I fear that this present is the beginning of a beautiful friendship that clouds all reasonable judgement...
Because just a week after receiving it, I somehow ended up in the brand's dreamy quarters, purchasing a gorgeous bottle of perfume.
Jo Malone, you are the devil on my shoulder.
As someone who tends to be quite picky with perfume scents, I knew I was in danger zone when I sniffed around the shop and I pretty much liked every single smell I tried.
Before going to the shop, I actually knew which one I wanted, as I had got a few samples from ebay. I highly recommend doing so if you want to invest in a perfume, because I find that smelling them in a shop (especially in Duty Free!), it becomes quite overwhelming and I am never quite sure if I will like it "in real life".
I could not get over how much I loved the Blackberry & Bay scent - it smells simultaneously feminine and like a gentle man's cologne, with a fruity but not overly sweet edge.
As for the candle? It completely makes up for the fact that we don't have a Christmas tree up because it smells like a whole houseful of them.
Scent is an amazing thing - when you sniff a familiar even years later, it completely transports you back to the time you encountered it. I know that these will always remind me of this very special season.