Perfumer Jo Malone has followed her nose to the Middle East, leaving her native London behind for Dubai, the “hot amber” smell of the desert, the souk air thick with cinnamon, frankincense, and sandalwood, and the scented napkins at the dinner table. “I found a lychee note the other day, and it was so beautiful,” said Malone from her Jo Loves shop on London’s Elizabeth Street. ‘It’s got a very heady scent- quite musky in a funny sort of way. We’d call it an ‘animal note’.
Malone had also recently recovered from what she describes as a serious bout of anxiety, which also got her thinking about her next act. Malone said she loves the people, the climate, and its proximity to the rest of the Middle East, the Far East, and Europe, the fastest-growing markets for the Jo Loves business.
