Lucky beauty editors got an early taste of spring when one of Jo Malone’s distinctive cream and black boxes arrived with a cargo of exquisite new floral scents.
Although Jo Malone is known for its fabulous florals – Wild Bluebell or Red Roses anyone? – London Blooms, the new collection, is breakaway in that it’s entirely dedicated to British garden blooms and its packaging unashamedly reflects that: the limited edition bottles that carry the three new fragrances are covered in découpage-like flowers that reflect the juices – peony, white lilac, rhubarb, Lady Moore, geranium, rose and moss.
It’s a daring move for a company synonymous with clean, sharp presentation and aromas. The brand has been known for the way they cleverly blends zesty fruits like grapefruit, lime basil and lemon verbena with more unusual extracts like wild fig, pomegranate, cassis and English pear. But, perhaps in an effort to distance themselves from Jo Loves – Malone’s new and entirely independent fragrance venture – Jo Malone the brand have gone super-flowery and a little more conservative, very cleverly tapping into their core market.
To create the scents, Jo Malone London worked with master perfumer Christine Nagel – the award winning nose behind gems like Armani Privé Ambre Soie and Narciso Rodrigue’s For Her – who also happens to be passionate about gardens, in particular the borders in English ones.
“They appear slightly wild and unruly – untidy, even”, she says. “Yet they are actually very organised”. Nagel loves the “disorganised profusion” of spring and reveals that Jo Malone gave her free rein to create floral fragrances with a certain eccentricity – hence the quirky mix of White Lilac & Rhubarb, inspired by the sweet softness of lilac and bold, red, tart, bitter rhubarb – “it’s like an attraction of opposites”, she says.
Peony & Moss is conventional with a touch of madness: Nagel was inspired by the delicacy of petals against dark, grounded moss, and treated it with a “foam effect” to give the note “a humid, vegetal feeling”. With Iris & Lady Moore, the third scent, Nagel aimed to make the smooth iris note “as soft as liquid cashmere”. And although Lady Moore sounds rare Nagel reveals that the note is often used in perfumery but mainly in men’s scents. She describes wearing this scent as having “a protective aura around you”.
Jo Malone London commissioned Cambridgeshire artist and gardener Heather Mauders to bring Nagel’s olfactory magic alive with imagery for the bottles. Maunders is another keen gardener – she likes nothing more than going out in the garden after rain because the plant aromas are intensified – and particularly enjoyed capturing Lady Moore because it has sentimental value, being a plant her father grew in his garden.
