Perfume Review: Jo Malone Blue Agava & Cacao

I believe in skin chemistry. I also believe that for whatever reason, with some perfume lines, my skin chemistry practically always works wonderfully well, while with others it either clashes in the most unpleasant manner or simply refuses to cooperate making scents sit on my skin without much development and much depth. Jo Malone is one of my “lucky” perfume houses. Out of her twenty or so fragrances, I wouldn’t like to own and wear maybe one or two and that is a reflection on my tastes rather then the quality of the scents themselves. In short, Malone’s fragrances and I usually “click”. I was very pleased to find out that the new Jo Malone cologne, Blue Agava & Cacao, continues the happy tendency. Blue Agava & Cacao has notes of grapefruit, cardamom, lime, red berry, agava flower, orchid, geranium, salt, white lily, vetiver, cinnamon, cocoa, musk and vanilla. It was “inspired by the artistry of flamenco” and is described as an “impassioned” scent. For all I know, on other people, it is one hot Latin number. On me, it is a soothing comfort scent. To me, “comfort scents” -very roughly! - fall into two categories, snuggly/gourmand and meditative/serene. The former category would include scents like Ambre Narguile, Flowerbomb Extreme, L de Lempicka, the latter, Angelique Incense, Passage d’Enfer, Piper Nigrum, Miyako. Blue Agava & Cacao has the best of both worlds, combining the gourmand warmth with the cool tranquility. The fragrance has a very appealing, subtle, “green” candied quality. It is, however, never too sweet and never too obviously “foody”. The citruses, the spices, the juicy greenness of agava, the coldness of lily balance the sweetness and the "gourmandness". The cocoa, which, I must admit, is not one of my favorite notes, is always present, but rather than being a very prominent player in the composition, it serves as a warm, velvety background. It is there to compliment the subtly edible feel of the top notes and to enrich and add depth to the green, cool, delicately floral heart. The cocoa note is especially attractive in the base, where, combined with the green earthiness of vetiver and musk, it acquires a strange, almost-animalic quality that makes me think of Parfumerie Generale’s animalic/gourmand Musc Maori. I love the juxtaposition of the fluffy, almost edible and the dry, green and earthy. I love the understated, elegant feel of the composition. In short, I am enamoured with Blue Agava & Cacao. Blue Agava & Cacao is going to be officially launched in November, and will be sold at Jo Malone Shops, Jomalone.com, Gloss.com, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Saks. I believe it is already available to preview at some selected stores. It retails for $50.00-$90.00. The image is from Jomalone.co.uk.