Gardenia

Sampled from luckyscent.com. An enjoyable gardenia. No headaches. Not a white floral bomb. Soft, sweet. Dewy. I tested out my sample for the umpteenth time today and love how reliable this is. I know reliable isn’t sexy, but I appreciate it nonetheless. This was one of my first gardenias after Tuvache’s Jungle Gardenia began my quest for a gardenia fragrance. It shares some similarities with JG, namely the waxy/green smell of gardenia. It diverges in that it doesn’t have the lipstick note in the opening. Jungle Gardenia is glamorous where this is a natural beauty. This lasts ten hours on me. Projection is 4 to 6 inches. I had some family members sniff through some perfume samples and they all seemed to like this, so I think it can be considered a 'safe' perfume for most occasions. I forgot that I bought this for the vanilla/amber notes, which seemed like it could be the best of both worlds. I don't get any vanilla or amber in this and I would be a bit more disappointed if I didn't like the smell as much as I do. My best wearing experience with this is when my skin is a bit warm (so either in the summer or during a workout). Cool weather cuts the longevity and projection by a lot. Allow me to leave you with this image: It’s summer. A storm has just rolled through and the grass is wet under your feet as you wander around the corner of your grandmothers house. There’s a mist in the air and everything is jungle green, breathing, alive. Next to the back porch is a gardenia bush. You sit down on the cool concrete steps and observe. The petals are still dripping with water. It looks disheveled but the soft floral fragrance hovers in the humid air. The world around you is damp, intoxicating, quiet.

Gorgeous white floral featuring gardenia as one would expect from the name. The opening is somewhat indolic but not to the detriment of the fragrance. It settles into something very clear, almost crystalline, that belies the use of such heavy florals. In a sense, it reminds me of Goutal's Un Matin d'Orage in it's lighter feel, though the Goutal is sweeter. It seems to touch on all the facets of gardenia - indolic, buttery, mushroomy, even rubbery as it evolves on the skin. The bottle is a work of art worthy of display on it's own separate from. This was a blind buy. If you know you love gardenia and white flowers in all their glory, I'd say it's pretty safe to do the same, but others should try to sample first if possible. I think it has been disconnected, though I'm not sure. Edit 6/28/24 After reading Carrotlyn's review below, I wanted to comment on this vs the Elie Saab. I agree that Saab is more true to the nature of gardenia. I have it, as well as a few others from the collection, and they all rise to the level of expertise one would expect from Kurkdjian. I fell in love with the Gardenia. However, the last two times I've worn it, it has accented two facets of gardenia that I really don't care for. It smells strongly of rubber and gasoline, and I'm not sure I can tolerate it anymore. I'll continue to experiment. So at this point, while I consider the Saab to be a truer representation of the gardenia flower and all it's aspects, I prefer to wear this one. Those Saab Essences are among the finest I've ever experienced, and overall, I prefer FK's work with Saab much more than his creations in his eponymous line.

This is a love at first sniff for me. This has almost every note in it guaranteed to make me swoon. It’s gardenia supported by creamy ylang ylang, tender jasmine, sweet peach, silky musk, skin like sandalwood, and ambergris to give it that pinch of watery dewy freshness. I’m a white floral girl and this is exactly right up my alley. It’s not a loud floral though it’s not too heady. It’s sweet and creamy a little watery and clean musky. The real standouts for me are the gardenia, peach and ylang. It’s understandable why people might think this has vanilla because ylang and musk add that smoothness along with the sweetness presents that silky smooth lactonic floral buttery feeling that vanilla and gardenia is associated with. It sits close to the skin the projection isn’t great and the longevity for me is about 4-5 hours. Update: I’ve had this fragrance for a few months now and the Ylang Ylang is very dominant. It’s a very strong note in this fragrance and it’s also quite strong in my other M. Micallef fragrance Royal Muska. I absolutely love Ylang so it’s no wonder I love this one. It also has a pretty generous dollop of salty ambergris. I happen to love ambergris so be aware it’s very present giving this a fleshy gardenia, tropical yellow floral almost beach feel. M. Micallef is SO underrated. They hail from the heart of Grasse the mecca and birthplace of modern perfumery. Their fragrances are so dreamlike and creamy and have a serene quality that I’m in love with.

My version is a simple oval glass bottle with a flower in the middle and a long tubular metal lid, I don't know if it is the same as the round bottle version. But it's so beautiful, so lush, vanilla, and creamy. No top notes, no green or mushroomy feel, no freshness, just endlessly smooth, rich, milky white floral ocean. I know this isn't a realistic gardenia scent, but it captures the image of the flower's thick petals. It says EDP on the box, but it definitely has the sillage and longevity of Extrait de Parfum. I bought it ten years ago, and I guess it's far older than that. Under the plain packaging, it is a gem. Interestingly, my dad never wore perfume, but he always bought vintage-style, great floral scents for my mom, always white flowers and powdery iris. In the mind of this traditional East Asian man, good perfume is feminine. He cannot judge the quality of male perfume at all, but he likes it very much when I spray this perfume on my mom.

I was sent a decant of this along with a decant of Van Cleef & Arpel's Gardenia Petale from the lovely churinl and while I fell in love with both of them, I just love this more. While both are gardenia scents with all the facets that entails, what differentiates this for me from VC&A's GP, is the peach, ylang, and ambergris. Actually, I find it much more similar to Isabey's Gardenia except that goes heavy vanilla amber on me on the far dry down which I am not getting here. It does smell like there might be some vanilla here, though I don't see it listed in the notes. Whatever the case, this is full-on creamy gardenia from beginning to end and I am so here for it. I love this so much it has shot right up onto my list of favs. Fb worthy and already done.