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The scent that got me addicted to fragrance is…<\/h4>\nThe fragrances we encounter throughout our lives are more than fleeting sensations; they are profound markers of memory, emotion, and identity. A single whiff can summon long-forgotten moments, evoke the warmth of a cherished embrace or transport us to places etched deep in our hearts.<\/p>\n
For Jo Malone CBE, fragrance goes further than just a smell \u2013 it\u2019s an olfactive biography. \u201cWhen I create fragrance, I\u2019m telling people\u2019s stories through scent. Our sense of smell is the most powerful, and its own chapter is now being written about just how powerful it can be. Smells hit the deeper hippocampus of the brain and help people recall memories faster than anything else \u2013 they\u2019re even used to help bring people out of comas. If scent can do that, imagine what else it can do.<\/p>\n
Here, Malone takes us on an olfactory journey through the key scents that have defined her life. From the sweet nostalgia of childhood aromas to the family smells that have shaped her creations, these are her scents of purpose.<\/p>\n
Golden Virginia tobacco, which my father smoked, and the smell of linseed oil, which I used to clean his makeup brushes. We had proper English roses growing in our garden, and in the summer it was the apricot-like smell of the roses mixed with the wood varnish people used to paint their fences. When the sun hit it, it was very woody and very earthy, and I loved that smell.<\/p>\n
juniper skin tonic, because my job was making it, and the smell of my parents and our home. My mum wore Ma Griffe by Carven, and my dad wore Christian Dior Eau Sauvage. Also the smell of toast and all the essences of living in a council house. Toast was a big thing because it was cheap. We used to have a coal fire, and I loved that smell during the winter. All of those wonderful smells remind me of being a teenager.<\/p>\n
Lily of The Valley, which my grandmother wore. She had the tiniest bottle that would last her a lifetime because it was so precious. She made her own clothes as though she was Coco Chanel, and she could cook like a dream. She used to make apricot madeleines, so you\u2019d walk into the kitchen to the smell of honey, apricot madeleines and the sound of her humming. She had a big Aga, and she\u2019d take the madeleines out and lay them on the cooling rack, and I could smell a hint of cologne on her. She was always immaculately dressed and the kindest, most amazing grandmother. She was a real East End wife, there to provide for her family.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d also say the smell of rosemary, lavender, and camphor because that\u2019s what Countess Lubatti \u2013 the woman who taught me how to make face creams \u2013 smelt of as we were always in the laboratory. She made a wonderful tonic from rosemary, and lavender went into every face cream she made. Camphor was a great cleanser \u2013 I still, to this day, make my own camphor cream to clean my face. She had a face powder that smelt like sandalwood, and she was always in a long white lab coat, fishnet tights, high heels, and blood red lipstick. Whenever I smell camphor, my mind immediately goes to her.<\/p>\n
The scent that got me addicted to fragrance is…<\/h4>\nthe smell of Grasse. The first time I went there was way before we could afford to stay anywhere fancy, so our hotel was cheap as chips and not very nice. We walked up the hill for lunch, and as we walked back down, you could smell rose and orange blossom in the air. I remember it as though it was yesterday. We got to a little square with a flower market and a lovely little brasserie \u2013 all terracotta walls and turquoise shutters \u2013 and had steak frites and ros\u00e9 wine. I sat there and just fell in love with the smell of everything. The garden of the perfume museum was full of orange blossom trees, and the air was so heavy with fragrance that as I clapped my hands, the orange blossoms and roses just lifted. That was the moment I fell in love. I think that was my calling.<\/p>\n
Pomelo, which was my first creation for Jo Loves. When [my son] Josh was seven, our house burned down and we lost everything. It was really traumatic, especially for Josh, as we watched everything burn. We lived between hotels before renting a house, and Josh hated it. It had no soul. He cried so much and said to me, \u201cI just want to go home\u201d. One day I told him to go to school and promised him it would feel like home when he came back. I ran to the office, got five kilos of Pomelo, and washed the entire house in it \u2013 the floor, the sofa, every bed, every towel. He walked in that evening and said, \u201cIt smells like home\u201d. To this day, our house is still washed in Pomelo: I wash the floors with it, I spray the bedsheets with it, and we always have Pomelo candles burning. Whenever I\u2019m back in London and I turn the key in the lock, I close my eyes, stand there for a moment, and take in that feeling of home. It\u2019s a smell that makes me feel safe and that always reminds me of family.<\/p>\n
Sunkissed Orange \u2013 a fragrance I created here in Dubai during Ramadan. I made it about three years ago and have done nothing with it yet. There are only 40 bottles of it in the world, but it\u2019s very dear to me. When I first moved here, I\u2019d sit on the beach and watch the sunrise and the sunset. I knew that when the sun rose, it was opportunity, and when the sun set, it was celebration. Sunkissed Orange is the smell of a new day, of new beginnings. It reminds me of how precious life is, and how every day we have the opportunity to ask ourselves, \u201cWhat if I could?\u201d. It\u2019s so fragile and yet so strong. It has oud, but it\u2019s not heavy or smoky. It sits right under the base, holding the yuzu and the pepper. It reminds you to believe in who you are and to believe in your dreams. I\u2019m living my dream here. I love that you don\u2019t need an invite to sit at the table. If you see a stool, just pull it up, sit down, and you\u2019ll be welcome. I don\u2019t know anywhere else in the world that does that. So, I feel very privileged, and my blue office (gestures out to the ocean) in Dubai is my favourite place.<\/p>\n
my husband, Gary. I had boyfriends before, but he is the love of my life. He wore Loewe Esencia when I first met him, and he was a big swimmer, so he always smelled slightly of chlorine. I used to love how in the summer, when I got into the car, it smelt like a lemony cologne he wore. He never drove with shoes on, he was always barefoot, and he\u2019d have his little gray shorts on. We\u2019d have gone swimming and he would just splash this cologne onto him and I would close my eyes and think it was the most magical, wonderful smell. Today he loves Cobalt Patchouli & Cedar \u2013 another masculine, Mediterranean cologne.<\/p>\n
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The scent that got me through a tough time is…<\/h4>\na mouthwash called Biotene, which I know is a weird one [laughs]. I lost my sense of smell towards the end of chemo, but at the beginning, every smell was so intense and made me feel incredibly sick. Poor Gary couldn\u2019t even wear deodorant. But that was one of the smells \u2013 along with lemon and grapefruit \u2013 that helped my nauseousness. Another one was a eucalyptus body wash that I used as it didn\u2019t make me itch. I lost all my hair \u2013 my eyebrows, eyelashes, everything. I couldn\u2019t even smell food, so those clean, fresh smells really got me through. In a funny way, so did the smell of Josh\u2019s bedroom. When he was little, I used to spray his pyjamas with a very light orange flower, so he always knew it was time to go to bed. Every night the delicate scent from his cot gave me the will to survive and to live.<\/p>\n
the memories of moments with Josh. When he went to Harvard university, he\u2019d never lived away from home before, and suddenly he was off to live in another country. We flew to Boston, and when the morning came where we had to drop him off, I was beside myself. I remember him walking through the gates, pulling his cases behind him. He never looked back \u2013 he was so just excited. Eventually he said, \u201cBye, mum\u201d, and that was it. I stood there until I couldn\u2019t smell his cologne any longer. At the time, he wore Ebony Wood, which I created for Zara. It was 25 minutes of bottling all those memories, all the smells, everything from his stinky fencing kit to his clean sheets to Sunday lunches. I saw that chapter ending. When I got back to the house in London, I slept in his bed for six weeks, holding his jumper. When he was born, he smelled of the warmest amber and sandalwood \u2013 this earthiness that I can smell right now. It doesn\u2019t last for long, so it reminds you to treasure the moment \u2013 that\u2019s the beauty of it. It\u2019s the smell of life and love. Those are the things that I would capture.<\/p>\n
an orchestra of notes, from violet to jasmine to mimosa. I haven\u2019t had my heart broken many times, but when I realised that I couldn\u2019t use my name anymore, or thought I couldn\u2019t carry on creating fragrance, that was when I was at my lowest. But this Beethoven symphony of notes I\u2019d never used before screamed at me saying, \u201cYou can\u2019t quit, you can\u2019t walk away. Pick me for your last one. You can\u2019t stop because you haven\u2019t used me yet.\u201d It was heartbreaking, but I\u2019m not heartbroken now. I found my strength through that symphony.<\/p>\n
the smell of hope \u2013 of empowering people to believe that they can live their dream. I\u2019m 63, I\u2019ve got enough money, and I want to give back. What is the smell of hope? What is the smell of peace? I want people to remember me as a woman who had her feet on the ground. Not grand or posh, but very down to earth. Who made her own dreams happen and wanted others to believe they can too. I have no idea what that smell is \u2013 maybe that will be one of my last things to accomplish. If not that, then the smell of my Sunday lunch \u2013 I make an amazing roast chicken [laughs].<\/p>\n
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