Classic Gardenia

I would love to get my hands on this again to see if it measures up to the memories I have of wearing it exclusively in 1996 or 1997. My cat, who regularly followed me around the house anyway, used to stick his head in my inner elbow whenever I wore this and basically huffed it like a drug. He would press his face in it. He didn't behave that way when I wore any other perfume but this one made him giddy, rolling around and meowing like a fool. No filter or self respect, he just unabashedly loved Classic Gardenia and made sure that you knew exactly how he felt about it. From memory, it is close to Jungle Gardenia. I remember thinking the bottle was pretty and the ribbon was bendy metal or plastic. I think it had a wire running through it so you could mold it back to its shape.

I used to have this perfume when I was a teenager and I loved it. It smelled exactly like the gardenia flower. Maybe is because not everyone likes the exact scent of gardenias in a perfume, to wear the scent all day vs smelling it on a candle, but it is very hard to find a perfume with only gardenias. Most gardenia perfumes contain gardenia as one of the scents, but they have other flowers and elements mixed with it. I might order the Classic Gardenia by Dana, hopefully is not super old and it still smells the way I remember it.

This is a very well done floral! Affordable and easy to wear, CG gives off vintage vibes in the best way. Full disclosure: at first I misread the name as Classic Grandma. :D But not to worry, this isn't dated at all. It is very feminine with decent sillage and lasting power. Real gardenias always smell a little sharp to me, fortunately CG is rich and creamy without any harsh notes.

This is a gardenia POWERHOUSE; it is a very heavy and strong scent that will last and last! I like fragrances having longevity and strong sillage (more so than most) but this one is almost cloying even for me. That being said, it is still lovely but please remember a little bit goes a long way.

This has gorgeous sillage but it's quite synthetic and unpleasant up close and on skin. I would strongly recommend wearing this on fabric.

What a sweet and lovely little perfume. My mother used to wear this and still has several bottles which she then gave away to my sister as a wedding gift. I loved the scent and asked her if I could keep one of the bottles. The bottle is adorable and attractive as a dresser table perfume. It's got a little bow and a vintage look. Since I have the vintage original I don't know if it's been reformulated. Firstly, this perfume is very sweet and innocent despite the fact that the gardenia is a mature lady and very fragrant, possibly the most powerful of all flowers. But this gardenia is well tamed and sweetened by abstract stuff I can't quite make out. Some fruit is clearly there but it appears to be citrus, probably mandarin orange, pears, and just a touch of green apple. Starts off with aldehydes and oak moss typical of the Dana perfume but they are not as prominent as others. The fragrance develops rather swiftly and jumps right into the white floral heart. There is definitely gardenia but there is probably other white flowers around it. I could detect magnolia and white rose. It's light but detectable and has enough of a projection. I'm blown away how a little bottle and a fruity floral scent can be so flexible. I can see a little girl wearing this as her fist perfume. It seems suitable to a child, but yet, at the same time it's grown up and suitable to adult women who prefer floral fragrances. This is also giving me a wedding vibe. It's like a bridal bouquet of white flowers. Gardenia is a wedding flower, I don't know if anyone knows that. I've smelled a lot of gardenias at weddings, as well as magnolias. And this has both magnolia and gardenia. Feminine, white, soft but strong, a bride who is showing off how happy she is. It wears like an antique and more vintage version of J'adore by Dior. Having been wearing J'adore this week I can see the similarities with Classic Gardenia. Romantic, sweet, divine. I love this stuff. Wearable for the day time in spring and summer when floral scents should be in the air.

I just want to second @konga5's review below. I own two bottles of Tuvaché Jungle Gardenia in both the perfume and the bath oil form and Dana Classic Gardenia is definitely a fabulous dupe. The initial blast and the drydown of both are the same. Jungle Gardenia was Elizabeth Taylor's favorite perfume and from what I understand she wanted to buy the formula when it was discontinued in 1989. She wasn't able to buy it and I honestly believe it's because it was already purchased by Dana at some point - they are that similar! (ET Gardenia doesn't smell anything like Jungle Gardenia.) Tuvaché was sold to Coty in 1989 and in 1995 Coty came out with a reformulated Jungle Gardenia but it just wasn't the same and was discontinued. I truly feel that Dana Classic Gardenia (also released in 1995) is literally the original formula of Jungle Gardenia.

I'm confused. This fragrance was released in 1995, 26 years ago, so how could some reviewers have had this fragrance in the 80s? Was there another version prior to this? I searched here and didn't find anything. Then I searched at other fragrance sites (Parfumo, Basenotes) and couldn't find anything there. I also searched Dana's site and they didn't have anything either. It appears that this was the only version, and it also appears that it has been discontinued for some time now. So maybe the reviewers got this mixed up with another gardenia perfume? If anyone has any information about this mystery, I'd love to know.

Why is it so hard to make a decent gardenia scent? Most smell nothing like gardenias. Gardenias smell like vanilla. Little children say gardenias smell like cookies fresh out of the oven and indeed they do. They smell like heated vanilla with the tiniest touch of something wet and green in the center. Dana's Classic Gardenia doesn't quite capture that scent perfectly but it comes closer than any other gardenia perfume. Sweet, but not overwhelming as real gardenias can be. This scent stays true through the drydown.

A perfume of gardenia and vanilla. It's supposed to have fruits in it but I got only a whiff of something fruity and hard to make out maybe citrus and pear. It's really mostly a white floral vanilla. The gardenia is really well done here. The bottle is so pretty. I have the vintage 80's bottle. Smells sweet and yet strong at the same time. I could see myself wearing this from time to time. I love white floral scents. This is still selling out there guys I bought it on ebay. Beautiful gardenia spring time scent.

Kiku The reason it has hard to recreat the gardenia scent is that it is impossible to extract a raw gardenia oil base due to the nature of the flower. Instead perfumists have to either synthetically create it like Elizabeth Taylor's "Gardenia". or they delicately combine other whitle florals like jasmin and honeysuckle to create a scent similar. Tis the sad truth.

This does not smell like Fracas. For REAL gardenia scent / experience : layer Dana with Demeter Gardenia (Yes- Demeter Gardenia!). Demeter is very very close to a real gardenia bush ! But just be warned; it's stinky and waxy. It's too bad REAL gardenias cannot be properly distilled for perfumes and tuberose is unusually manipulated to give a basic gardenia smell.

Happy to Report ! First , I just wanna say ; I have sampled VINTAGE Tuvache Jungle Gardenia . This (along with Coty Island Gardenia) are pretty dang close !! Dana Classic - is even more so ! Lucky for you: even though this is discontinued - I see LOTS on the secondary market for the original price of a "drug store cheapie" ! Go for it! It's nice and nostalgic !

Bought a small bottle ,vintage ,in the package .The box looks like it's at least 30 years old. As with 90% of vintages - it turned sour over the years. So I cannot properly review it............ Oh well.

The same as J'adore or Marks and Spencers Florentyna.