Jo Loves Green Orange & Coriander: Exclusive Q&A with Jo

Set against breathtaking views of the Indian Ocean, this exclusive Jo Loves House spans 300 sqm of  luxury, complete with its own private infinity pool. The space comes alive with green and orange details that echo the fragrance's essence, to elevate the guest experience. Starting from a welcome with Green Orange & Coriander inspired canapés, guests are then pampered with custom-made Jo Loves towels, and can enjoy cosy evenings (just like Jo did with her loved ones) with the in-house popcorn machine. The experience is complete with Jo's personal favourite addition: the Jo Loves Bath Butler service, followed by moments in the private steam room, for ultimate relaxation.

Today, we sit down with Jo herself to delve deeper into her creative process. We discover what drives her passion for creating innovative fragrance that becomes part of a hotel experience, and learn how a single moment in New York has blossomed into a sensorial journey across the world to the Maldives, with a few rapid fire questions at the end.

Green Orange & Coriander came from a family memory in New York. How do you decide which personal moments from your life are worth turning into a Jo Loves fragrance?

I think I always know when there is a moment, and it stops me dead in my tracks. It might be riding a horse, walking by a beach or having a coffee in the little streets in Italy, and I just feel creativity starting to put all these moments and memories into little fragrance notes. 

I see it all like an incredible watercolour turning to oil, turning into sculpture – I can feel life breathing into a memory. It is my job to recreate that memory. It’s not something I can control; it just knocks on the door and says, 'this is a moment - pay attention'.  

Now that Green Orange & Coriander is living at Naladhu in the Maldives, how do you think the scent would be different in that tropical villa than it did during that snowy New York moment that inspired it? 

The great thing about Green Orange & Coriander is that it is a bit of a chameleon scent. It can be very masculine in crunchy snow, but it can also be great on a hot summer’s day, in a white linen shirt or a beach towel. It is very happy on a beach, in a town or city, on a boat or up in the mountains.

There is this freshness to it, almost like drinking iced sparking water – that feeling of coolness. It is a wonderful all-rounder!

The fragrance world can be quite traditional. What's the biggest rule you've broken with Jo Loves that you're most proud of?

I think I break the rules every day. I challenge everything that my creativity is about and also what the fragrance industry expects. I was one of the first people to wear several fragrances layered together, so I am a rule-breaker!

I also developed the world's first fragrance paintbrush, allowing you to paint your body with fragrance, like you would paint on a canvas. I am a disrupter, and that's when I’m at my happiest.

You've introduced bespoke experiences and special touches inspired by the Green Orange & Coriander scent for this collaboration. What's the most out-of-this-world advice you've ever received about how people should experience fragrance?

For this project, working with our fragrance paintbrushes and encouraging people to learn to paint the body with fragrance, as though it were a beautiful canvas -  but instead of the art being for sight, it’s for your sense of smell.

The Fragrance Paintbrush is so versatile in bringing fragrance into our lives in many different ways. You can add them to ice buckets on the beach to keep you nice and cool, you can paint your beach towel, so you have this wonderful Green Orange & Coriander mixing with salty air. I love being able to bring your five senses into a moment.

Green Orange & Coriander can be a salad or a drink, it can be white crisp towels, the texture of the finest linen or cashmere, rolling seas and blue skies or a beautiful old wooden boat sailing across the Maldivian waters.

Imagine you could only smell one thing for the rest of your life - what would you choose and why? 

It would have to be my husband and my son! As fragrance notes, they both love vetiver, grapefruit and neroli. I would never be able to choose just one! But it would be able to smell the people you love. When my son went to Uni, he was wearing Ebony Wood (one of my creations for Zara). I stood and I waited until I couldn’t smell Ebony Wood anymore and then I knew he was gone onto his next chapter. I turned around and my darling husband was there behind me and I was greeted with the scent of Cobalt Patchouli and Cedar.

I love all the fragrances I have created for many different reasons. 

Candles or diffusers?

Candles – I love the way a candle creates atmosphere and throws the scent

Urban energy or nature's calm?

Can’t choose it would be 50:50 – I love both and I think that’s the magic of life – is to enjoy the things that collide and that are different

Base notes you gravitate towards:

Amber, Cedarwood, Vetiver, Oud

Season that inspires you most:

Spring – because I love new life. I love blossoms and freshness, the greenness and a rainstorm now and again.

Go-to Jo Loves fragrance:

I think it would be the fragrance I created for myself, Jo By Jo Loves. It’s a mezze of grapefruit notes, and I always have a bottle with me wherever I go!  

Best time of the day:

Getting out of the shower and whilst my body is still damp I spray myself with Jo By Jo Loves – it’s my scent underwear, and I do it everyday!

This collaboration was formed with the support of global guest experience curators, VANITY GROUP. A stay for two in the Jo Loves House with the signature Green Orange & Coriander fragrance for the exclusive hotel experience, is now available at Naladhu Private Island Maldives with a minimum of four nights, or explore Minor Hotels resorts in the Maldives.