Scented Organic Candles by Jonthan Ward

Mine’s a large soy dry Cappuccino …

April 6th, 2012

Coffee House Collaboration Candle

I moved t0 New York city when I was 23 years old and I can remember the coffee shop I visited before work every day. It was called Burke and Burke, had purple awnings and the chaps behind the counters were immigrants like me. Except sadly I’d leave their amiable comradery and head 32 floors up to an ice cold air conditioned office, with an atmosphere that was equally as icy. The views of Times Square made up for it though.

Coffee has been a staple part of my morning and afternoon work patterns for over 15 years now and I accept fully that ever since those glorious caffeine filled Burke & Burke cups I’m a coffee slave. I love it.

SO imagine my absolute pleasure and excitement when DOUWE EGBERTS approached me to talk about their £1m revamp of their UK coffee offering and could I help in putting together a coffee aroma for them. Well let me think about that…. The answer is yes !!

Jonathan next to the first run of DOUWE EGBERTS collaborative candles

SO it began, I knew that I wanted to stay away from the typical middle market coffee candle concepts that were milk or cinnamon inspired as this felt cliched and old middle makret. The challenge was finding a way to bring my personality into a a company that fiercely nurtures their heritage while stepping forward with a modern yet nostalgic confidence.

The final touches...

The challenge was to capture the very essence of the first Douwe Egberts shop. I imagined years of spilled coffee grains infused into the hand crafted wooden shelves and then added additional aromas that might have been traded at this time. The result is a rich, nostalgic aroma that blends notes of their signature coffee with Birch leaf, Amber and Bergamot tea, all layered carefully with Sugar cane, Molasses, Cinnamon, Vanilla bean, Caramel and Tobacco.

Corrine Hopwood, UK Marketing Director at Douwe Egberts comments:

“We wanted to bring to life and celebrate the unique heritage of the Douwe Egberts brand but with a modern twist and the partnership with Jonathan Ward London is a natural fit. Not only do we have a new product that represents the brand in a distinctive manner, drawing on our heritage, but it allows our loyal consumers to enjoy Douwe Egberts by evoking the senses in a unique way.”

As with every Jonathan Ward London candle, the Douwe Egberts “Coffee House“ candle is paraffin-free, uses clean-burning soy and beeswax and is housed in hand-blown, Italian, crystal glass. The candle is packaged in a rich, dark mauve and gold embossed box, highlighting the luxury offering. Adding a further touch of opulence and heritage, each box has been sealed with the original Douwe Egberts wax seal. Dating back to 1925, when the seal was first incorporated into Douwe Egberts packaging design, the stamp has been brought out of the archives and now finds itself included in another piece of fundamental Douwe Egberts history.

The various stages of completion striving for perfection

This is a special collaborative venture for us and we are proud to align our name with a company that has such a unique heritage; founded in hand-made, selectively-traded goods.

As a treat for anyone who took the time to read this if you use COFFEEHOUSE1 or DOUWE as an offer code you’ll get free shipping on the DOUWE EGBERTS collaborative candle as well as any other JW products you purchase at the same time.

Douwe Egberts and Jonathan Ward ; Coffeehouse candle complete

THE COFfEE HOUSE CANDLE IS £25 and is available on http://www.jonathanwardlondon.com

Free Shipping if you use any of the codes above.

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The Superblog (Part Two)

March 25th, 2012

A while ago I posted about the rise of the “Superblog” which questioned how blogs which have been fundamentally built on what I consider journalistic parameters and principles can thrive and survive when advertising comes into play. After meeting my friend Jane a few days ago I really wanted to pick back up on the subject again because it is really something that is close to my heart.

Blogs are truthful journals expressing one person’s opinion on a product, service, event, film, the list goes on. The point is a blog is not governed by a superior body or bodies and is solely the opinion of the writer concerned. Most blogs are careful to express that the products mentioned have been sent to them for trial and they are not representatives for the product and have no invested interest.

So when a blog has 5 well written posts a day and 2 of those posts have been at the expense of traveling to central London Launches, how does one keep the blog going without some form of income ? The benefits of self expression and uncensored writing comes with a penance of sorts. How do you survive ? How can a writer make a living and remain authentic ?

The answer is it’s not dissimilar to starting a business and I know how much of a battle that can be when you don’t have backing and funding in these times. I think that there is a genuine need for support and empathy towards these important vehicles of expression. Someone left a flippant and obtuse off hand comment on my friend’s blog the other day referencing the fact that she had ad space on her blog. Naturally the comment was left by ‘anonymous’… Can we stop the hating and try to look at each others struggles and passions without prejudice. Until you’ve walked a day in another person’s shoes, you don’t get to really comment on how they structure their business, blog etc. It is after all as much about survival and nobody really knows what goes on behind the scenes to make the magic happen.

Tags: authenticity, creative journalism, journalist, Super blog
Posted in Journalism | 3 Comments »

Jonathan Ward in collaboration with The Grosvenor Hotel Apartments by Jumeirah Living.

March 20th, 2012

A few months ago we were asked to work on a most exciting collaboration. The Grosvenor Hotel at Park Lane has been working with Jumeirah Living on an exciting new apartment complex overlooking the prestigious Park Lane.

Jonathan Ward was very honored to share four of our best selling aromas and to design an exclusive diffuser for the property’s most prestigious apartments.This was a huge honor and certainly our most esteemed collaboration.

The final products were styled completely in white and I believe that the presentation was immaculate and deserving of the exquisite environment that has been created.

Grosvenor House Apartments by Jumeirah Living with Jonathan Ward London

The launch party was this evening and the whole affair was centered around the monopoly board. Life size playing pieces were beautifully made exclusively for the event and the tables were scattered with monopoly cards and hotels.

My lovely assistant Justine accompanied me to the event

Monopoly Paraphenalia carefully scattered around the apartment

The entire hotel and apartments are centered around a spectacular atrium which is an architectural accomplishment in itself as the facade of the building has retained all of its original character.

Inside the Atrium

Silk Dancers high above the celebratory guests and crow below...!

We were then given a tour of the Hotel’s premier suites which were inspired by different themes. Anouska Hempel was responsible for consulting on the interiors and I felt very honored to be included in a high level caliber of professional people that were partnered with to bring this venture to completion.

High Level craftsmaship throughout the entire building.

casual dinner for 16 anyone ?!

The Grosvenor Hotel Apartments by Jumeirah Living have managed to create an exquisite world of high design and refined luxury. for international guests and travelers who seek austere sanctuaries, Grosvenor Apartments have achieved their goal in defining truly sumptuous luxury while retaining the integrity and history of the building’s historical exterior. I am very proud that this collaboration gives Jonathan Ward London (a business offering affordable luxury) an opportunity to bring our little fragrance bites of luxury to be housed in such a beautiful environment. Its a proud evening…

Tags: Anuska Hempel, Grosvenor Hotel, Jonathan Ward London, Jumeirah Living, Monopoly, Park Lane
Posted in Eastern Fragrances, Grosvenor Hotel, Limited Edition Candle, Made in the U.K., Positive Changes | No Comments »

its all in the nose…

March 14th, 2012

One of the questions I receive frequently is “why candles ?” It still knocks me back a bit, why not ?! Actually the focus of the line is and always will be fragrance. The collection started as a scent diary many years ago and it was originally a vehicle for me to rediscover my creativity. As the collection has grown, the maturity of the scent direction has developed also. I recently took a trip to my chief fragrance supplier in the United Kingdom and it was a joy to spend time in the laboratory.

It's all in the nose 1

Scent design is a wonderfully esoteric experimental visionary experience that starts as a seed of an idea in my mind and forms through time, taking shape and eventually turning into something solid. One of the gifts of my fragrance relationships is the communication. We enjoy brainstorming sessions and I love seeing the light appear in my perfumers eyes when I verbalize an idea and they connect to it and we springboard into reality.

It's a wall of aromas...

The unique ability to know what will work and what is just a little bit “off” is something I have learned over years of experience and has cost us a few expensive mistakes. Mistakes are as valuable as the successes but the trick is staying alive long enough to chalk the mistakes down as “experience” rather than the ultimate pitfall.

Fragrance design is not dissimilar to the design of a jacket lapel. The judgment is in the micro millimeters. One slight cut to the left of the fabric and the cut changes. Its the same with molecules of aroma. One milliliter of an errant aroma can change the body of the fragrance rendering it “off” rather than “sublime”.

Josephine's Rose Diffuser Oil in Production

Some of our longstanding fans are already asking “what’s next ?”, well we can hardly catch our breathe after the launch of the diffuser range. However I can reveal that we are crafting two unique limited edition seasonal aromas which will work their merry little fragrance way into the collection perfectly in time for the leaves to turn.

Tags: diffuser, fragrance laboratory, Josephine's Rose, scented candles
Posted in Diffusers, Double Wick Candles, Made in Clapham, Production - In House | No Comments »

A tribute to Madame Joséphine de Beauharnais by Jonathan Ward London

February 26th, 2012

As we are a fragrance company, we work hard behind the scenes to produce fragrance experiences of high quality and innovation. And occasionally those aromas need more than a paper press release. The Josephine’s Rose aroma by Jonathan Ward London was given its own tribute and small launch of dedicated fans attended the Room with a View in beautiful Kensington.

Product Display Before Guests Arrived

I firmly believe in a non lecture approach to press gathering’s so we kept it light and breezy. Delicate little canapes and lots of bubbles were passed through and the only complaint we received – “Next time please don’t have as many gorgeous canapes there as I couldn’t resist eating them all”. She was indeed correct, all refreshments were officially polished off !

Its not all about roses...

Under my current workload our press opportunities are often unique chances for me to catch up with friends and colleagues that i wouldn’t ordinarily have time for individual dinners with each of them right now.

Two of my treasured roses

Please take a look at our photographs from the event ! And if you couldn’t make it to this one, we hope you’ll be there to celebrate the next…

Chatting with the writers and journalists

The simplicity of our Rose aroma

Polite and not so polite conversation at the Josephine's Rose Launch

Old Colleagues and Supportive journalists

No honestly it is that big...

Three Beautiful Roses

Our Buyers from the W Hotel Leicester Square Arrive

My Wholefoods Buyer and Get Lippy the Beauty Blogger

Tags: Get Lippy Blogger, Grooming Guru Writer, Jonathan Ward London, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Kensington, Napoleon, Rose, W hotel, W Hotel Leicester Square, Wholefoods
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Diffuser Maintenance

February 26th, 2012

The Jonathan Ward Diffuser’s are now ready and will be premiering on the JWL website soon. Below I have outlined a few simple steps that can help you get the best out of your Jonathan Ward London diffuser.

Step 1: Gently squeeze the cork out of the bottle with an easing side to side action. It is cork after all ! One of our lovely clients upon receiving the diffuser, simple twisted the cap directly out of the bottle with a sharp twist to the right. Needless to say the cork tore off and remained inside.

Step 2: Untie all the sticks and drop into the diffuser oil. Rub the sticks together and flip the sticks several times to allow the sticks to get saturated. The point of this is exercise is to simple allow the aroma saturate the wood and to rise above the neck of the bottle.

Step 3: Flip the sticks intermittently, I choose to do this every day because I have an endless supply (sorry!) but every three to four days will suffice (or when the sticks get dry).

Step 4: Enjoy ! Your 250ml diffuser will last for 60-90 days in total if treated as per the above instructions.

An exquisite blend from the Purity of The White Collection

Things to avoid -

You want to avoid dropping diffuser oils onto polished or lacquered surfaces, this may cause rings that might need to be professionally removed. Our oils are gentler than alcohol based carrier oils but its still advisable to take care with this.

The reed component of the diffuser seems to be very popular with small animals (cats) who can be determined to dislodge the sticks from the jar and as we all know cats are know for their clumsiness. Be careful with placement.

An Exquisite Blend from the Russian Collection

If you go away on holiday or wish to preserve the oil for a future time, then simply re-cork the diffuser and store for a time that is convenient.

If you have any questions please call any of our team at the London office 0207 564 7204

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Diffusers (nearly there I promise)

January 17th, 2012

Ooh, this has been quite the journey. Our beautiful diffuser oils have been patiently waiting in their drums for many months now. Firstly we had issues with the packaging. I had a vision for the diffuser packaging and it was exquisite but impractical. I think as a designer, you have to be realistic and there was an internal argument brewing in me between the business man and the artist. Eventually the business man won and ordered me to abandon the hand-wrapped calligraphy paper rigid box with insert.

I eventually decided to position the diffuser identity as an extension of our current packaging and uplifted by giving each grouping its own signature print, just like our last seasonal offering the Russian Collection.

We're almost there...

The bottle cap was the next issue. I was determined to use cork with a glass stopper and it wasn’t easy (lots of leakage issues to resolve) but 6 months of trials and testing and we’re there.

The final product is looking sharp and for those of you who are diffuser fans, there is no acrid alcohol smell as we used an alcohol free solution.

The 250ml diffuser is competitively priced at £30. When I launched the candles in the beginning it was important to me not to out-price ourselves as a new brand. The diffusers will be £35 by October but we wanted to offer keen pricing for the launch.

It’s a beautiful product and we’re thrilled to offer nine fragrances to start.

Kiss in Rio

Lost in El Salvador

Santissima

The Gypsy

Kartushya

Nightingale’s Jasmine

Dance in Summer Rain

Velvet Moss Rose

Mombasa

Tags: Dance in Summer Rain, Diffusers, Kartushya, kiss in Rio, Lost in El Salvador, The Gypsy, Velvet Moss Rose
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The Capitalist Candle

January 16th, 2012

I was reading an article online yesterday at Guardian.co.uk and it really made me think. The article referenced Tesco’s (the supermarket giant) and portrayed a very bleak picture of a giant squeezing the British Pig farmers so hard that they protested aggressively last year, does anyone remember ? The article also portrayed a number of other incidents that made Tesco’s look rather mean to say the least. The argument then jostled the notion that these capitalist values are in fact the very seeds of our society and can we really criticize the supermarket chain for being profit driven… don’t we all thrive on these values at some level in our western lives, the answer is yes.

It made me think about my business model and the values that I have been trying to promote since we opened our perfumed doors. I feel passionately that the world is changing and consumers don’t consume blindly anymore. Nor are they particularly pleased when they receive products that don’t live up to the packaging or the name. So here’s the thing… there’s no smoke and mirrors about the Jonathan Ward range. We offer premium ingredients from the inside of the product out and it made me think that probably makes me a poor capitalist in light of the Tesco’s argument. I personally believe that we will keep our customer in today’s climate if we give a true quality product and don’t deploy any of the tardy candle tricks that we all know exist and loathe. For those of you who are scratching your heads, these can include – pouring the candles in layers so that less and less fragrance percentage is used in the bottom layers – essentially robbing your customer of the very thing they are buying into. Under filling is another popular trick, as is sending a product to market improperly tested so that wicks don’t burn all the way to the edge and 30-40% wax can be wasted.

Obviously our aim is to make a successful business that succeeds and flourishes but I believe once you start stripping away the quality of the raw materials to enhance profits or squeezing your suppliers so hard that they don’t want to work with you its a recipe for issue.

We will continue to actively promote quality hand made products made from premium raw materials. Products that are quality from the inside out. Without brand values you have very little so we’ll stick to them.

Tags: British farmers, capitalism, premium ingredients, quality candles, raw materials, Tesco
Posted in business | No Comments »

The not so humble rose…

January 8th, 2012

One of the reasons I originally left the fashion industry was the constant need for reinvention. This thirst for new, new, new just didn’t sit well with my design philosophies. When I as young I would spend hours, days weeks, creating a single drawing or painting. Nothing made me happier than to create something on paper. It was this detailed and fastidious approach that has formed the blueprint for the JWL collection today.

The JWL collection originated as a scent diary – a referential olfactory tool that documented my earlier life and brought good memories back to life in a pleasing way. Obviously as my life has developed the inspirations have developed and there are only so many childhood memories that actually smell, well – for want of a better word – good !

If you know me, you’ll know that there is an definable personal handwriting that runs through the collection’s inspirations and there is nothing in the line that is there just to fill a gap. With life, as in art, the quest for self improvement means that I am always looking at the work I have done and desiring to make things better. Later this month the olfactory spotlight swings towards the not so humble Josephine’s Rose fragrance.

Portrait of Josephine by Andrea Appiani

The story behind this aroma is fascinating. Napoleon’s Josephine (also know as the Patroness of Roses) inspired this scent and I do believe it is the finest creation we have ever put into the market. But more on that later, we need to get historical for a little bit.

Josephine kneeling before Napoleon at Coronation

In 1799 when Napoleon was at sea Josephine purchased the Chateau de Malmaison. The famous rose garden was started soon after the purchase and Josephine learned a great deal in a short time from the gardening staff. It is reported that even though Napoleon was at war and many products were difficult to transport (ships were being used primarily to transport war materials) Josephine’s roses were always allowed to make it through from anywhere in the world. The general assumption is that at the time of her death there were 250 roses in her garden. Her dedication to roses bore the world’s first written history of roses and she was responsible for the world’s first rose exhibition in 1810.

Entrance to the beautiful Malmaison Mansion

Statue of Josephine at Malmaison Mansion

I wanted to pay an homage to the dedication that one woman lavished on her passion and it deservedly needed to be something special. And indeed it is. We have created layers of exquisitely decadent deep and haunting rose notes, complimented with spicy tuberose and a shadow of poetic Iris. Touches of animal like musks are delicately layered into the base of this aroma and subtle spices and pepper make it unabashedly robust. Its truly one of those “smell it and see” experiences as try as I might, I do not have a colourful enough grip on the English language to pay this scent justice. When Kartushya was released back in October, I thought that we would never achieve better, but if you are a fan of our new fragrance direction this one definitely does not disappoint. You’ll rarely see my blogging style dedicated to simply promoting a single scent but in this case there is a definite merit for its own platform. If you’re available to join us later in the month, we are having a little gathering to crack open the champagne on what hopes to be a great start to the year. More details to come on this so stay tuned.

The enchanting and nostalgic "Jospehine's Rose"

Tags: Josephine's Rose, Malmaison Mansion, Napoleon, Patroness of Roses, scent diary
Posted in Double Wick Candles, Summer Fragrances, Unique and Beautiful | 1 Comment »

“…launches and lunches”

December 11th, 2011

For the first time since our doors opened, last month we were able to put on a chic little press gathering at the Soho Hotel’s Crimson Room in the heart of Soho. It was an intimate affair of 25 guests and I executed a live candle pouring demonstration in honour of the new Russian themed collection of candles. We had a reasonably successful turn out with journalists and buyers alike. In contrast to our Australian event, this event was more “drop in, mingle and leave” as I was competing with Kylie Minogue’s new fragrance launch so at the last minute, we saw a number of polite declines. Apparently my charms and humble affair could not compete with Miss Minogue’s olfactory enchantments !

The event was tasteful and low key and I tried hard not to make it into a lecture even though I was executing a demonstration. Nobody likes to be lectured and considering the sheer volume of launches and lunches that press have to attend, I figured short, funny and informative (coupled with lashings of bubbly and canapes) was the ticket.

The event was a success and we received a number of positive tweets and emails letting me know as much. However it posed to me a rather perplexing issue. As a small brand that had previously been unable financially to host press launches of this caliber, I always thought that once we were elevated enough to be able to host such events, we would have no problem filling a room and might even be faced with the issue of turning people away ! Not so. My PR team had to work jolly hard to secure the attendees and even some long-time Jonathan Ward fans and supporters chose the other event, and some just didn’t show. If you’re a small brand starting out, your launch means the world to you, but in actuality is just one of many that press need to attend in a month.

I know that some brands have resorted to gimmicks like having live animals or hiring A list celebrities to attend and that seems to pull the crowds in and create a buzz. I have to say, I’ll always be product focused and relatively low key. As long as I hold the reigns of Jonathan Ward London we’ll try to draw people to us with products of integrity and tasteful little gatherings. Here’s to the next one !

Please find below a sample of the launch photographs.