Hi all! I bought myself a little present recently and I am so glad that I did. In terms of love affairs with fragrance in my life, I have had only one great love, Tory Burch First Fragrance, a beautiful crisp clean citrus scent, that smells like grapefruit and has notes of peony – until today; I bought myself this Jo Malone Peony & Blush Suede Cologne as a present, to me, from me, when I officially got my first freelance writing job. I wanted to mark the occasion and have a little splurge, and I think fragrance is a really nice gift, whether for yourself or someone else. I also loved the idea that whenever I smelled the perfume I would be reminded of why I bought it for myself and of my newfound success doing the thing I love.

It all started with a sample. When I ordered a Bobbi Brown highlighter from Nordstrom a few months ago, which I wrote about here, I was able to pick some lovely samples with my order and one of them was this scent. The second I spritzed it, it was love at first fragrance. I hung out with Darren that day and he noticed that I smelled nice, not to mention it felt like wherever we went that day someone would compliment me on the new scent. I became a walking advertisement for Jo Malone. I knew I had to have it and made the splurge at Sephora, utilizing a 15% off April promotion; insider tip – I always buy perfume in November or April, as Sephora does their 20% and 15% promotions these months!

The packaging is stunning, from the beautiful glass bottle to the label, it looks so pretty sitting on my vanity and the smell, the smell is so incredible! It obviously has floral notes, which sometimes can be overwhelmingly girly, but the unique thing about this beautiful floral scent is its complexity. You get the light beauty and femininity of the peonies, but then the blushed suede gives it a smooth, balanced, slightly masculine tone that makes the whole thing absolutely enchanting.

The best part? Sephora does complimentary gift wrap on all Jo Malone fragrances, so I even got to unwrap it!