SystemeD

Run, citizens, and save yourselves! A huge meteorite has come screaming down from the sky, and it has landed in a field of violets. The flowers are burning!
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Stephen Jones described his eponymous fragrance as “futuristic but rococo” and as “a violet that’s been hit by a meteorite.” And when this fragrance was released, the promised notes included "magma."

Let me assure you that while my report of falling meteorites was merely metaphoric, it is deadly accurate as a description of this fragrance.

Upon application of Stephen Jones, aldehydes jump out like fireworks. And that's just the beginning.

Almost immediately, the scent of scorched violets fills your nose. Not just singed, mind you, but scorched.

The dry smokiness morphed into incense after a while for me. But not just any incense. This is the incense of a hundred Russian Orthodox priests waving censers over the burnt violets, and over the crater made by the meteorite.

Stephen Jones is not just a fragrance, but an apocalyptic experience. I think it's great.

Clearly, this fragrance was created by an evil genius.

My very sweet septuagenarian mother wears it, as do many of her retiree friends. I've smelled it on my college-age students as well. What a marketing bonanza for the house of Mugler.

As for me, I cannot wear it. Or bear it. Sorry, mother.

Heure Exquise opens with aldehydes, which I did not expect at all.

Then, galbanum, and lots of it, accompanied by rose. There's some iris here too, but the galbanum dominates on me, even into the drydown, which is a sweet sandalwood, simultaneously powdery and rounded.

Lovely, really.