[unpaid/sample/affiliate/ad] If you get sentimental about fragrance, be prepared! The Jo Malone London Scented Mementos collection is, I think, the best thing the brand has ever done, full of care, thought and nostalgia. Scented Mementos takes inspiration from antiques markets and while in the normal course of events, Jo Malone London fragrances are ingredients driven, Celine Roux, Global Head of Fragrance, took her lead from objects found at British antique markets.
It’s a feat of olfactory engineering to create a Ginger Beer fragrance that’s not obviously ginger beer and yet, completely ginger beer. Celine discovered an old ginger beer bottle at Sunbury Antiques Market that convinced her ginger beer must be a part of the Scented Mementos collection and I love her story of testing lots of ginger beers and realising it’s not just about the fizz and spice. I mean, that must have been a fun afternoon sitting in the meeting room sipping zingy bubbles – some ginger beers can be really fiery! But, if you can get past the sugar, it’s a drink that warms and comforts so what could the team add to make it more fragrance but still the essence of what is a very British drink? It turns out that roasted oak, vetiver, cinnamon and amyris are the perfect partners to the heat of ginger beer – the initial spritz is all ginger and fizz but the warm down is smooth, nutty and woody with just a trace of ginger.
If you’re looking for a childhood reminiscence of The Famous Five, this version isn’t it – it’s too grown up and sophisticated for that – but there’s certainly a sense of adventure and the great outdoors to it.
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Passiflora cologne is the boom in the room – it’s all about amplifying the passion flower so what you get is a fragrance that smells like a night flower newly opened and singing at its sweetest (passion flowers generally bloom in the mornings but there are night blooming versions). Passiflora has a natural nuttiness to it in the form of almond which shines through and the addition of tonka and cardamom gives it a creamy smoothness. Despite Passiflora sounding heavy, there is a modern freshness to it which fortunately doesn’t stop it being a very sumptuous and sexy fragrance.
These two fragrances could not be more different – if either one could be described as not typical ‘Jo Malone London’, it’s Passiflora but for a unisex fragrance that gives you little pings of nostalgia, it’s Ginger Beer all the way. There are two other fragrances in the Scented Mementos collection – Emerald Thyme and Musk Memento. Go for the latter if you love the smell of a clean, freshly laundered shirt and Emerald Thyme if you prefer a more herbal, apothecary fragrance with accents of lemon. The Scented Mementos are £58 each HERE.
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