Stephen Jones - Wisteria Hysteria Comme des Garçons 2014

This is a beautiful light scent. Wisteria and Rose in full bloom waft around you with hints of tea/mate, incense and carnation adding additional verve to the composition. I do get the benzoin and it's marvelous with the florals. A warm and fluffy musk brings you to lull in the drydown.

The opening of Wisteria is centered on carnation with green-citrus notes: crunchy, crisp, fresh, with a sort of abstract and “contemporary” feel of cleanness. Accords of spices, aldehydes, red pepper provide a sort of nostalgic, slightly retro feel, but “deprived” of the thickness and deepness of vintage perfumes. Shortly a sort of hologram of a traditional green-floral-spicy scent. I also get a subtle white-rose floral breeze which is really thin but palpable, soapy and crystalline, which gives Wisteria a touch of gentle colour, also softening a somehow quite “angular” blend. On the very base, dusty white-greyish notes of musks. Overall Wisteria is a modern, sharp, clean perfume, rather pleasant and unexpectedly powerful despite its “thin” texture. It’s much linear too, though, so it can be a bit boring after a while. Also not the most original or creative scent around, but more complex and fascinating than it may seem, mostly because it is basically a synthetic scent with a sort of dreamy, “glowing” feel of organic earthiness perfectly blended with a luminous, icy feel of abstractness. A bit like watching a digital rework of a faded polaroid picture (or listening to a glo-fi band, if you know the genre: that “synthetic nostalgia” type of inspiration). Didn’t make me fall of the chair, but nice!

7/10

This is an interestingly abstract floral underpinned by a recognizably-CdG incense base.

The "wisteria" here is like a faceted gem that includes lilac, freesia, and rose, but my floral impressions are just that -- impressions. The floral notes are not truly distinct, but instead, they come together in an abstraction of a clean, fresh flower that does not necessarily exist in any garden.

The incense base is typical of CdG, I think, but it also reminds me in its cold, mineral-like way of Lutens L'eau Froide.

Wisteria Hysteria wears close to the skin, and so would be a good choice for daytime or for the office.

That Wisteria is called Blauregen in German, I learned from the series Desperate Housewives, where there was always something going on in Wisteria Road. In my former neighborhood, there were also two houses completely overgrown with the beautiful Blauregen, but I never associated it with a scent. So it was clear to me that I had to try a fragrance named "Wisteria Hysteria," and now, after testing the sample, I am disappointed. Instead of a strong wind, there's only a gentle breeze. Nothing for the wicked fairy Morgaina, who loves to be enveloped in clouds of fragrance.

The scent starts weightless, green, and fresh with white flowers and delicate roses, and for my taste, it blends a bit too slowly with pepper and musk. The slightly synthetic note familiar from Comme des Garcons comes in after a while, but it remains noticeably weaker than usual. I can only perceive incense with a lot of imagination, and unfortunately, I can't detect benzoin and amber at all.

The lady in white from the product video fits the fragrance perfectly - only I am neither androgynous nor an ethereal being. The whole presentation is as sterile and cold as the scent. (Artistically, I would give the video 70%)

My conclusion: When it comes to white flowers, I prefer "Come L'Amore," which is significantly sweeter and has better sillage. If I crave fresh pepper, I would wear "December," and if I want "hysterical" wisteria, I would rather watch an old episode of Desperate Housewives.