Fragrance Friday: Jo Malone London's new Mimosa & Cardamom

If there is one way to bring a certain exoticism and dreams of summer into your life this winter it’s by focusing on the soon-to-be-released new fragrance from Jo Malone London, Mimosa & Cardamon.

With a scent that brings to mind fresh flowers, the outdoors and light, Jo Malone’s newest is quite literally a breath of fresh air. Its heady mix of golden mimosa and spicy cardamon blend together for a scent that is mesmerising and sweet, with hints of sandalwood, heliotrope and damask rose thrown in that had me from the get-go.

The incredibly young, clever and good-looking perfumer Marie Salamagne - who created the new scent - says her inspiration came from the old-world view of travel combined with the hedonism of the sixties and the modern day bohemian. The paintings of Frederick Leighton also served as a base for the scent.

“We looked at places like Marrakesh and Tangiers which were bohemian havens in the sixties for people such as the Rolling Stones to literary characters like Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited. Jo Malone London wanted to draw on this inspiration but also bring a sense of modernity to the scent. We looked at what the bohemian spirit means today from new bohemian fashion with its eclectic prints, colourful pattern and drapery to a love of travel off the beaten track.”

Salamagne worked with 100 per cent natural mimosa extract sourced from Provence to give the scent its sweet, delicate and totally unqiue touch. “The young branches were harvested by hand and the extraction carried out immediately within two to three hours on fresh flowers in Grasse and Tourrettes. The flowers harvested in the Tanneron were traditionally processed: the first solvent extraction to produce the concrete, then a secondary extraction with alcohol to obtain the absolute. One kilogram of absolute is obtained with 500 kilograms of Mimosa.”

For me the fragrance conjured images of decadent bohemian princesses like Talitha Getty upon first sniff, and it has grown on me more and more. The home candle is also an absolute joy, and definitely brings the sunlight on even a dark, wintry day.

Jo Maline London believes that fragrances are extremely personal and that what works for one person, may not for another. Hence their in store experience, where visitors can receive a sort of customised journey when choosing a scent. So whether you feel the Mimosa and Cardamon suits you better as a fragrance or as a room scent, that’s entirely up to you – I love it as both. You can also layer the scent with other Jo Malone London offerings, with top picks being English Pear and Freesia as well as the heady Red Roses.

The new Mimosa & Cardamon scent comes in a range of products from cologne to body cream to scented candles, making it perfect for both the home and for you, and it is available in stores this September.