Jo Malone "never" wants to leave the beauty industry again.
Jo Malone
The British perfumer - who founded her eponymous brand Jo Malone London, which she sold to Estée Lauder in 1999, and has since launched Jo Loves - has admitted she doesn't want to be excluded from the beauty realm ever again, and intends to continue making fragrances and scented candles for years to come.
Speaking in her autobiography 'Jo Malone: My Story' about her hiatus and her comeback, Jo - who was forced to take a five-year break from Jo Malone London as part of her contract with the cosmetics giant, which ended in 2011 and saw her avoid every beauty counter - said: "I realised all I wanted to do was create fragrance. I'd sit in my kitchen making face creams and sob: 'What have I done?' There was no falling out, I simply wasn't looking at the landscape, my head was still worried about the cancer. It was the wrong call.
"I felt I'd lost my identity, my voice. I felt the brand had become a bigger person than me.
"I've had a lot of tough knocks.
"I'm starting out all over again but I want to build another global brand. I know now that I will never leave this industry again."
And the blonde beauty - who has overcome her battle with breast cancer - believes creating new scents is an innate skill.
She explained: "I paced round our home thinking 'OK you have cancer. It's a curve ball you weren't expecting. Happens in the business all the time. Think. Don't feel sorry for yourself.
"I create fragrances, that's what I do.
"To me fragrance is like a kaleidoscope that I can twist to make people experience different things."
Despite Jo's ups and downs she believes her "difficult beginning" has "prepared" her for her future and will help her have longevity in her career.
She said: "But my difficult beginning in life prepared me."
Although Jo's chemotherapy temporarily destroyed her sense of smell, she has revealed she can smell anything, and detect when her family or her pet dog are ill.
She said: "I can smell anything. I could smell when my husband was sick, when there's something no right with the dog, when it's going to snow."
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