Kennedy—and her admirer—aren't the only ones smitten with the 34-year-old Malone's sensuous scents. The Englishwoman's perfumed colognes, soaps and lotions, known for their unusual combinations of natural ingredients (the best seller is Lime, Basil & Mandarin), have lately blossomed from a well-kept secret to a worldwide rage among cognoscenti. Devotees are reported to include Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and Queen Noor of Jordan. Malone, who has a booming store in London, a boutique in the Joseph designer shop in Paris and a flourishing mail-order business, opened her first U.S. outpost in New York City's tony Bergdorf Goodman this spring. "Three months of stock sold out in two days," marvels Bergdorf spokeswoman Barbra Lewinski. "She's truly a phenomenon."
Why the frenzy? Explains Malone: "People are looking for something different." When she first spoke to French parfumeurs about the possibility of mass-manufacturing her scents—such unorthodox combinations as nutmeg and ginger—"they thought I was completely off the wall," she says. "People think the scents will clash."
Apparently, they do anything but. Malone, billed as one of the best noses in Europe in a recent British Vogue article, began mixing her perfumes in her kitchen sink a decade ago. Her dozen or so fragrances, she says, are all inspired by personal experiences. "French Lime Blossom was a walk down the Champs Elysees in Paris on a spring day," she says. Sandalwood soap stemmed from sitting in a fragrant chair while traveling in the Middle East. Her collection—a one-ounce bottle of perfume costs $40; skin-care lotions start at $35—is "like the Rolls-Royce of Body Shops," says Hong Kong retailing impresario David Tang, a fan of Malone's grapefruit body lotion and scented candles.
Malone's affection for fragrances began during her bohemian childhood in Bexley, outside London. As a girl she helped her mother, Elaine, whip up creams and masks for her one-woman skin-care business. "I would grind the sandalwood and strain the juniper," says Malone. She honed her entrepreneurial instincts by hawking paintings by her artist father, Peter, at the local outdoor market.
Because finances were tight, Malone dropped out of school at 16 to work at a flower shop. She met Gary Willcox, then a construction surveyor, while taking a night class at a bible college; they wed in 1985. Willcox encouraged Malone to keep up the family tradition by doing facials in clients' homes. With heavy equipment to lug to about 20 loyal customers, "it was hard work," she says.
Then, 10 years ago, Malone decided to reward her clients (she still treats a select few) with a homemade batch of nutmeg-and-ginger-scented bath oil. One asked for 100 bottles to give out at a society dinner. To Malone's amazement, more than 80 of the guests later called to request more—and her fragrance business was airborne.
As word of mouth built, she and Willcox, 38, who handles the business's finances, at first mixed and sold her concoctions in their one-bedroom Chelsea apartment, writing each label by hand. Demand grew so fast that they were soon standing in their tiny kitchen all night filling "hundreds and hundreds of orders," says Malone. "I wanted to cry, I was so tired." In 1994 they opened the London shop and contracted out production to factories. Last year they grossed $2 million.
Always on the scent of new products, Malone recently designed a line of fragrances and bath products for French Connection clothing stores. She also came up with the fragrance for the moist towelettes given out at McDonald's in Britain—a "very fresh, very clean" aroma combining grapefruit, lime and verbena, she says. She plans to open more shops in the U.S. and Australia by early next year. Another venture, Scent-an-Event, will soon be perfuming the air at parties. "I want to push the boundaries of fragrance," she says. "I live and breathe this business."
Samantha Miller
Lydia Denworth in London, Siobhan Benet in New York City and Andrea Pawlyna in Hong Kong
- Contributors:
- Lydia Denworth,
- Siobhan Benet,
- Andrea Pawlyna.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
