Gardelia

2016 version: Gardelia from Bogue Profumo, a project commissioned by Profumeria Sacro Cuore to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Another one from the archives and one that is loved by many. And I understand why. This one, very much like AG, is easy to love, and of very high quality and complexity. As someone who has a deep love and respect for classic vintage perfumes like Mitsouko, and Femme, and someone who loves floral chypres, I have much admiration for this project. Gardelia is yet another powerful example that nowadays one doesn't have to track down vintage bottles from the 50' and the 70' and go through all the troubles this hunt involves. I did, but I was lucky and found a few that were properly stored. Unfortunately, most of the time, this is not the case. Perfumes like Gardelia, MAAI (older versions especially), Enlevement au Serail (the first version), Casablanca, Une Fleur de Cassie, Diaghilev, Mayura, Salome, and several others prove that those vintage titans of this genre can be reproduced and most of the time, bettered. Gardelia takes inspiration from a fruity-floral-chypre like Mitsouko and is built on the same structure as MAAI but with higher quality ingredients and few adaptations. The parallel with vintage MAAI is unquestionable. They feel most related in the base, as Gardelia presents different textures and facets for the first two stages. The opening is reminiscent of Mitsouko with the peach accord, but the note feels more nuanced and finely tuned here. The peach feels almost overly ripe to the point where it defuses a boozy quality and a dewy, moist texture. And yet somehow it doesn't feel heavy or syrupy, rather airy. An extraordinary feat indeed. This opening leads to the hearth dominated by white florals. It is a lush and huge floral bouquet where it is difficult to break the notes apart, and I feel the gardenia gets lost within it, as it doesn't smell like a gardenia-dominant composition. It is buttery, slightly indolic, fleshy almost. The base construction is built around civet, resins, and moss, with a strong emphasis on the first two, coming across as feral and warm, maybe a tad smoky. The longer it lingers on the skin the more it transitions toward a musky-resinous affair that I can't get enough of. Again, just like with AG, these transitions overlap so that the accords experienced in the previous stage mingle with the ones unveiled in the present one. A grandiose, terribly high-quality floral chypre that in my opinion, improves on the classics while also bringing a clear touch of modernity into the picture. IG:@memory.of.scents

A stand alone luxury piece of Art I have bumped into this by mistake, while I was trying to get to know more about Gardoni's perfumes, all with his distinctive signature that make his creations stand out of the general niche and artisanal range, in general. The bottle is really a piece of Art, though I will now dwell on how he came up with this beauty: the result is really a delice to one's eye and hands...hands, yes, because when you hold it you really feel that you're holding something extraordinary, heavy, classy,prelude of its content... The content: an unapologetic shoot of ripe Tuberose, sweet decayed Gardenia ( 3 types ), Indolic Jasmine and lemony Magnolia that strikes you and makes you dream of being somewhere different from where you are, it makes you travel with your fantasy in any place you feellike being, in YOUR own place where it is only you and this fragrant smell... This shoots sits on top of a super structured base of which I will not reveal any ingredient, since as many as 50 natural notes have been used (all their botanical name in the leaflet contained in the box). What is reported here above is only a mere attempt to describe the scent and to indicate what the perfume is made of, but it is really so reductive that i's not even Worth looking at... The journey that Gardelia takes you with is nothing short of a continuous change that last all day- I have felt like a horny animal looking for lusty sex, then I have become an old lady in her 60's (I am a grown up man with a beard.....), then I found myself in the middle of a Bazaar full with Spices, resins, earthy roots, then I was transported to the greengrocer tasting a juicy peach, then again the lusty and lecherous animal, this time also peeing over the White flowers, then at a solemn Mass sniffing some Incense and Mhyrr.... ...and I like all this. Price is really high, but this is a semi bespoke product, made of 50 numbered pieces only.. available in Italy at Antica Profumeria Sacro Cuore and at Luckyscent (if still avilable, but I have noticed they top up every now and then) Enjoy it, if you can, you wont be disappointed, regardless of what are your tastes (check my wardrobe and you'd never guessed I might have liked this)

50 BOTTLES RELEASED IN THE U.S.!! Available only at LuckyScent, for the staggering (albeit warranted) price of 950 USD for 50 ml (1.7 oz.). Fifty years of marriage 50 years of Love 50 years of Perfume! It makes sense 50 bottles were made available... This scent was made for dear friends of the perfumer's to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. The bottles are all hand-blown and the stunning "split pomegranate" cap is created with the age old technique of lost-wax casting. Each and every aspect of the presentation is elegant and one-of-a-kind. (Each bottle is hand etched with a production number) Many may balk at paying 19 USD per ml for a perfume. I, on the other hand, gleefully forked over 20 USD for a 0.7 ml sample of DSH's Mata Hari extrait (and then bought a second before commiting to the 5 ml bottle of 85 USD.) In an age where perfume comes from large industrial vats by the hundreds of gallons/litres, it is indeed refreshing that Signore Gardoni has returned perfume to its truest and most elegant form: that of true art! I was gifted a sample 2 ml spray, by one of my dearest perfume pals (and niche enablers, lol) and am saving it for a special occasion-even though it is killing me to do so! Clive Christian claims to be the most expensive perfume in the world...it seems that he has some very tough competition. The BOGUE scents I have tried and have (O/E, Maai & Cologne Reloaded) are light years from CC's pretentious packaging of the same old flowers and woods that are just LOUDER (even though they are very high quality) without any of the magick Antonio weaves into each and every creation he has created so far (see also Aeon 001). I will never probably own a bottle, just as I may never own a Picasso. But you can be damn sure I will hand over the price of admission just to stand in the same room as one. And to be able to be that close, to experience a true work of art is priceless, is it not?

An ultra-aggressive, unapologetically abrasive and room filling opening of animalics reminiscent of cured meats and leather to an extent they almost burn the sinuses and make one feel like being hit right between the eyes by Rocky Marciano. Honey-laden and slightly peach-sweetened cognac adds further depth without even the merest attempt at restraining the initial assault - think of too much of a naively curious sniff straight after uncorking the booze. Right off the bat this is both whiplash inducing as well as being addictive. An indolic vintage feel of concentrated threefold gardenia extrait, tuberose and jasmine emerges once the original onslaught has calmed along with the healing help of beeswax, rose and frangipani guarding the transition to come. The composition mellows and brightens losing its alien and menacing character by introducing gentle woods and powdery notes in total contrast to its ferocious opening settling into a very pleasant complexly supported white floral. In terms of being unashamedly in your face and uncompromisingly real, Gardelia offers an experience that rivals that of JAR fragrances. Gardelia has its own undeniable and wild maverick character along with innate mood swings and yet demonstrates a remarkable and complete metamorphosis. One of a kind.

Gardelia opens resinous, boozy, and and animalic, with a very strong classic-perfumery feel, almost like Tabu. The white florals are the dense, syrupy or boozy type, yet still simultaneously airy-botanical. This is closer to a 1930’s-1940’s perfume than anything modern I’ve ever smelled. A few minutes in, the dark resins and musks are joined by a green rose. And an hour later, there’s a soapy clean floral, exactly like a pure white bar of milled soap, floating outside the core scent. Gardelia is glorious, symphonic florals over a purring dark base. There’s a spiciness and warmth there that suggests real sandalwood. It lasts all day, being its spicy/woody/mossy/floral self. compare and contrast: Gardelia vs. Salome: Salome is also a big dark animalic floral but it’s far more modern, streamlined, and legible, while Gardelia is just pure 1930’s-glamour-throwback indulgence. Salome is cozy and contemplative; Gardelia is romantic and dramatic. Gardelia vs. Paloma Picasso: PP is more angular, more mossy, edgier, more eccentric. Gardelia vs. Tabu: basically the same spirit and structure, except Gardelia goes way harder on the white florals and a bit lighter on the resins, and Gardelia doesn’t have clove.