Jo Malone’s favourite time of the year
The British perfumer tells us why Christmas is so special and how she’s planning to celebrate the season
EFFERVESCENT and full of personal anecdotes, Jo Malone is as bright and cheerful as the red dress she’s wearing. In Singapore last week to mark the launch of her Jo Loves range of Mango Thai Lime fragranced guest-room amenities at Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts, the renowned British perfumer asks that you speak a little louder since she’d just “jumped off a plane”.
Other than that, the creator of the Jo Malone London fragrance brand in 1990 is in top form. She sold the brand to Estee Lauder Companies for an undisclosed sum in 1999, before she was diagnosed with breast cancer four years later.
Post recovery, Malone launched her Jo Loves brand in 2011, which has a flagship store in London and partners Vanity Group to supply to the hospitality industry. Full of positive energy, she regales participants at her fragrance “tapas” olfactory workshop at Pan Pacific Orchard with story after story, readily takes wefies with fans and delights in a school choir singing carols in the hotel lobby.
As we head towards Christmas and the year-end festive season, Malone, who is currently based in Dubai, sits down with The Business Times to share her excitement and plans for her favourite time of the year.
Her most memorable Christmas
Oh, I love Christmas so much. Whistler is a pretty special place, but I do love London, so I can’t choose one.
We’ve spent three Christmases in Whistler. When we arrive on the 23rd, the snow has already fallen, there’s a big log fire and a Christmas tree. And it’s the smell – of the snow and pine trees. People are walking their dogs and the toboggans are coming down. Then you get on a bus and go down into the village and Christmas-shop. Whistler is a beautiful place.
But London is my home, and we’ve always had the same traditions in the house. On Christmas Eve, we use candlelight in our house and even cook with candles in the kitchen. There are no electric lights at all. Then we have new pyjamas and bedsheets and scent all the bed linens. My husband and I have done this every year for the 38 years we’ve been together. Then we have a really simple dinner, watch a Christmas movie, and go to the pub that’s next door to our shop.
How she is celebrating Christmas this year
We spent last Christmas in Dubai, and it was just very different. We’re quite traditional and my son, who is a teacher, doesn’t finish school until the 20th of December. So we’re going home to London. And we have these wonderful traditions. Anyone who’s on their own in London, especially the young, they’re all invited to dinner. We’ll put a tree up together, sing carols, have bread and cheese, lovely smoked salmon and everything. We’ll have the most wonderful Christmas together!
The most meaningful Christmas gift she’s ever received
I support an elephant conservation project in South Africa called Thula Thula. And my most treasured and memorable gift was when they (the game reserve) had a baby hippo born and named after me.
The other is this Tiffany star pendant that my husband bought me many years ago for Christmas, which I never, never take off.
Her reflections as the year comes to a close
It’s been one of the happiest years of my life and full of adventure. There were also a few sad, tearful moments that have made me take stock of life. My adventure in Dubai is really coming to fruition this year, and I know I’m going to change the world again. I want to help financially support the things I believe in. In order to do that, I need to be successful, but I enjoy being successful. It’s not hard work for me at all.
And I just think something’s happened to me this year. The BBC Maestro course (an online educational platform featuring world-class experts) I was on, made me wonder – could we go into education? Should we be teaching people how to think like an entrepreneur to equip the next generation? Or are we going to make a movie about my life? I don’t know what it is, but I know I can do it.
And the reason why I left the UK is because I knew that if I waited to sit at the banquet of opportunity, I’d miss it. So I decided to take myself to places where I could do something. And the opportunities have just come. I’m so blessed to have that in my life.
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