired the two together to see what happened.

The result was a far more predictably floral scent as you’d expect from pairing two heavily floral fragrances.  The blush suede scent was overpowered by the rest of the floral notes which was a shame as I liked the edge that the suede gave.  Therefore, in this instance I’d say that the two fragrances are beautiful on their own but not ideal together, unless you want something a little more typical and “everyday”.  Wisteria & Violet is one of my favourite scents at the moment as it’s really very special, it doesn’t smell like anything else in my collection and it packs a punch without overwhelming.  The London Rain collection by Jo Malone London is available now priced at £82 each for 100ml here – link.

PR Sample