Oud & Bergamot opened the Cologne Intense collection at Jo Malone London in 2010, four fragrances entrusted to Christine Nagel and aimed first at the Gulf markets. The house declares only three notes: bergamot, cedar, oud. Chant Wagner, for her part, smells mostly ambergris and orange, and judges that Nagel tamed the oud until she stripped it of its animal side.
The house's slab of clear glass, under a silver label that sets the Cologne Intense apart from the rest of the range.
The container does not change from one fragrance to another at Jo Malone London: clear glass, straight lines, a cap without decoration, and the cream case closed with a grosgrain ribbon that the house gives with every order. Its retailers all describe the same thing, from the Parisian department store to the British perfumery.
One thing does set the Cologne Intense apart. The label is not cream but silver, dark lettering on metal — Chant Wagner describes it precisely, since she goes back to read it to make sure she has not picked up the wrong bottle. She is alone in noting it, and the detail stands here as her description.
Then there is the format. At the launch in 2010, the collection existed only in 100 ml, at eighty pounds, in thirty-five stores worldwide. It sells today in 50 and 100 ml at European retailers, and the engraving of the bottle, now a house service, applies to it as to the others.