Gardenia

Do you love Gardenias? Well this isn't a perfume with the smell of Gardenias in it this is "Gardenias." Its like Crabtree & Evelyn somehow found a way to turn the petals of a Gardenia plant into liquid, put it in a bottle and call it fragrance. The most beautiful smell of Gardenias ever to be placed in a bottle. If you don't want to absolutely smell EXACTLY like a Gardenia then this is not for you. You'd probably smell more like a Gardenia after wearing this fragrance then many of the real genetically engineered Gardenia plants on the market today. This fragrance is for Gardenia lovers not perfume lovers. Good for that special occasion but probably a bit much for everyday.

I wore this one springtime in Bath (UK) and fell instantly in love with this lovely scent. It captured a time in my life and I'd love to smell this again. This is, as Beautee says, "Gardenias, not a hint of but the actual flower captured in a spray". I would LOVE to wear this again - if anyone has a bottle of this that they do not want, please contact me!!

I love love love this and as it's discontinued, it's getting harder to get hold of. I find it dark, heavy and gloriously mysterious. People always ask what i'm wearing but they don't always like this beautiful scent. I take a perverse little thrill of pleasure in that though, because it means i understand a scent that not everyone can!

My 2nd favorite fragrance. I am so sad that Crabtree & Evelyn discontinued it. A lovely gardenia scent that is light, clean, fresh, soft. Whenever I wore it, I received many compliments. People would stop me to ask what I was wearing.

Gorgeous, creamy smooth and sexy!!! I was devastated when this was discontinued.

Crabtree & Evelyn had a knack for crafting those old-world, one-of-a-kind scents. Walking into one of their stores felt like stepping straight into Edwardian England. Not many shops give you that kind of vibe anymore—maybe Penhaligon’s. Unfortunately, thanks to some mismanagement (and a millennial PR genius who thought insulting loyal customers was a smart move), the brand took a nosedive. A real shame for those of us who loved it. Scents like Gardenia, Wisteria, Summer Hill, Classic Lavender, Nantucket Briar, Sienna, Noël... the list goes on—they’re all gone now. Granted, even before the brand folded, some of those had already been (badly) reformulated thanks to changing regulations. If you noticed at the time, you weren’t imagining things. Gardenia, though, disappeared before that reformulation wave hit. Gardenia was one of the OGs at C&E. While some of the staples like Summer Hill came out later, around 1988, Gardenia was old-school. It was never a straight-up Gardenia scent—but honestly, most “Gardenia” perfumes aren’t. This one was a blend: Gardenia, Honeysuckle, Jasmine, plus a few other florals and greens that made it truly unique. Like most C&E fragrances, it had that little something extra you couldn’t quite put your finger on but made you love it (or not). As a perfumer myself, I eventually recreated it—thanks to a combination of GCMS data and a lot of trial and error. It wasn’t quick. C&E scents are deceptively complex, and capturing that elusive C&E ‘magic’ took time. But after years of tinkering on and off, I finally got it right. And I came away with a real appreciation for their formulas. I ended up recreating several of their classics, and each just as complex. Now, if you’re expecting a straight Gardenia, this probably isn’t for you. But if you love white florals and you’re at an age where perfume doesn’t have to mean “smells like a melted strawberry Pop-Tart” (yes, Gen Z, I’m looking at you), then this might be your thing. You might even fall in love with it. There are still bottles floating around on eBay—though not cheap. The perfume contains top note materials like bergamot, lime, and orange, but they’re not in large quantities, so the scent ages well in the bottle rather than having gone sour overtime as many vintage perfumes do. Other players in the mix that give this Gardenia a little something extra are Ylang ylang, cinnamon bark (you won’t smell cinnamon, but it gives the fragrance a lovely warmth), and just a whisper of jasmine. This is not a Gardenia perfume that makes you go, "Oh, Gardenia!" when you spray it on. Rather, it makes you go, "What a lovely white floral scent!"

I think I used to have this a long, long time ago. It was very sweet and floral, but without the sharpness of some white florals. I would try it again. It'll probably remind me of teenage summers.