Island Gardenia

'Got this today at Walmart for $11. The top notes are a soft blend of various aldehydes & gardenia. The aldehydes give the fresh, morning-rained, floral garden bouquet scents, that are very pleasant, complex but NOT overpowering. 'Thinking softer floral bouquet aldehyde blend like No5, just much softer. I sometimes have a difficult initial reaction with certain aldehyde floral-type blends but not with this one. The aldehydes & gardenia top notes are very pleasant. It is not as intense & long lasting with the potency of the original Tuvache Jungle Gardenia. But it does seem to last well. Middle notes have a slightly cinnamon scent in one of the particular aldehydes. But the gardenia holds well, too. It lists coumarin,citronellol, jojoba & oakmoss, also. The base notes are very soft with oakmoss. The list of various aldehydes led me to read the section here on fragrantica about aldehydes. This sophisticated, complex floral bouquet with a classic gardenia scent is very nice, well worth the money. I also saw a 3 oz bottle of Liz Taylor's Gardenia at TJ Maxx for $15. I just have got to go back & try it, too, since I am a gardenia fiend. Gardenia is one of my favorites in the white florals. This Island Gardenia is a fragrance that reminds me of walking around my mother's floral gardens early in the morning, after a gentle rain shower at dawn. She had her own little nursery operation since she had so many types of flowers, palms, trees, shrubs, herbs, etc. She had several gardenias planted around her home & property as they grow so well in this SE GA locale & climate. One gardenia near her back deck was nearly as tall as her roof, covered with beautiful large, heavy blossoms. Oh, that fragrance!!! We would walk around together having precious mother-daughter talks, coffee mugs in hands..stopping to enjoy each of her various blossoms & plants, smelling, sometimes breaking leaves or crushing petals...savoring the aromas from her various "diggin-in-de-dirt" pursuits. What very dear memories as she has been gone now almost 2 years. This fresh, clean, complex floral blend with the sweet, sensual gardenia is a very memorable fragrance. For me, it evokes memories of lovely gardens, flowers, with just the right amount of gardenia. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one!!!

Vintage charmer! If you hate hairspray notes (or aldehydes) in fragrances, then you can automatically skip Island Gardenia. But for those who are very accustomed to hairspray/soap notes and love a good budget gardenia tuberose, look no further! As an aside, something about the aroma chemicals chosen for Kim Kardashian's classic and the M. Kors scent it was meant to imitate don't work for me. They turn strident, green, sour. I've found this to be the case with nearly all modern Gardenia or Tuberose focused fragrance, so no blame. It's just interesting that a previous era's chosen chemicals are working so much better for me! If you, like me, have not had success with more current white florals, it's worth a try to grab this oldie from Walmart. At worst, with the saved receipt you can always return. Meanwhile, you will have experienced the aroma of the past... and not such a bad past at that! I might add that in this past (whether you were THERE or not), you were ultra feminine, immediately appealing to men, and highly desirable. How could you help but be, smelling like this?! To sum up, a floral treat perfect in mid winter or early spring. Neither too sweet nor sour nor green nor fresh nor powdery. Island Gardenia is more a perfume interpretation of gardenia and tuberose than the actual flowers in soliflore form, yet it's hard to deny there's SOME of the real reimagined here. And how perfect for boudoir and vintage lovers... You can, of course, say it's a grandma fragrance, but if so your grandma is one alluring and forever blooming lady! Five stars. Simply one of the best budget florals - ever. <3

A tropical bouquet of full blown beauty in an affordable cologne! I was brand new to fragrance upon first discovering Island Gardenia over 7 years ago. Perhaps not the 'right' scent for my age range, but who cares! I'm elated to have obtained a scent so purely floral, so effervescent and 'real' smelling. Gardenia comes in many forms, many of which (I'm looking at YOU, Kim Kardashian and Michael Kors!) turn vile on me, artificial and high pitched. This gardenia? Ahhhhh... Imagine, if you will, an Island Paradise. You are standing by massive Gardenia blossoms, waxy petaled and radiantly framed by glossy leaves. In the distance, faint whiffs of other tropical blooms (tuberose etc) waft into the air and you distinctly smell that touch of coconut oil on your wavy, salt kissed locks. THAT is Island Gardenia. On the right skin, you will smell the perfect melding of waxy flowers with coconut and hints of the island... Simple? Yes, simple Genius! I wouldn't change it for worlds. <3

Fragrance to me is a time machine to the most cherished memories of my life. Anything created before 1990s I have a profound love for. I first smelled this about 1987 with my older sister at her best friend's parents house. Her best friend was a tall, blond, and very beautiful girl. Her mother entered her into beauty pageants, and she wanted to be a model, which unless you're rich or very special to someone in high places is very hard to accomplish in Des Moines Iowa. She wound up a housewife, still tall blond and beautiful. She was also very kind, and I admired her. She had this perfume and I loved to open the cap and inhale. I recently bought it for the sake of memory and discovered that I still love it, it's now one of my most worn. I remember it being a little more green and stemmy, less lactonic, in the eighties. No matter how much I spend, or how far down the niche rabbit hole I go, I'll always love the "cheapie" classics. 🤍

IMPORTANT: This is one of those fragrances that needs to aerate (or breathe). I mentioned this in a review about Tommy Bahama, as well. My daughter reports that Tommy Girl requires the same process. Chloe Narcisse is another. That means spraying it a few times, then allowing the bottle to sit for a day or longer. After purchasing a bottle of Island Gardenia last summer, I was angrily disappointed because it did not connect with all the raving reviews. However, I gave it another shot just a few days ago. Fabulous! The overpowering spiciness (like raw ginger root from hell) had mellowed significantly, and now expresses as a lovely Hawaiian ginger floral. There also seems to be a faint whisper of honeysuckle, with a smidge of musk. Longevity and sillage are wonderful. I am surprised by its complexity. The perfume pyramid's description could certainly use some modifications. I can't wait to wear this once the weather warms up!

I absolutely LOVE this fragrance. Jovan's take on gardenia reminds me amazingly of Aerin Lauder Gardenia Rattan - a tiny bit less nuanced, but equally beautiful and lush. The initial spray is an enormous blast of summer, and the drydown softens into a caress of velvety white gardenia petals lingering on your skin. It is sweet but not gourmand, animalic but not aggressive, floral but not flirty (more dominating, despite its femininity!). In addition, despite the "Island" in its name, unlike with many fragrances that aim to capture the intoxicating scent of a gardenia blossom, this scent does not overpower with coconut or aquatic elements - yet it still manages to place you outside on a hot summer evening. To me it is elegant and almost old-fashioned - Nicole Diver would wear this as she lounged by the Riviera - but also fun and modern in how unabashedly sultry and feminine it is. I will keep this in my wardrobe forever.

Last summer I layered Island Gardenia with coconut scented lotions and oils to much success...everyone said AHHH as if I were the girl from Ipanema. Island Gardenia, at least the version that has been available for the last five years or so, is in my top two favorite gardenias of all time because it is, to my nose, so close to the real flower. This is quite an accomplishment as it is surely a synthetic. Yet, it lacks the metallic or some would say, aquatic note that exists in Marc Jacobs. It also lacks the green and tropical floral notes in Touvache's Jungle Gardenia. It is richer than Elizabeth Taylor's Gardenia (my third favorite), yet not as rich as Sand & Sable (my second favorite but reserved for winter due to its strength and its tuberose and amber notes). Edit: I wonder if this could be layered with Bobbi Brown Beach! It's February but now that I have a bottle of the latter I'm curious. Has anyone tried this?

Beautiful rich buttery gardenia!! Its veryyyy creamy and strong..one spray and you're good to go! Longevity is a good 6 hours on me in summer & 8 hours easily in winters - I love it sm I wear it to bed!!! And the projection is great too..I mean you wear it and everyone in a 6 ft diameter will smell you! Although it's not heady or overpowering you just gotta tread lightly on the sprayer 😄 The butter note is chef's kiss, it's almost like salted butter popcorn 🍿 and the gardenia is so lush, balmy and creamyyyy, on my skin, wearing it during Indian summer nights this almost feels like I'm wearing a perfumed lotion..yea it's THAT creamy & I love it for its soft cozy vibe I have an older formulation ig because I don't get any hairspray vibe from this.. just pure buttery lush gardenia scent! It's a floral silk nightie dress, lacey lingerie, skincare and a cozy book in bed kinda frag ❤️

My goodness this is so beautiful. It's back up bottle worthy. It opens with a waxy, creamy, warm gardenia. It's has that coconut-like smell of a real gardenia right off the bush. It' is the truest gardenia scent I have found. There's some stuff going on behind the gardenia that give it some depth. Some florals (rose and violet maybe) and something a little green in there too. I cannot put into words how well blended and crafted this cheapie is. The drydown still has a stong gardenia flower thing going on but there is also a clean musk, sweet vanilla and I think almond. On me the longevity was excellent. I washed it off after 12 hours but it was going strong. The sillage is perfect. it's not a skin scent but you need to be sitting or standing near someone for them to catch whiffs of your divine scent. I may need to make room in my top five for it.

Jovan Island Gardenia smells like a tuberose soliflore drizzled with movie theater popcorn butter. I don't get coconut, animalic, any other flowers etc. All I get is: TUBEROSE + SALTY BUTTER. That said, I love it. I did the tuberose test to make sure that it was tuberose I was detecting and not a similar white floral like say, gardenia (not that there's a huge difference in this instance). Tuberose is my boyfriend's absolute favorite scent on me. Whenever I'm wearing a perfume that contains the note, he makes sure that I know, that he knows I'm wearing it. I put on a few sprays of Island Gardenia and he just manifested in front of me out of no where, telling me I smelled good. so yeah, if you like bold white flowers and movie corn... you know what to do.

Just wanted to come back here and say that my love for this cheapie hasn't waned since I first swapped for an aged bottle a couple years ago. This and Kai are my current go-to gardenias for the summer--Kai boasts a heady, narcotic, sensual gardenia, while Jovan has this fun buttery popcorn tone that just makes it a joy to wear when walking along an amusement park pier or something. And it does need to be aged for some time to become truly interesting! I just bought a back up bottle and while you can tell it's the same scent, the aged one has developed into a richer beauty while the new bottle is just so-so.

The box appears small next to all the other boxes, with bright colors or gold embossed fonts. The box is just an illustration of a white gardenia flower with many leaves. The box is beige and small. Already, I’m getting Joan Didion vibes. The lady behind the counter opens the box and slides out from it a tiny rectangle of pleated glass. The cap is white plastic with the name of the brand and fragrance in gold. It reminds me of Elizabeth Taylor’s “White Diamond,” only tamer. Less showy. It’s classier that way. It looks like something one of the daughters from Woody Allen’s movie “Interiors” would wear.

This is, as others have eloquently noted, an accessible and enchanting delight. Sweet, creamy, and fresh—a sun drenched floral with a slight tropical nuance. Sure, the note breakdown lists only gardenia, but we know that’s not the truth. I think there are floral accords, musk accords (it’s a Jovan. . .) and a wee bit of happy, light creamy coconut accord. The end result, for me, is pure sweet floral delight. Every time I spray this, I wonder why I don’t wear it more often. If you know you like white florals, and aren’t picky about exclusivity, I think this will be the best $10-$15 value you can buy.

Island Gardenia is a true diamond in the rough. It's gardenia through and through, and I was told the bottle I received in a swap from a kind Fragrantician has had time to develop its aroma from when it was first sprayed and now has this wonderful salty, buttery popcorn note that smells like sun kissed skin on a sandy beach. I love that this fragrance transports me to a far away island, and makes me feel happy. For a cologne it's rather strong as well, a couple sprays goes a long way. Definitely give this one a shot if you love white florals!

Wearing this today with my Yves Rocher Monoi Gardenia Body Oil....luscious summer combo! I feel like I'm on a island with swaying palms, crystal waters glistening, the warm sun on my face. I'm lying in a hammock as I inhale the fresh gardenia bushes that line the dunes and follow a straight path to the tiki bar! This frag is available at Walmart stores for $9...don't pass up this inexpensive beauty if you love beachy scents! Oh...and the Monoi Body Oil is on sale right now on the Yves Rocher USA website for $7.50 (50% OFF)!

I love the opening notes in this, and the middle, and the end! A creamy smooth gardenia that nets compliments like crazy. It starts out like a sopping wet gardenia, with almost a coconut creamy scent in the back. Once it dries it turns to a white floral scent lightened by a powdery tone. It doesn't last long at all on my skin so I spray it on my hair and clothes and it can last for days! Sillage is only good for a few minutes, until it dries, but I don't really wear perfume for other people anyway.

I don't know how this masterpiece managed to get past me all of these years. This smells wonderful! It is a happy scent that I blind bought. When I smelled it, I realized that I had smelled it before at some point. Today, I am wearing it for the first time, layered with Demeter's Funeral Home. These two fragrances complement each other perfectly! Island Gardenia has great longevity and projection. If you love the gardenia note in fragrances, then this is a safe blind buy.

This is a true gardenia that has a beautiful lactonic muskiness that’s almost like melted candle wax, almost like tanning oil, and almost milky, but chic, natural, sexy, and friendly like a walk outdoors in the tropics. One or two sprays on extremities (an elbow or the back of the knee) is plenty. This should be enjoyed in moderation. It’s very affordable, and it smells like something that quite literally costs ten times as much or more. Coty is the parent company.

saw this shopping...since ive become an avid parfum combiner....this will be a beautifull touch to my personal concoctions...as for the smell...it is quite delightfull and very floral...and is fairly potent...fairly inexpensive...have added it already to a blend and im loving it....a great ingredient for your mystery fragrances...its also lovey by itself...im a guy btw...happy whiffs n sniffzs...IMO its a decent 7.4 out of 10

This is incredibly lovely. Buttery gardenia and white flowers with a little bit of coconut and musk. It smells like being next to a gardenia bush on a muggy summer night. Great projection and slightly above average longevity. I am very surprised by how elegant this is for a $10 bottle from the drugstore! Definitely a new summer favorite.