Gardenia

This was the gardenia that put me in a never-ending frenzy in search of the perfect gardenia. I have even treaded the highend Niche waters to find something as well made as this, and have come up short. This in my opinion, is how you honor gardenia; it is "cleaned" it up in a way but without losing its character. BBW did a huge disservice to itself by discontinuing it. I would have never known of this fragrance until one day my school guidance counselor invited me into his office. He wanted to give me congratulations for getting into my dream college. I had yet to receive the letter. He gave a set of this fragrance complete with a fountain pen and a journal. I was so happy. Immediately after I left, I sprayed this and finding it a little too mature, sprayed my Clinique Happy on top. What followed were compliments from female teachers, classmates, male teachers, friends...I smelled sublime. My heart broke when I discovered it had been discontinued. I went online to find it and I wanted to scream. Fellow lovers of the scent obviously wanted to milk the cow. It is a strong, quite green floral with a hint of citrus. It settles into a creamy, tropical base, the coconut complimenting most wonderfully. I wore this as a base to other fragrances, as on it's own was a tad too potent. This has taken every perfume I've had to the next level. This has been my best kept secret for years, along with 5th Avenue. Fabulous base scents...like the crew behind a theater production. The actors are great, but it's the people you don't see that create magic. Same goes for the notes that compliment the gardenia in this fragrance; they enhance it so beautifully as if it were a one person show, but you smell the other notes, aching not to be noticed. My original bottle is down to its last drops, and I will surely miss it when it's gone.

BBW GARDENIA is a relatively sweet big white floral fragrance which opens with a huge blast of creamy tuberose and dries down to a somewhat sterner gardenia-jasmine scent. The longevity and sillage of this edt are quasi-infinite, as we have come to expect from synthetic white floral compositions such as this one evidently is. The usual caveat--potential headache alert--is therefore in order: one application suffices; two will transform what was relatively nice into a sure source of strife for either the wearer or those in the immediate vicinity--or both! My cat dislikes this frag.

I used to have a bottle of this, but not anymore. It had a strong floral smell. It was not my favorite, and I won't buy it again.

It is exactly how others have described it: creamy, sweet, white-floral-gardenia-goodness. It's not true-to-life, but is beautiful for what it is. To me it has a faint hint of "shampoo/hairspray" in a clean, "polished" sort of way - feminine and put together when paired with the gardenia, and prevents it from being a chokehold of floral. There's a slightly "animalic" note (not sure if it's the "musk", mixed with heliotrope/sandalwood?) that doesn't play well on my skin... so I unfortunately can only enjoy it in the bottle. Tocca's "Florence" has the creamy, sweet gardenia that plays well with my skin - so if this gardenia doesn't end up working for you, give that one a try as well.

Having traveled through Hawaii on my way to being stationed on Guam, Gardenia really just brings back such wonderful memories of my adventures on that tropical island as a young woman. I love this scent. I had to buy the silky body spray on ebay, but I layer this on in the summer time w/ some pineapple-coconut, and I'm in heaven. I don't care if others don't like it (I've never had a complaint). I didn't even know there were other notes besides the gardenia because this spray really smelled like when you get off the plane and step into that tropical, humid, flower infused Hawaiian (and Guamanian) air. Heaven, Heaven, Heaven.