Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia Fragrance Chronicle

Jo Malone's Fragrance Chronicles are must-have's for me when they are released for the fragrances I love. I adore my Red Roses Fragrance Chronicle, bought last year. Not long ago, I saw the English Pear & Freesia Fragrance Chronicle ($110) at Neiman Marcus. It came home with me.

English Pear & Freesia distills an aspect of a landscape and a season that's incredibly etched on the British psyche. Inspired by one of the last great English romantic poets and one of the most beautiful short poems in English literature, Keat's ode To Autumn, English Pear & Freesia perfectly captures the fleeting moment of "mists and mellow fruitfulness" when the last days of summer are edged with fresh, clear autumnal air.

Season of mists and fellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit, the vines that round the thach-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

The Jo Malone Creative Studio selected the award-winning master perfumer Christine Nagel to compose English Pear & Freesia. Admired for her beautiful florals and experimental creations, the cologne exemplifies her craftsmanship. At the time of English Pear & Freesia's introduction, she said, "It's unusual for a pear to take center stage in a fragrance, but the essence of English Pear & Freesia is a complex and quintessentially autumnal pear note. My challenge was in recreating the scent of a pear captured just at the moment of perfect ripeness. We began by looking at the duality of the pear - the crisp texture of the skin versus the ripe, juicy fruit. You enter the fragrance immediately through the skin, just like when you bite the fresh fruit, and then directly after, the supple, juicy pear. The full-bodied pear note is an innovative technical achievement."

Combined with a honeyed, liquid note of quince, the pear is undercut with the delicate freshness of white freesias and scrambling wild roses. The base notes of patchouli, white amber, and musk add a subtle warm undertone (fortunately, for me, the patchouli is very subtle). An unconventional key note of cool green rhubarb, acidic and at the same time soft, gives an unusual and distinctly modern sensibility to a classically understated and evocatively English fragrance.

With the new English Pear & Freesia Fragrance Chronicle, you can customize the luscious original with a trio of exclusive accords. Amplify its floral heart with Freesia Cologne; layer the fruitiness with King William Pear Cologne, or deepen its sensuality with Patchouli Cologne (which won't be happening at my house). Enjoy a scent ripe for constant reinvention.

The set contains a 30 ml bottle of English Pear & Freesia Cologne, and little bottles (9 ml) of King William Pear Cologne, Freesia Cologne, and Patchouli Cologne. The King William Pear and Freesia Colognes are heavenly. You can layer them with English Pear & Freesia, or, as I do, wear them together, skipping the patchouli, for a more pure fruity floral. It's delightful!

The King William Pear is a classic, crisp pear variety with a fruity-fresh first impression that mellows as the addition of quince in the heart of the scent adds warmth and depth. The White Freesia, exquisitely fragranced flowers that will scent a whole room, are translated into a fresh green floral in the cologne. For anyone who likes patchouli, the cologne offers an intensely woody base note, with a sweet balsamic scent and spicy, earthy undertones.

See what I mean the next time you visit a Jo Malone counter! The English Pear & Freesia Fragrance Chronicle is worth a trip. If you don't have a counter nearby, check it out online at Jo Malone.

Poem first stanza, by Keats; photos courtesy of Jo Malone and 123RF