Jo Malone Wood Sage & Sea Salt is the newest 2014 release for the regular Jo Malone line. Not a limited, not part of the rain series or garden series or intenses or whatever. Yeah! Yeah because it’s one I really like for exactly what it is. More on that in a second.
First, winners of the Arquiste The Architect’s Club samples – mikasminion, flowergirlbee!, Laurels and Lemoncake. Click on the Drop Us a Note at the top of the blog, send me your address, remind me what you’ve won. I’ll reply quickly to let you know I got the e-mail and it didn’t get stuffed in the overclogged arteries of my junk mail, then I’ll get it sent out to you. Enjoy! It’s becoming one of my favorite fall scents – and oops, I think I blew the miss on that last week.
Jo Malone Wood Sage & Sea Salt is just that. Herby salty woods. It’s like a crisp cold ocean breeze whistling past my nose, and it reminds me of all the things I used to love about Jo Malone. Her unusual use of two notes together as the complete perfume – ginger and nutmeg, coffee and vetiver. Not maybe unusual, but they always seemed not quite complete or not complete, but they always felt pretty perfect to me.
Wood Sage & Sea Salt isn’t some brand new entry into the perfume market that’s going to blow your socks off, but if you like salty scents – yes! – then this is one you should try. It’s easy to wear, feels like it would work for any time of the year, unisex, and did I mention a pleasure to wear with all these happy feelings just radiating from it? Yeah, that too. It’s the intangible that I like, and it feels more Jo Malone’ish than many of the releases of the past few years have been. Notes listed are ambrette seeds, sea salt, sage, grapefruit and red algae.
What I was hoping would show up today didn’t. You guys remember hearing about that other Serge Lutens release, L’Incendiaire? Well, yeah, when I got the rest of the deets on it, I about had a heart attack. Serge has turned into a moderately priced line a lot of the time, especially when you can snag the export bottles at Beauty Encounter (link on the right if you want to go shopping) for less than $100 and sometimes with a discount I’ve gotten Chergui for like $66. The bell jars at Barney’s are not a bargain, they are cheaper in Europe, but you do have the price of the ticket and the extra shopping while there. Serge Lutens L”incendiare is a 50 ml bottle for …
$600.[pullquote]Your crimes are mine, and I take them with me to the guillotine, where the executioner is waiting to cut the ruffian’s – my – story short. But my destiny is entirely in your hands![/pullquote]
I’ll just leave you with that while I’m waiting for my bottle to show up. Yeah, I have to because we need to get it for STC. If not, I would have had to think about that for a long time and make sure it was true, true love, before I’d ever – and maybe not ever – spring for a bottle. Ugh. I’ll let you know once I get it and sniff it. I hope it’s not love, but I sorta hope it is because — I don’t know why, but I always hope the stratospheric price tag perfumes move me in a way nothing else does or why should it be so much?
Favorite Jo Malone or just your double-take and shocked mutterings about the Serge Lutens L’Incendiaire price to be entered in a drawing for a sample of the Jo Malone. I’ll give away three of them.
My favorite Jo Malone is the grapefruit which I like to layer with her now discontinued Muguet. Regarding the $600 price tag maybe he should rename “1%”
I’ve been wearing the Wood Sage & Sea Salt since I got a sample on Saturday and liking it a lot. Still chocking on the $600.
600 $ for a bottle, who wouldn’t be curious? Maybe there is gold and diamonds inside each? As for Jo Malone, I haven’t
found any that I’ve felt excited about. Maybe that’s the one? Salt is a note I like.
I’d love to try the Jo Malone…it sounds like my type! $600.00 is just not happening for me, I’m currently coveting a bottle of Heeley Cardinal and can’t even bring myself to cough up the $180.00!!
No Jo Malones for me, but I’m always up for trying something new.
Serge Lutens – what’s going on with that? Is it a marketing ploy to increase demand based on the assumption that customers will link high price with high value? Not sure it will wash with me.
I quite enjoy Jo Malone. Some are very easy to like, and that is sometimes a good thing IMHO. I have two small bottles : Earl Grey & Cucumber and White Jasmin & Mint. Next, I’m tempted by English Pear & Freesia or Blackberry & Bay. But I can’t wait to smell this new one… Sounds super nice!
Wow. You can buy soo many things with $600, I can’t even imagine a perfume THAT good could exist….
I haven’t found a Jo Malone that I’ve been excited about yet, but maybe this is the one! As for $600, well that’s just silly. It just can’t smell good enough to justify that for me. It would also need to clean my bathrooms, or clear out my garage.
Favorite Jo Malone is a toss-up. I like Orange Blossom, Wild Bluebell, Bitter Orange and Chocolate and Dark Amber/Ginger Lily. I’m not much on salt notes, but this one might change my mind. Thanks for the drawing.
I like Jo Malone Vanilla and Anise and in fact, wore that one a few days ago. I am yet another person hoping that a replacement will come along for MH Fleurs de Sel. Fortunately, I bought a bottle of Fleurs de Sel right before it seemed to disappear from
US markets.
Admittedly, I have not tested many Jo Malone’s, but those that I have, were not so “me”. I do like the idea of sea salt and I LOVE sage, so I appreciate being entered in the draw! 🙂 ($600. tsk, tsk Serge)
I haven’t tried any JM but would love to. Thanks for the opportunity! I’m not as shocked by the price for the new SL as they’ve always seemed expensive to me. I am shocked that I can maybe get them at a reasonable price from the web site you mentioned. Thanks for sharing that too!
I don’t even know if I want to try the $600 Lutens. For that kind of money, I think my standards would be so high that I’m almost bound to be disappointed in it. For $600 it had better be amazing.
I have only tried a few Jo Malones, and the ones I’ve tried haven’t really clicked with me overall. This new one does sound nice, so I will check it out next time I’m at Saks or Neiman Marcus.
$600 for 50 mL!!! I’m already having palpitations over what a beginner-level perfume obsession is likely to cost me without bringing extra zeros into the mix – thanks a lot, Serge! I’ve only ever tried one Jo Malone, Wild Fig and Cassis, but it’s one of those names that keeps coming up. Gotta try it!
$600? Ouch Even for a business like STC, that’s a substantial investment. Not sure why, but I still love Blue Agava and Cacao the best. Quite different from anything else I own and it’s something I can keep buying. I gave up on the LE’s.
Kohdo wood is my favorite although I also own a full bottle of the Elderflower one from the tea series and I regularly enable my husband by buying bottles for him for gifting occasions. We both love the tomato leaf candle which has excellent throw too.
I would love to be entered because I had a sample and my husband absconded with it.
For that price, it sounds like a frangrance one doesn’t want to fall in love with. 600…oh dear!
I’ve tried a few Jo Malone, but not nearly as many as I’d like to. My favourite is Rose Water & Vanilla, but I also liked the Kohdo wood day one (lotus blossom and… something). This one, Wood Sage & Sea Salt, is on my list of scent I want to try (sadly, being equally new — to the world of perfumes — and poor, it’s a long list that I just very, very slowly work my way through). As I’ve mentioned before, the whole story and promo shots attract me as I love the seaside — around the year: I’m more often by the sea in autumn, winter and spring than in summer. Also, right now I’m curious about salty fragrances in general (a couple of the ones mentioned in comments above are on my list too).
$600 for a bottle is crazy – especially when it’s not even one of those delicious looking engraved bell jars. That at least I could understand, even if I couldn’t afford it. Like KimB above, I’m looking for something to eventually replace my Fleurs de Sel, so I will have to check this Jo Malone out. I like her White Jasmine and Mint, although I don’t own a bottle, and my son has her Sweet Lime and Cedar, which I also like. There are several of hers that I like, but nothing that I’ve loved enough to buy – maybe this will be it, because I will eventually need a salty replacement scent.
Oh Jo Malone – my current favorite is Oud & Bergamot from the Intense Collection.
Regarding $600 perfumes, Queen Cupcake says it perfectly. Personally I couldn’t seriously consider a $600 perfume. Although perhaps that’s the point. Frightening!
The price of the new Lutens smacks of the Roja Dove effect, whereby a new company puts out a bunch of perfumes in that stratospheric price range and suddenly everyone else is panicked about looking less luxurious, less special, because they sell for less. I suspect that the next step will be for every self-respecting perfume house to have an offering over $1000, and that way lies madness.
Somehow I’ve never tried a Jo Malone, and would like to, especially a salty one.
i have a few jo malones, and although they are really simple i really enjoy wearing them, especially in the summer..my fav’s are wild bluebell and english pear and freesia…$600 is crazy town…have any other lutens cost that much?
i love sea salt as a note and would really appreciate a sample of this : )
I like salty perfume so I’d be interested in comparing the salty woods of the Jo Malone with Eau des Merveilles.
Aspirational pricing is ridiculous. At least Lutens has a proven track record – although I could and would never pay that price – but I have more problems with high priced perfume in general, like the dozens of new lines that debut ten perfumes at over $200 a bottle and don’t offer samples, or established companies that offer a prestige line that doesn’t smell any better than the regular stuff. Enough already. It may be art but it’s also a personal care product with an indefinite shelf life, especially when you get into the all natural accords that are so labor intensive to produce and volatile besides.
Salty scents–that is new territory for me. I think the only Jo Malone I have is Violette, or something like that. And, much as I would like to be familiar with more of Serge Lutens perfumes, the price tag usually puts me off. $600 is just a blind spot on my perfume-shopping radar. I don’t even see it!
I am a JM ho – I own FB of Peony and Blush Suede, Nectarine Blossom and Honey, French Lime Blossom and Earl Grey and Cucumber. I also have healthy splits of Rosewater and Vanilla and the Wood Sage en route, so please DNEM. They are not earth shaking, but each one has a certain specific charm, and my skin holds them for 6 + hours. This time of year, the EG+Cuke is a wonderful, crisp reflection of the outdoors.
I like Pomegranate Noir by Jo Malone but think its overpriced for what it is.
Six. Hundred. Dollars? Wow. I don’t think I could live with myself if I spent that much on a single bottle of perfume. It would have to be the holy grail for me and even then with how I like to spray lavishly I’d think of the dollar value of every spritz.
Never tried a Jo Malone before, would like to.
Is Uncle Serge taking the aspirational wagon? Nooooooooo!
Oh, I love sea salt in perfumes…my favourites are Sel Marin by Heeley and Imperial Millesime by Creed, but I have no experience so far with Jo Malone scents so I’d love to give it a try.
As for the Serge – I’m always afraid that a perfume at such a high price won’t justify it, but I’m curious to sniff it of course. I’m also curious to know “what’s inside” 😉
For $600 this perfume should be the rarest and finest in all the land! I admit I’m curious, but right now am more interested in Jo Malone. I recently realized that I like salty elements in scent but haven’t found one yet that gets me really excited.
Gasping! How can any bottle of perfume be WORTH $600, when there are so many, many other fragrances for 1/6 that amount? Shocking. “I’ve never tried a Jo Malone,” she said sheepishly.
I have enjoyed the magazine inserts for Wood Sage & Sea Salt that I’ve sniffed. It definitely reminded me of the shore and all the good things associated with beach trips. As for the new SL, that price deserves a double-take or a spit-take! I really hesitate to try scents in that price range. That’s like not trying on bridal gowns above your price range — same idea. Why risk breaking your heart over something you can’t have? (Okay, so I might be able to afford a ml or two.) 🙂 But I’m eager to read all about it, especially from someone who has actually worn it and given it a test drive.
also don’t have a favourite Jo Malone – but I am forever hoping for a replacement for my salty love from Miller Harris Fleurs de Sel which I can no longer find anywhere on this side of the Atlantic.
Yes, perhaps someone here who has tried both can craft a wee “Compare and Contrast” essay
Shocked double-take! That’s exactly what I was doing when I heard the price. Like when an old cartoon character saw a ghost: “Gho!– . . . Gho!– . . . Gho!– . . . Ghost!!!” =:o)
I already really enjoy Sel de Vetiver and Sel Marin, so this would be fun to try as well. Thanks for the drawing.
I don’t think I have a favorite Jo Malone in all honesty though herbal salty woods sound divine, particularly because I love woods. Now 600 dollars!??? Last year I was making a bit more than that monthly so for now, and perhaps for a long time, that amount of money will remain sacred. Do I want to try it? Hell, yeah! It’s Serge Lutens, how can I not? but I am a bit put off but the excessive price. I love perfumes but I have been jobless for too long to be able to have access to something so expensive.
Thanks 🙂