Peony & Blush Suede appeared in 2013 at Jo Malone London, which calls it floral and lays it out itself in three stages: a red apple on top, a peony backed by jasmine, rose and gillyflower, a suede at the base. Now Smell This finds no leather in it but a powdery musk. The label proves it right: it names a cedar, a patchouli and an Iso E Super that the house declares nowhere.
Jo Malone London ranks Peony & Blush Suede among its florals and, rarely, publishes an arrangement in three stages itself, with one note commented on at each level.
What the house lays out
The top goes to a red apple, a tart note opening on a fruity touch. The peony holds the heart; the house lends it delicate accents of rose and honey and a green freshness, and its description adds jasmine, rose and gillyflower to it. The base goes to the suede, a textural note meant to complete the floral opulence.
Gillyflower, and not carnation
The house writes gillyflower in English, giroflée in French. Consumer databases turn the note into carnation, which changes the flower: the gillyflower is a brassicaceous plant with a powdery, honeyed scent, the carnation a caryophyllaceous one studded with eugenol. The spelling of the house is the one kept here.
What the label declares
Jo Malone London publishes a list of thirty-one bodies, hiding nothing, under formula reference ILN54066. It names materials that the official arrangement leaves out entirely: bergamot essence, patchouli, rose essence, rose ketones, geranium, orange blossom, acetyl cedrene, vanillin, beta-caryophyllene and tetramethyl acetyloctahydronaphthalenes, which the industry calls Iso E Super.
The suede is not a leather
Jessica, at Now Smell This, says it without detour: the suede announced has nothing leathery about it, it is a lightly powdery musk that blends into the rose and the peony to carry them further. The label confirms: no leather, no animal note, but a woody, musky base of cedar, patchouli and Iso E Super. The word suede stands here for the texture, not for the material.