Jo Loves

Whilst we were tripping round the prettier side of town, we decided to check out Jo Loves, the new offering from parfumiere extraordinaire, Jo Malone. After selling the brand Jo Malone to Estee Lauder back in 1999, Jo moved to America to undergo treatment, before travelling around the world and deciding that she really missed formulating fragrances. She returned to London and set up shop a stone's throw away from the florist she worked at as a teenager, a short walk from Sloane Square on the very pretty Elizabeth Street. 

A flourish of colour amongst the magnolia stone, the shop is a riot of red with huge blossoms in the window and if there's anything to be said about Jo, it's that her branding's definitely on point. Inside, the set up is fairly standard with glass shelves groaning under the bottles of perfumes, candles, body lotion and gift boxes. My mum's a big fan of Jo Malone's Wild Fig and Cassis perfume so we were on the hunt for a future favourite here.

We were taken through the 11 perfumes on offer by one of the lovely girls. She explained that Jo herself is the nose so puts together perfumes that she finds appealing - with some of her fragrances containing almost 200 different essences to get them to that 'just right' stage. If I'm honest, I struggle to get on with the classic Jo Malone fragrances so I didn't know what to expect from Jo Loves. I prefer musky, sensual perfumes with lingering base notes of vanilla, sandalwood or tonka bean so the floral notes of Malone and Loves is just too overpowering for me.

Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised by the Green Orange and Coriander combination that was spicy and sexy at the same time. Despite the name, it's actually quite warm with black pepper and smooth with oakmoss rather than overpoweringly citrussy. It would have been a potential contender for the future, but the staying power was much shorter than expected. After a couple of hours wear on my wrist, it had unfortunately reduced to something a little powdery - this is probably down to the ratio of alcohol and essence within the perfume. At £95 for 100ml I expected a little more staying power but maybe the others fared better?

My mum narrowed her choice down to Pink Vetiver which draws on Jo's scent memories of France and A Shot of Oud Over Mango, with Middle Eastern heritage. Less floral than some of the other fragrances, they still pack quite the punch. We left the shop to head for lunch with possible intentions to come back but the lack of staying power meant that the new fragrances didn't quite tear my mum away from her Wild Fig and Cassis classic.

Jo Loves is in its first year, and the shop's only been open six weeks, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the future brings for the brand that's close to everyone's hearts.

Grasse and Cannes

Grasse - the perfume capital of the world. The setting for Patrick Siskind's novel (and film) and also the place of Edith Piaf's death. Nestled in the hills about 90 minutes bus ride from Nice, Grasse is another pastel-coloured town that is popular with tourists.

Grasse was originally known for its leather, and became the French outpost of the tanning industry. In an effort to combat the unpleasant odour of the tanned leather, a man called Galimard began using the perfume and, after sending a gift of scented gloves to the Royal Court, the popularity swept across Europe. Soon, the fragrance business took over from the tanning and Grasse was surrounded by vast fields of jasmine, rose and orange blossom. As trade ships brought exotic spices and perfumes back from around the world, the range of perfumes grew and grew...and now, there's over 2,500 essences in the world. Grasse still accounts for almost 8% of the global perfume production, and over 10,000 local residents are directly involved in the perfumery business.

We jumped on the 500 to Nice and wound our way inland to the small town. A lot of places were closed - it was a Monday - so Grasse was a lot quieter than it usually is. We meandered to the Fragonard perfumery, Grasse's oldest factory, and did everything backwards - the shop, then the museum, then the guided tour.

The tour explains how they create essences today (they still use cold water and distillation to separate the oils for the perfumes but no longer spend three months replacing jasmine flowers daily), how it is bottled (in distinctive aluminium bottles rather than glass, as sunlight degrades a perfume three times as quickly), and how all perfume noses are trained in France and can identify over 3,000 different scents. Perfumes can feature between 5 and 250 essences, combined in top, middle and base notes, and can take up a year to create. Responding to abstract briefs, the noses (mostly male) have to create something that will last and work on as many people as possible - perfumes settle and smell very different from person to person.

As someone who's worn the same perfume since she was 16 (Dior Addict), I'm not phased by the flippant new releases of floral perfumes but loved trying to identify the notes from the bottles in front of us. Perfumes are like signatures and I think it's tricky to get it right - we all tried one of the colognes for me (perfume for men doesn't exist) and all agreed favourably on the fresh scent. Agreeing on a majority choice for us women, on the other hand, was impossible. But I liked that.

After Grasse, and an obligatory stop for ice cream, we headed down to the coast to Cannes. Despite a promise of the boat show (always one to stop at yachts), we found Cannes pretty unremarkable and a little underwhelming. The film, literary and advertising festivals breathe life into the infamous coastal town but off-season, it's home to bumbling tourists and we left a little disappointed. Not before tracking down the various handprints of movie stars (Hollywood, eat your heart out) and snapping a photo of the internationally renowned Carlton - said to be one of the best hotels in the world...

Chanel Coco Noir

Chanel's Coco has always been a huge part of my childhood - its distinctive fragrance instantly takes me back to my childhood, watching my mum get ready for many a glamorous evening. It filled the house long after my parents had left and I was in bed, under the watchful eye of a babysitter. 

I was lucky enough to be given the newest addition to the Coco family yesterday...and I'm already in love with it. The packaging is equally seductive as its scent - grapefruit and bergamot topnotes, rose and jasmine and patchouli middle notes and a sandalwood, tonka bean and white musk base - and I've been fawning over the jet-black bottle ever since I unwrapped the perfectly pristine Chanel bag.

Chanel Coco Noir(*) is available at Selfridges for £75.00 for 50ml

I'm definitely not one for sweet or florals - my signature perfume being the original Dior Addict - and so Coco Noir is right up my street. The fragrance has real lasting power, with the different notes    giving way to each other as the day progresses. Whilst Coco may lack No. 5's-bottle-sold-every-five-seconds prowess, its little sister Noir definitely makes up for it with sultry, seductive sex appeal.