The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Scarlet Beetroot launched in 2026 as part of Jo Malone London's Veggies collection, a series that takes root vegetables and garden produce as its subject matter. The visual logic borrows from the vegetable patch: vivid, earthy, slightly unexpected, the kind of thing you'd photograph before you'd consider wearing. And that tension is the point. Jo Malone London has always built fragrances around a single, clear image, a story you can picture in one breath. Scarlet Beetroot is theirs for beetroot itself: that deep, mineral sweetness hiding under the skin, the color that stains your fingers, the quiet richness of root vegetables pulled from damp soil. The composition keeps things stripped back to let the central idea breathe. One idea, told cleanly, without apology.
Scarlet Beetroot doesn't behave like a typical fruity fragrance. The blackcurrant does the bright, fizzy work up top, but the beetroot at the heart pulls the whole composition underground, into something rooty and mineral. Jo Malone London doesn't try to disguise the vegetable note or sweeten it into submission. It stands as written, raw and recognizable, the way the brand's best compositions tend to. The patchouli base then gives the composition something to lean on, something dark and woody that keeps the fruit from reading as childish.
The evolution
The first 15 minutes are the loudest Scarlet Beetroot will ever be. Blackcurrant hits sharp and sweet, almost like a dark fruit cordial poured over crushed leaves. Then the beetroot takes over, and the whole thing tilts. The sweetness drops, something mineral and rooty rises up, and for a brief window it genuinely smells like a kitchen garden after rain. That's the polarizing stretch. Some people fall in love. Others wait it out. By the 90-minute mark, the patchouli has settled in, and the composition reads warmer, woodier, drier. The beetroot recedes but never fully disappears, it sits underneath like a memory of the opening. The drydown, from roughly two hours onward, is where the fragrance becomes most wearable: soft, earthy, faintly sweet, close to the skin.
Cultural impact
Scarlet Beetroot sits inside Jo Malone London's Veggies collection, a series that takes root vegetables and garden produce as its subject matter. The fragrance's distinctive opening, that unmistakable hit of beetroot, has become its most-discussed feature among early wearers, drawing curiosity for its honesty and its willingness to wear an unusual ingredient without disguise. It wears beautifully in transitional weather, the kind of scent that suits a morning walk or a long lunch outdoors, and the early reviews have leaned toward intrigue rather than caution.
