Monday, April 25, 2011

Demeter Fragrance Library Wisteria: fragrance review

Demeter Fragrance Library hides many little gems: from the convincing ivy green note of mysterious evil of Poison Ivy to the exact replication of the ionically charged and just outright lovely wet scent of a baby's humidifier caught in Rain, the line never fails to present one with small epiphanies and delighted coos of small discoveries where you least expect it (They have things like Laundromat, Belladonna, Sex on the Beach, referencing the cocktail....an endless pit of joyful playing around). So I wasn't really astounded to find their Wisteria cologne was actually good.


Wisteria by Demeter goes where upscale fine fragrance doesn't go, who knows for what inexplicable reason: It creates the beautiful, utterly gorgeous scent of the mauve hanging grappes of wisteria (glycine), perched like bunches of decadent grapes over terraces, latticework and verandahs in early spring. A fusion of spicy goodness reveals itself from the core; a middle road between peppery twinkle, clovey note, and carnations, with a side of a somewhat oily green nuance reminiscent of hyacinth and lilacs. All these facets are surprisingly caught in Demeter's Wisteria, a soliflore that is lush and rich like the natural flower.
The scent starts a little alcoholic at first but the progression into an intense spicy floral is more than enough to compensate. Sadly presented only in Eau de Cologne, but with rather good lasting power nonetheless. If you like spicy florals, carnation scents or just love the mauve blossoms themselves, there are good chances you might like Wisteria by Demeter.

At 20$ for 1oz it is an unmissable bargain. If you know of European based online outlets for this, do let me know in the comments.

photo via armchairfrance.com

7 comments:

  1. Nina21:32

    hi, www.eleven.se has some of the Demeters (check under "Library of Fragrance" in the brand section.) They ship worldwide. I have shopped from them numerous times, and they are 100% reliable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous08:01

    hi Elena! How weird is this.. around the corner from where i live there is this huge Wisteria (i always call it Hysteria, just to amuse me) which smells absolutely gorgeous. Last weekend i was sitting in our communal garden when i caught a whiff of the scent, and i was thinking, someone oughta bottle this and sell it.. lo and behold, i check my favourite perfume blog this morning first thing after the Easter weekend et voilĂ ! the cosmos must have heard my plea :-) have a great week! hugs, Wendy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Helg, you're right, I've been searching for a wisteria fragrance for pretty long. Well, at the end, I made one myself, but that's another story. It always puzzled me why it's not used more and even more... but people are weird.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nina,

    profuse thanks, going to check it out!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wendy,

    clearly we're both psychic! :-)

    No seriously, I just love how serendipity kinda happens with perfume lovers. I get the most awesome comments and emails with this like that. It's a wonderful flower and I ask myself why, WHY they haven't exploited this delicious scent more. But like Liisa says below, people are weird. I guess!!

    "Hysteria" sounds about right: it hysterically clinges itself onto latticework, despite its shy appearence.

    ReplyDelete
  6. L,

    hello there, darling, how are things?

    Yeah, talk about missed opportunities, on the industry's part. I'm sure you did a good job: Clove and ylang? Side helping of something powdery perhaps too?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Helg,
    let me send you some. It's weird and pungent to the verge of eye-watering, built up on woods and frankincense.

    ReplyDelete

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