Jo Malone London has pulled a marketing stunt that was on no one’s bingo card for 2026 – a collaboration within Epic Games’ Fortnite to promote its new Sea Salt & Bergamot collection.
As Cosmetics Business’ resident gaming veteran, I was tasked with getting to the bottom of this frankly mind-melting partnership to see if the Estée Lauder Companies-owned fragrance brand could genuinely win over the next generation of fragrance consumers.
But, my dear CB readers, I have a confession to make.
I am not a zoomy, dopamine-starved teenager who can, personally, tolerate the visual vomit that is Fortnite’s “art style” – if one can call the mess of collaborations with everything from Stranger Things and The Simpsons to singer Ariana Grande a cohesive visual identity.
What I am, however, is a 30-year-old News Editor in the beauty industry with a more refined palette for video games, and a cynicism so deep that explorers are still trying to navigate down to the bottom of the swirling abyss.
It was important, therefore, to approach this review in a fair and unbiased way, keeping the target audience in mind while assessing Jo Malone London’s Fortnite debut from a purely objective view.
Here, I answer all your burning questions on the collaboration, and offer my personal conclusion on whether the brand’s bold new marketing style could be successful in winning over Gen Z.
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