Jo Malone Honeysuckle & Davana: fragrance review

Jo Malone's latest fragrance launch Honeysuckle & Davana is advertised as a happy smell and it most definitely is a happy smell. One that feels like fortunate news spreading through the peals of countryside church bells into the distance; smiles in a nursery when the little one first stretches his/her facial muscles into that endearing way that has caretakers have their heart aflutter; or of long lost friends meeting at a long awaited rendez-vous. The brand's choice to illustrate the fragrance with the girl with the canary is spot on, even if canaries do not dot the English countryside by any stretch of the imagination.

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Honeysuckle & Davana is quite fresh and honeyed at the same time, and at that intriguing intersection between warm and cool which I find very alluring. There is an oscillating ribbon of white florals right in the middle of the scent, further cementing that freshness which blooms when the scent is sprayed liberally. This is a fragrance that reveals facets when used in excess, much like their previous Mimosa & Cardamom needs the bigger spray rather than the applying with a small wand on skin testing technique to fully reveal its pretty message. Compared with that other honeysuckle fragrance in the Jo Malone catalogue, Honeysuckle & Jasmine (1999), which used to be quite charming in its naturalistic impression of a fragrant garden at dusk somewhere south, the newer edition is more upbeat, with interesting facets that differentiate it from the white florals that are so screechingly taking over perfume counters as the "immediate femininity" index when the whole isn't hoarding under tons of syrupy sweetness...

In the drydown of Honeysuckle & Davana, we come up with a mix of an earthy note that might be attributed to Evernyl, but which is also mixed with clean, starched white musks (and which provides the very tenacious part, however those who are anosmic to some musks might find this undetectable, so try before you buy).

Roxana Illuminated Perfume Figure 1: Noir : Fragrance Review

The darkness of the night descends on the village, its tall chimneys and church bell tops eclipsed by the long shadows cast by primordial spirits, by wraiths, the flashes of strange illuminations marshaling the nighttime sky like snuffed pyrotechnics. The earth below, seemingly barren, hides in its gut an untrammeled secret, a secret with long tentacles creeping beneath soil and rock.



This Figure 1: Noir, this study on the inherent darkness of patchouli essence and of unusual herbal aromatics has an intoxicating effect, the murmur of perverse sweetness traveling on the wavelength of a morbid longing. What is it that makes these chthonian vibes rebound in one's heart of hearts? What is this calling, this piper who promises a golden lair and the forests echoing with laughter? There are things which we do not speak of. There are emotions we cannot put into a defined shape, marking the outline separating inner from outer world. Similarly, Figure 1: Noir sparked that eternally unfulfilled curiosity, that desire to capture the uncapturable, swirls of low earth rising for the skies, flesh vying to become spirit.

Figure 1: Noir is an intriguing all naturals perfume oddity, deep and resinous with a loamy plume of botanical musk featuring harmonious notes of patchouli, green vetiver, Mysore sandalwood, orris and valerian juxtaposed with the pungent tartness of buchu leaf, black cumin, green cognac and davana. The effect is as intimate and universal as human skin with an unsettling wild animalic shadow.

Available by Roxana Illuminated Perfume at Etsy in both liquid perfume and solid. (Image illustration by Greg Spalenka)