EVER since Jo Malone was a child, she has been making her own perfumes by using shavings of Camay soap and flowers from her garden. The company has since come very far from these quaint beginnings; bought by Estee Lauder in 1999, it has emerged to become a major player in the luxury lifestyle market with stores all over the world.

However, even though Jo Malone herself retired as chairwoman and creative director of the company, its personalised ethos still manages to evoke the playful images of layering freshly crushed flowers over some very fine soap.

A LIFESTYLE OF LUXURY: The ethereal quality of Jo Malone's scents make them ideal to layer. The company also offers Scent Surround, the concept of decorating your home with scented candles and room spray

'Fragrance combining is very bespoke, very individual,' says Debbie Wild, the fragrance & lifestyle director of Jo Malone, about the systematic layering of fragrances the company offers. 'So you find a signature scent; we find out about your lifestyle and what fragrance would suit it - it's very important for us to know.

'It's like wearing a little black signature dress, and accessorising it with fragrance. Make a lovely wardrobe of scent - say you want something fresh in the morning, so you put on some 'Lavender and Amber' with some 'Red Roses'. And maybe you want something warmer in the evening, so you layer it with 'Pomegranate Noir'.'

Fragrance combining was so important to the company's repertoire of services that they trademarked it. The service includes suggestions from the highly trained staff, as well as a booklet that guides you on which scents complement each other. The ethereal quality of Jo Malone's scents do indeed make them ideal to layer: Chandler Burr, the perfume critic of the New York Times, christened Malone with the title, 'Queen of Light.'

'I think the services we provide will make us stand out,' says Ms Wild. 'In Singapore, knowing how busy it is, I think the Jo Malone store in Ngee Ann City will really be an oasis of calm, an inviting place to sit and have a luxurious treatment' - including a special hand and arm massage that all staff are trained to do 'at the treatment bar, which will be totally complimentary. It's a thank you to our customers for coming in'.

Other services that Jo Malone offers include Scent Surround, the concept of decorating your home with scented candles and room spray, of which the choices of fragrances are almost as exhaustive as the one you find in the company's colognes. Here, fragrance combining also comes into play, as you can buy a large candle that features three fragrances of your choice.

It is doubtful Jo Malone herself would have envisioned that her small project - which started with her giving facials in her kitchen - would become the multi-million dollar lifestyle machine it is today. However, the decidedly personal memories that formed the scents are still what makes the company so compelling.

'They are memories in a bottle,' says Ms Wild. 'Every scent has a wonderful memory; they are inspired by things like a walk in a Tuscan field and picking wild figs, or walking down the Champs Elysees and smelling the lime blossoms.'

This article was first published in The Business Times.