Jo Malone Blue Agava & Cacao and Wood Sage & Sea Salt

Jo Malone is a perennial favourite - the stylish glass bottles and the achingly cool black and white boxes alone are enough to get many people reaching for their purses and wallets, let alone the fragrances within. Whilst I love their branding, their product itself never appealed to me - until now.

I'm the kind of girl that's drawn to the musky, deeper, vanilla and chocolate end of the fragrance scale. I've worn the same perfume - this Dior Addict - for ten years (with Jean-Paul Gaultier's Classique and Coco Chanel Noir as backups) but after dropping into Jo Malone with my mum at the weekend, I wouldn't mind adding to my collection.

After chatting to Kate about our likes and dislikes, lots of spritzing of the various perfumes, and me practically biting her hand off at one particular perfume, she sat us down to give us a complimentary hand massage. Unlike most other perfumes on the market, Jo Malone's are built to standalone or to be layered on top of each other in a whole manner of different combinations.

Using a combination of the shower gel, body creme and the perfume itself, she layered their newest fragrance Wood Sage & Sea Salt (which, unsurprisingly, is in the 'Woody' family) with their Blue Agava & Cacoa (underneath the 'Floral' family but is undeniably chocolatey) and it just sang. The intense top notes cooled down to a sexy, sultry clean but cocoa scent that lingered well in to the evening.

It's the perfect grown up combination that can be dialled down for daytime or amped up for evening wear. And I think these two may just have been added to my 'If anybody wants to buy me something for Valentine's Day list...'

Although I am also hanging on for the launch of their limited edition Rock The Ages perfumes - five fragrances set to different period of British history. I like the sound of the Tudor Rose & Amber and the Birch & Black Pepper but will just have to wait until the 19 February to find out.