Jo Malone London

About the house

Jo Malone began as a facialist working from her own flat in London. She started making bath oils as gifts for clients, and the first blend was nutmeg and ginger. Malone grew up in Bexleyheath in south-east London, left school young and has severe dyslexia. Sources differ on the founding year, giving 1990 in one place and 1994 in others. The first shop, on Walton Street in Chelsea, opened in October 1994, in the middle of a recession.

The early scents were built from only one or two notes and were meant to be worn together, which went against the complex blends common at the time. The cream-and-black packaging and squarish apothecary-style bottles were developed with Isabel Ettedgui.

Estée Lauder Companies bought the business in 1999 for an undisclosed price, and the brand has stayed in its portfolio since. Accounts differ on the shape of the deal: one calls it a full sale, another says the company took a stake. Malone stayed on as creative director until 2006, and said she kept total autonomy after the deal. Her sale contract included a five-year non-compete from the day she left, so she could not launch a new fragrance brand until 2011. That year she founded Jo Loves, which she says she owns outright.

Christine Nagel created 47 scents for the house up to 2014. Wood Sage & Sea Salt launched in September 2014 with a body-care range, credited to Nagel, and won a Marie Claire International Fragrance Award in 2015. PureWow treats Lime Basil & Mandarin, released in the late 1990s, as the house's defining scent, and describes the style as classic citrus paired with something unexpected.