Jo Malone
Article added on December 1, 2004

Staying at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Parke - the only London hotel supplied by Jo Malone - in January 2004, I discovered the range of Lime Basil & Mandarin products [added on January 30, 2012: In February 2012, the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park will replace its Jo Malone products in all the rooms and suites by the full range of Isfarkand items by Ormonde Jayne]. Intrigued by this remarkable woman with the passion and drive for excellency, I asked for an interview later this year.

Jo Malone began her career as a facialist, before setting up her Facial Clinic in Chelsea in 1983, with just twelve clients initially. Since then, she has gone far, creating an impressive range of outstanding fragrances, skin care products, facial finishers and inventing the unique concept of Fragrance Combining, which gives you the freedom to express your individually on the olfactory level.

Some twenty years ago, Jo Malone began to invite clients up to her Chelsea flat where she applied her facials, hand mixed products, tailored specifically for the skin of each client, applied by the power of touch in a facial massage at a time when electronic equipment was en vogue. Word of mouth about Jo Malone and her personal touch spread quickly and soon she had over 2,000 clients vying for facial appointments and her skin care secrets.

The young entrepreneur went to France in order to create unique scents with the help of perfumers from the city of Grasse, based on unusual combinations of ingredients nobody else had ever thought of.

It took Jo Malone some time to persuade the specialists in Grasse of her new, boundary-breaking approach. Her first creation was a Nutmeg & Ginger Bath Oil, offered as a thank-you gift to her first facial clients, one of whom ordered an additional one hundred bottles to give as gifts to her party guests. Of those one hundred, eighty-six called Jo to place their own orders for this unique scent. The Jo Malone brand was born.



Demand grew quickly and Jo realized that she could no longer cope with producing the products at home. With the help of her husband Gary, today still the company's managing director, Jo opened her first store at 154 Walton Street, London in October 1994 (closed in 1999).

Created and launched in 1991, Lime Basil & Mandarin became Jo Malone's bestseller, the cologne that really launched her career and increased her fame and fortune. No wonder, the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park chose this range of products for its guests. Lime Basil & Mandarin is reminiscent of the scent of limes carried on a Caribbean Sea breeze. Fresh limes and zesty mandarins are undercut by peppery basil and aromatic white thyme.

Regarding Fragrance Combining, Jo Malone for instance recommends combining Lime Basil & Mandarin - your little black dress, so to speak - with Grapefruit in order to create a casual and cool fragrance by day, "like adding a crisp linen shirt", and combining it with the sensual warmth of Vetyver to create a more sophisticated evening scent, "like wrapping yourself in the softest pashmina". A tip by Jo Malone: Sniff plain coffee beans in between scents in order to clear the nasal passages, and you are ready to test a new fragrance.

You cannot only combine all fragrances, but also use for instance a shower gel in one scent, a body lotion in a second one and a cologne in a third scent. With currently some seventeen perfume lines in her program, Jo Malone offers an infinity of combinations. You can create your bespoke perfume.

Jo herself combines Amber & Lavender with Vetyver. This is her signature scent. Amber & Lavender was a cologne she created for her husband as an anniversary gift. All of her perfumes are unisex, last longer than most others and are the fruit of a special inspiration. The cologne Verbenas of Provence, created and launched in 1995, is the fruit of a walk under the autumn lime blossom in Paris' Champs-Elysées. The orange blossom scented garden in front of her room in the famous Bel Air hotel in Los Angeles was the source of inspiration for Orange Blossom.

In 1999, Jo Malone not only launched her current flagship store in Sloane Street, London. One month later, her company was bought by Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Jo is still the creative director of the company. Therefore, being bought by a bigger company did not mean the end of innovation, but on the contrary, opened up new research, financial, marketing and distribution possibilities. Jo Malone can for instance use the expertise of the Estée Lauder laboratories in New York and rely and an efficient marketing team.

Today, Jo Malone operates some nine stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland, has some three hundred concessions in the United States and a shop in a department store in Sydney, Australia.

In March 2002, Jo Malone launched a skin care collection, including cleansers, moisturizers and special products, a Facial Finishers Collection was launched in March 2003, a Coffee Fragrances & Tasting Bar concept in November 2003 as well as a Basil Outdoor Living Collection in May 2004. Among her latest creations are the Wild Fig & Cassis Bath Oil, Body Lotion, Shower Gel and Bath Soap, launched in September 2004 as well as the Orange Blossom Bath Oil, Body Lotion and Shower Gel, available since November 2004. We may just be witnessing the creation of a major luxury brand.


Jo Malone. Photo © Jo Malone, London.