Black Gardenia

Black gardenia is the one that I got (gift from husband) in a decant size. I'm glad I did that because this is one of my favorites in the line and I've had quite a few favorites in this line. I am More impressed than I thought I would be. Black gardenia is a really gorgeous vintage style fragrance. If you like fragrances like Elizabeth Arden's Red door, or Givenchy Ysatis, (vintage mind you reformulated versions are bad) you will like Elysian Black Gardenia. It creates this vintage swirl of florals around you. You can smell them all, but you can't pick them out individually. It's slightly animalic. That dark honey note in here really works well with the tropical elements of the fragrance. It's extremely woody as well and I get like these tropical woody notes it's almost as if the woods were made from compressed tropical flowers. It's a complete fantasy floral much in the same way that Elizabeth Taylor's White diamonds is a fantasy floral. Or Mugler's alien is a fantasy floral. Black Gardenia doesn't smell like those fragrances, but it creates a new world like those fragrances do. Like what nature would smell in a fairytale. In fact, the other two fragrances that I thought were extremely feminine from Elysian, that I liked for myself Moonpetals and Fairest of them all have the same kind of imaginary elements to them. They smell like fairy tales. You are being transported to an imaginary world with all three of these perfumes and that's what makes them really in my opinion quite innovative and different, especially in these extremely literal times ..Very impressive. Very ylang heavy. Must like that flower to enjoy this perfume. Black gardenia is the perfumer using her imagination. It doesn't smell like gardenia. It is her impression of what she would think a Black Gardenia (which doesn't exist in nature) might smell like. Some of the negative reviews here are lacking in imagination IMO. Again, we live in a very "literal" black or white world. Imagination is being squashed. I personally love this fragrance. It reminds me so much of vintage Givenchy Yastis. What they have done to it in their reformulated version is very sad. If you miss vintage Yastis try Black Gardenia.

This is a gorgeous fragrance. Smells like an expensive shampoo . Very fresh and lightly sweet; Time for a full bottle. Reminds me of the bath product called Bouncia - if you like how good that line smells from Japan, you will appreciate this fragrance.

Some backstory here: Sebastian "The Perfume Guy" did a review on Cafe Avellana by Elysian Perfumes, in which he raved about the fragrance. Several months back, I blind-bought a 50 ml bottle of Cafe Avellana. Cafe Avellana was an instant complete love. I purchased an Elysian custom sample set with six fragrances, each in a 3ml vial with atomizer: Blackwood & Bourbon, LaBelle Vanille, Charmante, Temple of Echos, Sombre Douceur and Black Gardenia. Black Gardenia almost proved to be a scrubber. The opening is a powerful, overwhelming cacophony of heady flowers with tropical, thick ylang-ylang, heavy magnolia, LOADS of violet and tuberose. The combination of floral notes is cloying. I pushed through the opening because I so wanted to LOVE one of the six samples I purchased. Black Gardenia proved to be the worst. And within 20-30 minutes, this fragrance morphs into a thick, choking, HONEYED, floral fragrance with woods. I truly dislike this stuff...

I'm confused, y'all. I love Ylang Ylang, but if you're going to name a fragrance Black Gardenia, I'm looking forward to the white flower, not the yellow floral Ylang Ylang is very far from Gardenia. I love Gardenia in perfumery, the Dewy silky-smooth white flower. I know it's hard to extract gardenia and Tuberose takes substitute to Gardenia, but I'm still looking forward to trying this.

You see, that's the problem with names. You read "Black Gardenia" you expect some kind of deeper gardenia fragrance. And yet... there is NO gardenia! There is the violet, and ylang-ylang (which may be too heavy on my skin), but not a trace of gardenia. C'mon. I only got here because of their tea party collection and wanted to discover what this brand is all about.