Myrrh & Tonka

Jo Malone's Myrrh & Tonka is an unusually rich entry for the brand, built on a lavender top that quickly gives way to a dense, resinous myrrh heart and a base of tonka bean, vanilla and almond that reads warm and slightly boozy. It has more presence than most Jo Malone colognes and is loved for feeling cosy without tipping into cloying. This oil interpretation keeps the same note skeleton but the balance shifts sweeter and flatter: the lavender barely registers, the myrrh loses its resinous, almost smoky edge, and the tonka-vanilla-almond base takes over early. It reads as a pleasant, skin-hugging vanilla-almond warmth rather than the original's more grown-up amber composition, and it settles close to the skin within an hour rather than lingering with any real reach. Good as an easy, comforting everyday warmth, not a substitute for the original's complexity.