Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia Cologne Review

Hi guys! Today I'll be sharing all about my experience using Jo Malone's English Pear & Freesia Cologne

I got this perfume back in 2018, and it's kinda funny how I only used it for a while before switching to other perfumes. I switched back to it recently, and I'm here to share my review with you guys.

I got it around September when my friends from work and I were out celebrating a birthday. We went there specifically as it was before the SST price increase.

I think the main difference of buying online and offline is discounts and service. Currently, Jo Malone boutiques do not do any kind of discount or promotion. All items and sets are full-priced. However, on your first online Sephora purchase, you can avail 15% OFF. The downside to this is that Sephora's online selection for Jo Malone here in Malaysia is very limited.

The best time to buy Jo Malone is offline during Sephora Black Card sales. Sephora usually offers its highest storewide discount of 20%. The downside to this is that only select Sephora stores carry Jo Malone offline. The only 2 that come to mind are Sephora KLCC and Sephora Fahrenheit. If you have access to these two stores and the 20% sale is on, I recommend dropping by.

Seeing as you can get Jo Malone at a discount from Sephora, why bother visiting the official boutique? In my opinion, the boutique offers more stock, more selection and overall better service. If you're going to be spending hundreds on a bottle of cologne and want more bang for your buck, Jo Malone actually offers scented hand massages which enhance the whole Jo Malone experience.

I'm not sure what they're current SOP with the massages are (as we're now living in the world of COVID-19), but if and when things do clear up, do try to get the whole scent experience. You get sent back with a few cream/shower gel samples + a few deluxe-sized scents of your choice.

Anyhoo, at the time when I bought this from the boutique, the price of the 100ml colognes was RM485. In June 2020 the 100ml price was RM520, but the current price (as of August 2020) is now RM545. That's RM60 more than what I paid. If you have a scent you're eyeing (or nosing lol), definitely get it as soon as possible.

I just wanted to mention as well that usually, prices in Malaysia are the cheapest among all Southeast Asian countries when it comes to imported luxe items. Compared to the US price of USD140 (~RM580), you can always save a bit when you buy in Malaysia (+ save even more during sale periods).

On to the perfume! As I explained before, Jo Malone actually does not sell perfumes (EDP nor EDT) but sells colognes. 

Eau de Cologne generally has a 2% to 4% concentration of fragrance and a high concentration of alcohol. It's supposed to be cheaper than other types of fragrance, but as you'll find out below, that's not the case with Jo Malone. Their prices easily match the EDPs of fashion houses like Dior and YSL, and I would actually consider Jo Malone slightly overpriced.

Back when they launched, they were considered to be a breath of fresh air as their scents were fresher and lighter compared to EDPs. However, a lot of people have mixed thoughts about them as they feel like Jo Malone scents are too "weak". Personally, I think their scent selection is really good and I love the quality of each scent. However, I have noticed that I do have to spray on a bit more compared to my EDPs if I want my Jo Malone to last me the whole day.

I would say there are pros and cons to this. The pros are that this gives a very subtle presence to it and it's not as overbearing/powerful/in your face. The cons are that if you do want it to be stronger, you'll have to spray on more, and considering the price, some people find it a bit of a waste.

Personally, I think Jo Malone scents are just right. I usually spray two spritzes on the back of my neck, two on my wrists and 1-2 on my clothes. I don't really care if anyone can smell me, all I care about is that I smell myself haha. This amount usually lasts me the entire day, and I get wafts of the scent throughout my day. People do smell me though when they're nearer.

For the scent I picked, English Pear & Freesia is actually one of Jo Malone's best sellers. Introduced in 2010, Fragrantica describes it as follows:

"The fragrance is ripe, juicy and thoroughly designed. Nuances of freesia and pear are very complex, since ripe pears were necessary to achieve a certain note to sound unique in composition of the fragrance.  Pear in the moment of perfect ripeness has crispy structure of skin and juicy fruit. Pear is combined with quince which introduces honey sweetness and is surrounded with white freesia and wild climbing rose"

I find the scent to be very unisex, fresh and light. I think it's perfect for the summer + the hot weather that we have here in Malaysia.

Since I bought my bottle from the boutique, I got the cap engraved. You can also have the bottle engraved, but I just thought that the cap would be prettier.

In terms of packaging, the 100ml glass bottle is actually quite heavy and not the most convenient to bring on trips. If you really like the scent, I recommend getting the 100ml and getting a small atomizer for travels. If you only wanna give it a go/add it to you scent rotation, I recommend trying the more affordable and travel-friendly 30ml bottle as well. They also recently released 50ml bottles for their best-sellers.

Overall, would I recommend it? To be honest, yes. I have no regrets with this scent + all the Jo Malone scents I've bought since I got this. All their fragrances are so well made, and I love their scent palette. Price-wise it's a little expensive, but I would say it's quite worth it.

And that's it for this post! I hope you guys found it helpful and informative.

See y'all in my next post!