Jo Malone Star Magnolia is Spring in a bottle – a fresh, zingy scent that you’ll want to wear during Spring and Summer (and use it up the whole bottle).
Near my childhood home a neighbour had a few magnolia trees in his garden that I admired fervently. Their blossoms were incredibly beautiful – until they fell down and were trodden underfoot by the people in the street. And to my pronounced horror, those fallen blossoms reeked. Goat shack reeked.
Which is why I was rather astonished to see a Magnolia fragrance in Jo Malone’s Blossoms Spring edition, because, for me – Magnolia equals goat. (If you think that I’m totally gaga, go smell a fresh Jasmine sprig and tell me that you actually can’t smell the cat’s pee scent that emanates from it! Scents, like people, contain multitudes.)
Nevertheless, I’m happy that in this case, I didn’t let the name deter me. (Jo Malone scent’s, although they often SEEM to be soliflores, seldom are: best case scenario is a good appropriation of the given name, worst is a mess of a fruit punch or garden centre.) I was also craving a fresh, green, Spring fragrance, and there was that pastel green bottle: I sprayed. And fell in love. HARD.
The Blossoms Collection
The Blossoms collection contains four different fragrances: Star Magnolia (repromote), Orange Blossom (permanent), Silk Blossom and Frangipani Flower. They come in individual tinted glass bottles with corresponding frosted caps (green for Star Magnolia, orange for Orange Blossom, pink for Silk Blossom and yellow for Frangipani Flower). They’re available in Jo Malone’s Cologne formula in her usual sizes (100ml/30ml) and prices ($140/72 – 118€/56) with accompanying hair mists (Orange Blossom, Star Magnolia), diffusers (Orange Blossom) and candles (Silk Blossom).
Perfumer & inspo
Star Magnolia’s ‘nose’ (aka perfumer/creator) is Anne Flipo, who also composed some other fragrances for Jo Malone (Basil & Neroli, for example). The brief, though, came from Celine Roux, Vice President of Global Fragrance Development for Jo Malone London, who saw Star Magnolia trees in a park in Shanghai and wanted to capture that experience. (Insert the usual sceptical eyebrow-raised expression of someone who lived in Shanghai and politely disagrees with the scent assessment, but, oh well.)
Notes
From Jo Malone:
Delicate white blossoms bursting with spring’s charm. Star magnolia is in bloom. Radiant against green magnolia leaf and honey-sweet orange blossom. Mingling with lemon, ginger and dewy shiso leaf.
Top Note: Lemon
This extraction adds a mouth-watering, juicy freshness, opening the fragrance with a citrus brightness.
Heart Note: Star Magnolia Blossom
Captivating with unique petal softness and an enticing fruitiness, it suffuses the fragrance in floral luminosity.
Base Note: Sandalwood
Creamy, warm and sensual, it strengthens and extends the longevity of the scent.
My impressions
In this case, the perfume bottle really corresponds to the juice within. You see a green, diaphanous thing – you smell a green, diaphanous thing. There’re a few surprises: The fragrance’s longevity is much, much longer than I’m used to (in a few instances, I could even smell the fragrance the next morning when I sprayed it at some time in the afternoon before), while the projection is still very modest: you’ve to come REALLY close to me to smell it on my skin.
What does it smell like?!
Upon spraying, I get a burst of fresh lime, green and nearly piercing in its sharpness. This is what makes it great for muggy, hot and humid weather, but less great for people with sensitive noses and heads. If I have a headache, I can’t stand it – literally. It feels like a green drill in my head.
All the notes cited above (lemon, ginger, shiso, magnolia and orange blossom) come together in a bright green and white flower mix that’s refreshingly zingy. For me, the effect is akin to a lily of the valley scent. Even after a few hours, I can’t smell Sandalwood (or any wood) on me. Star Magnolia stays bright, green and white, in all its piercing flowery beauty, while never venturing into the citrussy realm of bathroom cleaners (always a dangerous possibility with lemon fragrances).
For me, it’s the ultimate Spring/Summer scent when you don’t want to go around smelling of that other Spring/Summer fragrance – the frangipani/coconut/sunscreen notes that are Bronze Goddess and its many, many copies.
Star Magnolia is a unisex scent, fresh and zesty. Manly men shouldn’t be afraid of the white flowers, because it’s not a particularly floral scent. There’s nothing sweet, fruity or flowery about it.
Worth it?
A lot of people think (myself included) that Jo Malone’s fragrances are notoriously overpriced for what they are. Their longevity and projection are (usually) poor, their fragrances aren’t particularly complex or unusual, and the price for that is much too high. Because of that, I never pay retail price for a Jo Malone cologne, but use discounts.
I also only buy them for one season – that’s why I only buy the 30ml bottle. I know I will use it up, and after that the itch for that special scent will have passed. Be it a fresh, zingy little thing for Spring/Summer or something warm and cosy for Fall/Winter. If you’re the same, then this is for you.
And, psst: This fragrance has nothing to do with magnolias.
Please note that this review is not sponsored in any way. We buy products ourselves, with our own money, and don’t accept exchanging goods, or money, for reviews. We are completely independent, and our reviews reflect that.
