The Jo Malone Experience

CREATING a perfume used to be thought of as a mysterious task requiring skill, training and an exceptional nose, and for this reason was considered best left to the giants of the beauty industry – Chanel, Guerlain, Dior.

These days however, you can’t wander into your local supermarket without being confronted with shelf after shelf of glossy perfume boxes. The days of elite perfumers are long gone; it seems the only requirement for the job now is a photo in Heat magazine.

Everything about the brand screams elegance and simplicity, from the beautiful boutiques themselves to the iconic cream boxes, wrapped in their thick black ribbon.

Name any celeb from A-list to ‘Sorry-you’re-not-on-the-list’ and there’s a 99 per cent chance they’ll have released a fragrance. Everyone from Justin Bieber to Coleen Rooney has had a go, although my personal favourite has to be Bruce Willis’s eponymous Eau De Parfum, described by its makers as ‘the manliest scent in the world’.

Still, with their garish packaging, glitter-encrusted bottles and overwhelming sickly sweet smell, it’s hardly surprising that so many celeb perfumes are rejected by shoppers – do you know any grown woman who would proudly display a bottle of ‘Snooki’ on her dressing table? More often than not, we’re searching for something far simpler - a scent that complements rather than overpowers.

Jo Malone, Liverpool

Without a shadow of a doubt, the place to head to find such a perfume has to be Jo Malone. The reigning champion of high end cosmetics and fragrances, Jo Malone has been providing women with understated products since its conception over fifteen years ago.

Founder Jo Malone, started out as a sought-after skin care therapist and facialist, so knows better than anyone what we should (and perhaps more importantly should NOT) be putting on our skin. Malone created a bath oil to give as gifts to her clients, and it proved so popular that she was almost immediately thrust into the forefront of the beauty business, opening her first boutique in Chelsea in 1994.

Everything about the brand screams elegance and simplicity, from the beautiful boutiques themselves to the iconic cream boxes, wrapped in their thick black ribbon. As with the Tiffany turquoise, it only takes a glimpse of that packaging to know that you’re in for a treat.

So when I was invited to pop in for a fragrance consultation at the new Liverpool store, snugly nestled in the Metquarter, I couldn’t wait to see what they had to offer.

The store itself is stunning – light, clean décor and understated white furnishings are more reminiscent of a spa than a shop, and I happily settled in with a glass of Champagne to learn more about Jo Malone fragrances and their unique combining system from manager Anthony.

The idea behind fragrance combination is simple: create your own scent, tailored especially to you and your personality. They believe no one should have to spritz themselves in something they don’t adore, and the only way to find your perfect perfume is to put it together yourself. Anthony began by asking me about my own fragrances, instantly making me realise exactly how little thought I usually put into my perfume as I shamefully informed him that my go-to scent was ‘that stripy Paul Smith one’. Not a good start…

However, Anthony was more than willing to help me out and gathered a wide range of the most popular Jo Malone perfumes for me to sniff. For the first time, I started to smell more than just the name of the perfume. Anthony carefully explained all about the different layers found in a fragrance and warned me that perfumes smell very different on the skin than in the air - perhaps explaining why so many of us spend hours choosing a new perfume before deciding we’re actually not enamoured, and leave it to gather dust on our shelves.

The perfumes themselves seem to cover every area of fragrance, from the cool ‘English Pear and Freesia’ to the exotic and warm ‘Sweet Lime and Cedar’. None of the scents were overwhelmingly powerful, often with only a hint of a fruit or intriguing touch of pepper that left me wanting to sniff more, surely the best quality of a perfume.

Perhaps the best part of Jo Malone’s fragrances is that however gorgeous they are alone, each one can be combined with any other from the collection, meaning that there are endless possibilities of perfume. It’s great fun to be able to test the range, try out completely new blends and pick yourself something you know you’ll love wearing.

Jen's Favourite Fragrances

Of course, none of this would be possible without the wonderful Anthony, who guided me through the collection whilst suggesting new mixes that would suit my tastes. When I eventually picked my favourite (‘Lime, Basil and Mandarin’ combined with ‘Nectarine Blossom and Honey’), it were applied in a completely unique manner – my hand and arm was washed with the bath oil of one fragrance, before being massaged using the body lotion of the other. This inventive way of layering the scents meant that not only did my hands smell delicious, but they felt fantastic as well.

We all know the enduring power of scent; after all, a whiff of a childhood smell can send you backwards in time more effectively than any photograph or keepsake, and it has long been thought than your choice of perfume can say more about you as a person than your choice of frock.

Once you’ve picked out your perfume, Jo Malone keep a record of it in store, meaning that any boyfriends/husbands who might be feeling more than a tad dazed and confused in the run-up to Christmas can avoid unnecessary stress and make sure they’ve invested in the perfect present.

I would recommend everyone visits Jo Malone – whether you want to find yourself a new signature smell or choose an exclusive gift for a loved one, there’s nowhere better for understated glamour and attentive customer service. It’s a credit to them (and maybe slightly embarrassing for me) that I couldn’t stop sniffing my arm all day.

www.jomalone.co.uk

Jo Malone is available at: