Hinoki & Cedarwood

‘Oh my goodness, I love it. I just love it,’ says Céline Roux, Global Head Of Fragrance at Jo Malone London, as she takes in the scent on her perfume blotter. ‘I’ve been going through an obsession with this,’ she adds with a laugh. ‘And so now, everyone has to go through the obsession with me.’ 

The captivating scent Céline speaks of is Hinoki & Cedarwood, the latest addition to the Cologne Intense collection. A distinctive scent that blends hinoki wood – a Japanese cypress prized for its dry, fragrant and resinous aroma – with a clean aromatic accord and elegant cedarwood. The result is an immersive woody fragrance that Céline describes as a ‘sexy clean scent’. One that has long existed in her imagination. It’s impossible to imagine, but if not for a day Céline remembers as being ‘banal but productive’, Hinoki & Cedarwood might never have come to be.

‘I had started exploring ideas for a new Cologne Intense years ago and knew I wanted something woody. We toyed with various ingredients…’ but nothing quite stuck so the project came to a natural pause. ‘And then one Saturday,’ she recalls, ‘I was alone at home and somehow ended up reading about hinoki wood. It was then that I remembered I had always wanted to work with this ingredient.’ Once the idea was ignited, it was impossible for Céline to let it go. ‘I had hinoki on the mind,’ she recalls, laughing. 

The Cologne Intense collection – deep, intense fragrances crafted with rare and precious ingredients – is one that Céline describes as ‘an invitation to travel’. Sometimes figuratively, other times a literal exploration of a destination or culture. Hinoki & Cedarwood is a combination of the two. The revered hinoki wood is used in Japanese incense, self-care practices and therapeutic forest bathing. Known in Japan as shinrin-yoku, the latter is the act of spending time in the forest among hinoki (and other) trees with the aim of connecting to nature, lauded for its scientifically proven health benefits. ‘I went to Japan just so I could experience shinrin-yoku,’ reminisces Céline. ‘I love the idea of the serenity that comes from this immersion. And then, of course, the smell of hinoki which reminds me of a dry, clean sauna. It’s just beautiful.’

Clove and lavender join hinoki in the heart of Hinoki & Cedarwood. The top note, a clean accord that both Céline and Anne Flipo – the perfumer who worked alongside Céline – were enchanted by. ‘This clean skin note works well with the aromatic hinoki, both nicely contrasting with the amber and cedarwood base.’ Despite this, as with all Jo Malone London scents, you can still expect ‘a thread of freshness’, says Céline. What is unexpected, however, is the length of time it took to create: months as opposed to years. As such, she explains, ‘we worked on the scent non-stop. Wearing it, testing it, refining it. We gave so much. Truly a labour of love.’ And she is thrilled with the final result. ‘It really takes you away; to nature, to serenity, to a different place. And,’ she adds with a mischievous smile, ‘it leaves you smelling sexy clean.’

Discover more:

Hinoki wood is a key ingredient in this fragrance. Can you talk us through how it’s extracted?

Celine: Hinoki is a variety of cypress, and it’s one of five trees that was considered sacred in imperial Japan. Hinoki wood has always been highly prized and was at one time protected by the Samurai. It’s still protected today, just in a different way: our suppliers harvest branches that are then processed by local artisans in the same Japanese village to create the essential oil that we use in the fragrance.
 

Why did you decide to work together with Anne on this fragrance?

Céline: I’ve been on so many olfactive adventures with Anne, discovering new places and new ingredients to create a whole host of different fragrances. She’s one of the perfumers we’ve worked most closely with at Jo Malone London, but we’ve never done a Cologne Intense together before. As we were already going back and forth with our woody accord even before we decided to incorporate hinoki, it only made sense to finished what we started.

Anne, what was it like working on a Cologne Intense fragrance for the first time?

Anne: Creating a fragrance with intensity and depth but also with that fresh, luminous Jo Malone London feel was definitely a challenge, but one that I was very excited to take on. It’s like Céline says: we’d been tinkering with our woody note for some time, but as soon as we involved Japanese hinoki it felt like we had found the solution that we’d been looking for so long. Other aspects of the composition continued to evolve, but once hinoki was introduced into the heart of the fragrance, we just fell in love with it.

What’s it like working with hinoki as a key ingredient?

Anne: It’s like other varieties of cypress in that it has fresh, woody, slightly aromatic qualities. But Japanese hinoki is even fresher and more aromatic, offering a very ‘toppy’ profile for a wood, which gives everything a real burst of energy.

If you had to sum up the fragrance in just a few words, what would they be?

Céline: I would call it a glorious contradiction of sexy, clean freshness and woody, ambery warmth.

Anne: A sexy wood. Very modern, very Jo Malone London and very memorable.

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