She's one of the most vibrant minds in beauty, nay, British business and she's managed to whether some pretty fearsome personal storms and come out the other side fighting. It is of course, Jo Malone, the woman - not the brand, who brought Jo Loves, her independent - and hugely creative - fragrance line to the fore just two years ago. 

Having created a global brand with Jo Loves through digital portals (and a short-lived pop up, 'it didn't feel right,' she says), she is now turning her attention back to bricks and mortar with the brand's first flagship store on Elizabeth Street in Belgravia, London (think the streets of a Richard Curtis movie), coincidentally, the same street in which she took her first proper job as an assistant at a nearby florist. How appropo is that?

There are scent bottles on the wall, candles on the shelf and the feint smell of flowers, but this is not your regular perfume shop. A steel bar snakes around the main strip of the store (with flooring that matches that of Jo's kitchen at home) and there appears to be what looks like a cocktail bar nestled in behind it. What gives?

"The high street is not dead. But shops are becoming like museums. Jo Malone"

'That's what this is about, that moment you touch a brand for the first time and it stays with you for the rest of your life,' explains Jo when I popped in for a sneak peek of the store. 'Retail is about selling products of course, but it's about an experience; about touching the heart and soul of that brand so you believe every single word. And getting in touch with our imaginations and touching creativity so much so that you feel you've walked into the mind of the person that created it.'

Presumably then, the interior of Jo Malone's mind is that of a gastronomic chef, interior designer and voyager to exotic lands. There is a neat little set-up of a ceramic kitchenware, just waiting to pose an assault on the senses. 'It's to amuse your nose, not an amuse bouche but to articulate fragrance through textures. The shower gel will appear from a cocktail shaker. Your bath cologne will come from a white steaming tagine. The idea is, where can we take touch, smell, the visual and make somebody different inside? 

And for all those who seek to detract from the British high street, Jo has this to say; 'When people say, is the high street dead - the high street is not dead but if we don't start to realise that we have to offer more... They're museums. Shops are just museums to house product. There's no education, there's no laughter...I don't know the end of the journey, I don't want to know the end of the journey. I want to travel it, with the consumer and offer wonderful, great products.'

Jo Loves on Elizabeth Street opens today