Hiya Posse, If you’ve been reading for a while you’ll know that my husband Jin has become a bit of a perfumista himself. He has a collection of interesting things, mostly a few years old, that he has fallen in love with over time. This month I’m going to share four of his faves. Starting with one of his first major purchases was 154 Cologne by Jo Malone. This year it turns 25! Yep, released back in 2001. So while Estée Lauder had bought it (1999) but before Jo Malone herself left the building (2006). I can’t even remember how he came across it. Maybe it was a sample I passed to him or on a perfume sniffing adventure. Maybe someone else wearing it spurred him. We’ll never know now. It’s one of the fragrances I really like him wearing. Calmly confident.
154 Cologne by Jo Malone 2001
Jo Malone London gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin
Heart: English Lavender
Base: Vetiver
The opening is very mandarin for about ten seconds, then it becomes much more citrus melange. The lavender comes through clearly and has an extra herbaceous edge like stripping leaves off a branch and crushing them. It’s very pretty and not like a clean, clear lavender CHANEL Jersey style. In my mind I’m saying more nuanced, but that’s such an unfair assessment. Then I’m aware of the grassy, slightly petrolic, greenery of vetiver and some unnamed dry sweetness. The citrus is still quietly huffing away but it’s become part of the whole fragrance.
A masculine leaning unisex that wears very comfortably. It won’t go beast mode on you if you add an extra spritz, it also won’t outlast your workday. There will be traces of not quite laundry musks with a tingle of something green-ish but you won’t be noticeable fragrant unless you’re being intimate.
Strangely, the last time Perfume Posse wrote about Jo Malone was in 2018! Tom did a post on Wild Bluebell. A month before Ann wrote about Star Magnolia, then radio silence.
I’ve not really explored the Jo Malone oeuvre because my skin seems to eat them before I’ve done a circuit of the department store. Do you have favourites?
Portia xx
You forgot about March writing about Jasmine Sambac & Marigold last summer. I recently, happily, got a bottle. I also have 10ml of Wood Sage and Sea Salt – very nice. I should have explored Jo Malone before now. I’m curious to read what other scents of hers get love here.