English Pear & Sweet Pea Jo Malone 2023 Cologne

Starts off GORGEOUS - drops of shiny tart, sweet pear juice plus gentle naturalistic floral notes as if you’re really floating through a spring garden. There’s also something cooling about it.

Unfortunately all that beauty dissolves pretty quickly after the first half hour into some bitter undertones that didn’t sit well with me, because they reminded me a bit of old sweat + crushed pear stem.

I think it’s this particular kind of musk note that becomes a bit too sharp/sour for me with the rest of the notes.

(I normally like powdery musks - I wish I could get the powdery dry down that others seem to get.) Oh well.

smells like a cold, fresh spring day. this is what i imagine persephone to smell like. it’s a bit strong at first but after a few seconds you get the flowers. as the description says, this is perfect for spring. no matter if it’s a warm or cold day. however, unfortunately the scent doesn’t last long on your skin. on clothes, sure but for the body you’d have to re-spray it every 2-3 hours or so. still, i really enjoy wearing it since it makes me enjoy spring much more than usual :)

What a beautiful cologne! I'll be wearing this regularly until I use up my sample vial. A gorgeous fresh, fruity floral with a hint of sweetness. Smells very different from the English Pear & Freesia cologne, and whoever compared it to DKNY Be Delicious is committing a crime.

Proof that it's possible to make a fruity fragrance that doesn't smell like an ultra-sweet body spray. This is not your Bath & Body Works' sweet pea. It's versatile and office-friendly.

So I was able to test it today, as I ordered it blind directly from Jo Malone. I cannot agree with the first review in that I own both Pear & Freesia and Nectarine Blossom & Honey. I layered both, and that does not correspond to the new Pea. This one has only a very slight sweetness at the beginning, but much more of a lightly tart fruity freshness. Like a pear that is not quite ripe yet.
This fades fairly quickly on the skin, leaving a wonderful composition that I can hardly describe.
Since I am not familiar with the scent of sweet peas, I can only say that it becomes more floral. But floral not in the sense of "being overwhelmed by so much flower," but very lightly, like the scent of a flower being carried away by the wind. The pear now remains very subtle in the background, as the musk as a base beautifully "powders" the scent. It even has a slightly creamy aroma, like when the sun warms up a moisturized skin.
It stays very close to the body in an exceptionally balanced way. Those who know Malone know that they are all beautiful in their own way, but still - depending on the skin - sometimes only one scent note is much more perceptible.
Not so with this one. The three: pear, sweet pea, and musk complement each other perfectly, and none takes away space from the other. None stands out. They play together like a perfect musical trio. Softly, with gentle tones.
I can't say anything about longevity yet; so far, it has held beautifully for 3 hours unchanged. Can you layer it? Certainly. But whether you should, I don't think so. Because it is so well done on its own and so gentle that any other Malone on top could ruin it.
My first thought after spraying was even that this is not a typical Malone. It is different, wonderfully different.

I had the chance to smell and test this fragrance in Edinburgh, and what can I say, this is once again a scent that reminds me classically of Jo Malone.

The longevity for me was 6 hours, so nothing that blows you away, but also not as delicate as it can sometimes be with Jo Malone.

But how does this new fragrance smell? For me, it is the lovechild of English Pear & Freesia and Nectarine Blossom & Honey. On me, it smells exactly like the layering of these two. The pear is 1 to 1 the same as the one we already know from English Pear & Freesia, but it brings the floral sweetness that you know from Nectarine Blossom & Honey. There isn’t much change in the scent over the 6 hours. Only the acidity of the pear diminishes a bit, and the floral notes come out a little more. So, anyone who combines these two fragrances only needs to buy one in the future. Those who already own both can leave this one aside, and if English Pear & Freesia was too acidic for you until now, you might find a new favorite here.