A View from the Top with Jo Malone: ‘When I’m creating, I come alive’

The entrepreneur’s second brand, Jo Loves, was born without any external help and she tells Zlata Rodionova she is now finally ready to take it onto the global stage

Jo Malone has broken the fragrance mould not once but twice (Jo Loves)

Jo Malone needs no introduction. After founding one of Britain’s most famous fragrance brands in the 1980s, the hugely successful, self-made businesswoman went on to sell her eponymous company – whose products are now available in 22 countries – to Estée Lauder for undisclosed millions in 1999.

She could have put her feet up and retired before 40 – but the “Queen of fragrance” had other plans. Malone stayed on as creative director of the brand until 2006 – a period during which she was also diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. But stepping away from Jo Malone, the company she created at her kitchen table, proved harder than she thought.

The Estée Lauder deal included a “lockout clause”, which meant she was contractually prevented from being part of the beauty industry and forced into a five-year exile. Such was her influence, this meant she wasn’t even allowed to purchase items from a beauty counter in case it appeared to be an endorsement.