Gardenia

I smelled the gardenia, I smelled the green notes, because maybe that is what I was looking for,but the other flowery notes such as peony and orchid want to take over and make it a sweet, nauseating, femmenine disappointment. Smells expensive, its strong as its EDP. I will try to use it as a layering note with a more masculine note on top. The flowery notes like lily, peony, orchid make this..well not gardenia, they want to take over the throne of the gardenia chair and its green note cape and make it a nauseating pink princess who wants to paint the walls pink..those notes destroy what could be an elegant mature, green white flower perfume. I like flowers mixed with strong manly notes and in the end this is what I'll do, not sure this will work, I may try jovans tropical gardenia instead. The gardenia is there and the green note to make it stand, but those other flowers want to take over, and they do, making it a sick, flowery vomit of flowers. This may work for girls and very femm women who wear pink bodycon dresses, dont over spray or aim too close, its too strong, it will be overkill. Disappointment i'm afraid for me aleast, sorry.Love true gardenias and the green notes of its leaves, they are white, ethereal, strong, almost masculine and pure. I hope this helps, its a very well made perfume, just may not be what I was looking for, it made me want musk, cedar, leather, tobacco and other masculine notes so badly. Too much sweet flowery, pink colors make me sick, and nauseous, its just not my gender or my sexual preference, I tried. I grow gardenias in my gardens... Update- I slept on it and smelled again, the gardenia and green note are there ever present, let the other flowers serve her sweetness and serve the queen indeed. I layer it with musk cologne and the result is a glorious queen gardenia with her musk king and her pink servant girls in the background...This perfume is wonderful, elegant, deep, tender and comforting, one word defines it and its beauty, I will keep it...glorious gardenia. RIP Liz Taylor, the beauty queen herself, a woman of style, elegance, beauty. She also helped fund a lot of aids related causes and for that, I am honored to wear her perfume. I love it, I think its a 10/10, and amazingly perfect for gardenia lovers... The green leaves notes are incredibly fresh and so noticeable, it should be number two in the notes, the gardenia is sweet and always prominent. It's an amazing gem, with a kind price tag, this will always be in my closet. Fragrances require time to decipher and experience, do not be hasty to judge.

***Updated review from purchase date 10/13/25*** Elizabeth Taylor's Gardenia is an incredible, smooth "Candied Gardenia" fragrance! As Id stated before, I purchased my bottle on 10/13 and while it was very nice then, it initially smelled quite synthetic and seemed a bit weak. Well just a week later the over-all scent had totally improved as well as the performance. Well NOW a couple months later this fragrance has become so rich, and almost buttery, creamy and dare I say a "Realistic" white floral-gardenia scent, and the performance is now AMAZE-BALLZ lasting around 8 hours (if not more) on skin with this gorgeous smooth sillage and after 2 months it lasts (FOR DAYS) on clothes. Its a linear scent, but whatcha get is so very beautiful that I don't mind that at all. Also, while straight up Gardenia fragrances are mostly considered a dna of yester-year, this fragrance feels somewhat youthful and even modern to me because it is NOT AT ALL a screechy or "Old Fashioned" Gardenia and actually now smells a tiny bit indolic and rich which is what makes it smell somewhat natural. Liz T's-Gardenia scent has ZERO sharp edges and has a smooth, clean, "semi-sweet, again almost "Candied vibe" which imo even makes this scent a bit playful/youthful. Id emagine that if ever a Gardenia flavored hard candy were produced, it would smell/taste something like Elizabeth Taylor's Gardenia for sure and I feel that if I smelled this on a young lady it would be super interesting, unique and very appropriate indeed. For me as a guy, Gardenia does lean quite feminine, but Im enjoying it so much that I dont really care! Id tottaly rock this with a few light spritzes and this would make for a great after-shower and/or bedtime scent, or even a bed/pillow scent and since its so linear I think would be great for.layering. Anyways folks, if ya do end up grabbing a bottle of Gardenia, DO NOT judge it after the first few spritzes bc the Maturation process really does a beautiful number on this scent in THEE BEST OF WAYS. A stellar 8 outta 10 fragrance within its genre (Feminine Classic-ish white florals), plus its Crazy-Affordable at around $18 at your local Ross! Thanks to whomever took the time to read my review! CHEERS!

Tropical-Subtropical, Green & Humid Gardenia Soliflore... I’ve come back to this one to discover a truly an amazing, realistic fresh & bright gardenia. This takes a bit of time to macerate as other reviewers have mentioned. When I first sprayed this, it smelt like a very strong powdery tuberose of a certain era, and I quickly forgot about it. However, once it macerates for awhile, a fresh cut, green & humid, bewitching gardenia emerges, with voluminous milky-white petals, soft-spicy undertones, balmy beachy banana and its characteristic mushroom nuances. There's a timelessness here, despite the initial vintage vibes before maceration, and it's hard to believe it was released in 2003; I would have placed her further back or more recent for some reason I can't pinpoint. It's not as powdery as I expected, and has a certain humid balminess that ranges from subtropical green garden to tropical sun-soaked paradise. However, there's a simplicity here that I could see Keira Knightly pulling this off in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). It's a love for me. Enjoy! Update 06/21/25: Sprayed this on today, and it's so good. It reminds me of walking past gardens in the park on a humid summer day. Fresh floral gardenia with green, balmy, creamy, powdery and faint strawberry tones that sometimes happen with gardenia. This is a pretty natural gardenia, so there's also a touch of nuttiness, musky-mushroom nuances & a sunscreen hint as well. Love it still. Update 07/16/25: Have been wearing this as a layering scent over the past week or so, to bring out either the green, fruity (faint strawberry) or creamy aspects of gardenia. Here's a list of my favourite double or double/triple successful combos to date: Gardenia ET + Green Tea Elizabeth Arden (Suhaesa recommended) Gardenia ET + Dolce Dolce&Gabbana (Suhaesa recommended) Gardenia ET + Green Tea Elizabeth Arden + Khair Pistachio Paris Corner Gardenia ET + Valentina Donna Rosa Verde Valentino + Khair Pistachio Paris Corner Gardenia ET + Red Jeans Versace Gardenia ET + Strawberry Cheesecake Bodycology Gardenia ET + Embrace Green Tea & Pear Blossom Vera Wang I'll update if I come across any more really good ones. Enjoy!

Elizabeth Taylor's Gardenia smells like a thriving old conservatory, with a sharp, lemony, just-bloomed, honeyed-flower scent that gradually resolves to a more creamy-vanilla after the white floral top notes pipe down a bit. Another Fragrantica reviewer nailed down the fragrance: like Prell, a real 1940s formulation of a gardenia scent. The gardenia has always struck me as a very 1940s flower; I always think of Billie Holiday and Rita Hayworth. I happen to love the gardenia, as a visual object and as a fragrance, and that's why I chose to wear gardenias in my hair on my wedding day, even with the knowledge that the blossoms would start wilting within a few hours out of water. With its very wet, very green quality, Taylor's Gardenia smells more like lily-of-the-valley, or maybe gardenias that have only recently blossomed, open but not quite ripe. After the EDP has been on the skin for an hour or so, the bright green-floral notes fade appreciably, and the musk and carnation notes get more distinct. (I don't see vanilla listed as an ingredient, but I definitely pick up on some vanilla and possibly sandalwood.) At that point it seems to me more like a skin scent than the punchy sillage that asserts itself within the first 45 minutes of application. I would be leery of wearing this perfume in a social setting, especially in close quarters--definitely not for office wear, at least not in any significant quantity. It seems like the kind of perfume that could give a susceptible someone a sick headache. I think of this scent as a palate cleanser, a foretaste of summer in the doldrums of February, just like a trip to a greenhouse in winter. I don't like to wear the same scent day after day; I'll probably switch back to L'Heure Bleue next week. Besides coming inside a pretty casket-shaped, emerald-green bottle that always makes me think of the evil queen in Snow White, Taylor's Gardenia is especially nice on hair or a silk scarf--it smells very fresh and soapy, with its distinct associations of Prell. I think it might be nice on sheets as well, especially in the spring and summer months.

Elizabeth Taylor’s “Gardenia” is a juicy, succulent, high-pitched fragrance that feels somewhat „jungle“. Having never smelt a real gardenia, I feel unable to judge how realistic this reiteration is, however, what I can say from comparison with other gardenia fragrances I know is that this reads less of a classic white floral and is more of a sweet-green fragrance than I had expected. To my nose, this fragrance transits between three stages: In the first stage, which lasts about an hour, I get a loud, juicy, green fragrance that has a strong lily of the valley note. In the second stage, it calms down and gets a buttery texture similar to that of a tuberose. And in the third stage, you are left with a surprisingly wearable high soprano, sweet white floral. Speaking of the general impression, I find this gardenia a bit synthetic, but not in a bad way. It shares a slight resemblance with Cacharel‘s „Eden“ in that both have that 1990s shampoo-vibe, although I find “Gardenia” much more tolerable. Yet, this is not a classy perfume I would wear on a date or in a business setting, but a fun mood-lifting and very camp fragrance that has its own purposes. In this regard, it is not dissimilar to “Diamonds and Emeralds”, although I think the latter is more complex and therefore more interesting. As for age- and gender based recommendations, to me, this feels shrill but in a weird way ageless: it can be worn by party granny in Palm Beach just as well as by a teenager after P.E. . If we talk about gender, all I will say that this feels extremely queer. And also, cheap in a good and playful way. Honestly, if I ever went to an ESC or an “I’m a Celebrity” party, this would be my choice. And this is also what I recommend this fragrance as: a loud, fun party fragrance. Everybody needs something like that as well. ———- Update 2023: I have now had ample opportunities to smell real gardenias, which led me to appreciate this fragrance from another side as well. This really does smell like a realistic gardenia in very humid weather. Wonderful! ———— TL;DR: Succulent, green jungle gardenia.