I decided it was time to actually buy some perfumes, after testing about 70 by now. These are the two (technically colognes, but the scent is strong and lasts pretty long tbh) I've chosen. I've tried nearly all Jo Malone scents that Douglas has in their brick-and-mortar stores. I think I like them because they all actually smell different from each other, and every one of their perfumes only smells like two or three things. Thus they have much more character than those perfumes that try to please everyone by adding ten different notes, trying to be complex, but just all smelling the same.
Myrrh & Tonka, for instance, actually smells like myrrh and tonka. It's gorgeous. Both scents come out really clearly. Even though I was not raised Catholic, I've been to quite a few Catholic churches in my life, plus I have a set of incense resins that I used to burn in ritual situations back when I still did that kind of thing. So the smell of melting resin has something solemn and holy to me, plus I love the smells of resins ("balsamic notes") anyway. Here it's combined with the soft and sweet tonka, and it's like getting a hug from an angel. I feel like my own bottle gives me something sweeter than the tester at Douglas though. I only tested my own bottle for the first time today and it smells like tonka, sugar, and mint on me, but I tested it on my skin twice before I bought it and I know my skin can bring out the myrrh. I only smell it a little today. Hopefully in time the bottle will gain the beautiful balance of resin and tonka that I liked so much in the tester.
English Pear & Sweet Pea, on the other hand, has something profoundly nostalgic to me. Yes, it smells like flowers, but more like... a ghost of flowers. I see a vision of dried, pastel-coloured blossoms that you find in a hundred year old book. It's melancholy and dark. Or at least that is how it smells coming from the Douglas tester - the bottle I got has a way stronger pear scent, and I don't really like fruit notes. I've sprayed a couple of times and now I'm putting the bottle in the back of a drawer for a few weeks (maceration), hoping that the head note is the most unstable one and will weaken, so I can get the floral scent I wanted. There are a lot of natural components in this perfume, so I am hopeful. EP&SP is, to me, also an example of how to do patchouli the right way. It doesn't beat you over the head with it. Unlike SOME.
If Jo Malone weren't so expensive (these little 10ml bottles are already 30-40€, though I got them discounted) I'd probably buy some more of their scents. They have one that smells like someone burned wood and flowers and captured the smoke in a bottle (one of the ones that have "amber" in the name, I only wrote "amber" on the testing strip), and two that actually give a realistic impression of specific plants (peony and oak, respectively, and the mimosa one smells like a field of flowers, though I couldn't say which ones exactly). I also found their Sage & Sea Salt fun, though it smells more similar to liquorice to me.
I'd like to test all their scents, but Douglas only stocks a few and they're too expensive to buy blind, plus I don't buy blind anyway because I'd feel guilty if they just stand around and I never use them, even if they didn't cost much. Like some other perfume manufacturers, Jo Malone sells sample kits whose price you then get subtracted if you buy a full-size bottle later, which is fair and a good solution. But for now I'll just play around with the two I have.
