A Sardinian Summer

Blossom season is upon us and with it brings a sense of optimism, hope and unadulterated joy. At Jo Malone London we revel in the carefree elation, taking the opportunity to celebrate the olfactive diversity the period brings. By now you know that we like to do things a little differently and this year we’re looking to sun-bathed southern Europe for inspiration. Carefree days by the Mediterranean Sea, where white-sun mornings give way to golden afternoons and balmy evenings, as the sun sinks slowly over the horizon above the placid wash of the waves. The result? Two new colognes representing summer: Sea Daffodil and Bitter Mandarin.
 

The inspiration for Sea Daffodil was born on the southern beaches of the Italian island of Sardinia, which Céline Roux visited in 2017. ‘On a coastal walk, I unexpectedly came across some beautiful white flowers growing in the dunes. They were so striking, popping up all over the sand, metres from the sea. I didn’t recognise the flowers at the time and put the experience to the back of my mind. A year later, perfumer Alexis Dadier was presenting some new fragrance ideas and mentioned that he was fascinated by a flower called lys des sables – lily of the sands. It was only when he showed me pictures that I realised it was the same flower that I had seen in Sardinia. In English, it’s called the sea daffodil. We knew right away that we wanted to create a Blossom fragrance inspired by it.’

The rarity of the sea daffodil means it is a protected species and an extract cannot be obtained from it. This inspired Alexis Dadier to create an exclusive accord that balances the solar floral ylang ylang with the warmth of vanilla and creamy sandalwood. ‘We tried to represent the environment in which the flower grows in the accord, which has sea and sand and sprigs of vegetation growing all around. There’s a solar element too: a kind of holiday air suggesting warm sun and summer. And, of course, there’s the fragrance of the flower itself. Sea daffodil belongs to the lily family, but it’s not as spicy as the conventional lily; it’s much more delicate and

transparent. Because it grows near the sea, it has an aqueous quality.’ A scent that explores the duality of elements: luminous yet solar, transparent yet sensual.

To create the perfect pairing for Sea Daffodil, we sought to capture something of the spirit of the Mediterranean in fragrance: the essence of carefree days, enchanted evenings and sultry summer nights. ‘I remembered how people drink orange spritz aperitifs in the summer, combining bitter citrus flavours with fizz. I realised that we could use a mandarin accord created by perfumer Michel Almairac as the basis of a fragrance that could capture the summer freshness of mandarin with the bitterness of the spritz,’ explains Celine. ‘Throughout the development of Bitter Mandarin, we always had the sparkling quality of the aperitif in mind, which we recreated using bergamot, yellow mandarin and petitgrain – an oil extracted from the leaves of the orange tree,’ retells Michel Almairac, the nose behind the colourful, happy scent that captures the carefree spirit of summer.

With the new Blossoms collection, all you have to do is spritz and unleash summer.