You know, I always find it quite difficult with Jo Malone fragrances. Especially this year, I've tested quite a few, but apart from the really good Rare Teas, I haven't really liked much from Jo Malone. Well, "not liked" isn't quite right; let's say I wasn't really convinced. Sure, there were some good scents among them, but with some, I felt like something was always missing.
Maybe I should actually layer these fragrances together, because that's what they're known for, but with over 20 fragrances, there are almost endless possibilities. I could calculate it, but I was really bad at some mathematical topics like probability. How was it again with "drawing and replacing"? It gets even more complicated when you want to consider certain things, like that a maximum of three of the 20 fragrances can be combined (and these three fragrances cannot be replaced during layering, but can be afterwards, of course)? You can calculate it if you want... or can... :D
I, on the other hand, would probably sit around for hundreds of days scribbling on paper something like: fragrance 1 combined with fragrance 2 and fragrance 3. Then, fragrance 1 with fragrance 2 and fragrance 4. Fragrance 1 with fragrance 2 and fragrance 5,… until I eventually reached fragrance 20 with fragrance 18 and fragrance 19 or something… :DD
(which would then be too much and therefore wrong, because I would have already had fragrance 20 with 18 and 19 when I had fragrance 18 with 19 and 20! Waaaaaaaaaaah…..!!!!!!!!).
… my head already hurts. At least it's nice that the fragrance here carries the subtitle Tea Fragrance Blends… Tea! I love tea! That makes me feel better already. Let's go!
The fragrance:
The fragrance starts for me sweetly milky with caramel and indeed the milk, while in the background it is briefly citrusy due to the bergamot, but this only lasts for a very short time. Then, however, the actually beautiful caramel-milk scent is totally disturbed by a note that somehow just doesn't want to fit with the rest: anise. The anise is very clearly noticeable here, and unfortunately, this is not just in the top note, where one might have hoped it would disappear afterwards, but it carries through the entire fragrance development.
Later in the base, you can smell some musk and slightly powdery vanilla, which actually fit very well with the milky sweet caramel, but are too disturbed by the anise.
It may also smell a little like tea with (a lot of) milk, but the tea note itself (if it even exists) is hardly detectable. Only after over an hour does the anise become noticeably weaker, so that one can start to enjoy the fragrance somewhat (this especially applies to those who don't like anise very much. Everyone who likes anise will get a great fragrance anyway). And only after several hours is the anise almost completely gone. Then, after many hours, the fragrance even smells very nice, milky caramel sweet, soft, and very pleasant.
The sillage and longevity:
The projection of the fragrance is low; it hardly stands out, let alone leaves a scent cloud behind.
The longevity is long; it lasted over eight hours on me.
The bottle:
The bottle is rectangular, somewhat narrow, and has a thick glass bottom. On the front, there is a label with a frame. The label features the name, brand, and logo as usual. The cap is chrome-plated and cylindrical. It looks simple, but it's quite nice.
Well. At first, I was jumping for joy when I finally got my hands on a sample of this fragrance, as I am very curious about anything that contains tea. And yet, I had to experience two disappointments with this fragrance right away. First, there is the missing tea scent. While this may be disappointing, it's not so bad in itself, as the sweet caramel notes combined with the milk and vanilla at least smell good.
The second disappointment is the initial anise scent, which almost ruins the top and heart notes. Because the caramel and milk smell beautifully sweet and pleasant, but the anise is present and simply comes off as piercingly unpleasant. This impression lasts about an hour until one can start to enjoy the fragrance somewhat, as the anise thankfully loses strength. A little more patience, and the fragrance finally becomes really good. If the anise were completely absent, Sweet Milk would have become a much nicer fragrance.
In any case, the fragrance smells autumnal, but it's not too heavy, so it could also be used in spring. Too weak for going out, it is therefore just an inconspicuous daytime or leisure fragrance for oneself.
You can certainly test it, but you should somewhat like anise or have patience to enjoy the fragrance later with a less powerful anise scent. Perhaps it works much better with another Jo Malone fragrance?
Speaking of which:
Has anyone actually calculated the number of possible combinations if you want to layer 20 Jo Malones with a maximum of three fragrances? :DD
As I said, I was terrible at certain math topics… :D
Top Notes 
Bergamot
Heliotrope
Star anise
Heart Notes 
Caramel
Milk
Base Notes 
Almond
Musk
Vanilla
LenaMarie
