Gardenia

This is deceptively simple, with an almost linear development – but that's not to say that it's boring. At all. It's all mad, shivering spring. It captures the excitement of the first warm days, the fluttering urge in the chest to go out and live after the dead days of winter, to see the first deep shadows from the sun amidst green branches play on tall white town houses. And then, beyond the white spring gladness, or rather on a different frequency beside it, there's a very slightly animalic, subversive side to it – one you can only smell if you are attuned to these things. Perhaps it's for this reason that it reminds me of Nabokov, whose crystalline yet oblique style of writing I also associate with spring.

Gardenia remembers me from a summer garden Scene in Downton Abbey: extremely elegant women dressed in pastel tons wearing pearls, the Lords talking politics, the Little smiling Girls with Velvet ribbon in their hairs running after the Boys, the patisseries served with the finest tableware surrounded by fresh flowers, just cut from this fairytale garden Gardenia is the authentic british Noblesse in form of scent. The White flowers here are cristalline, gentle, long Lasting, fresh and soooooo elegant and classy. I just love this Penhaligon ́s creation! a real treasure!

I love Gardenia, tuberose, white flowers...and this here is my spring/summer hit!!! I like to wear it on the evening in this time of the year and I always receive tons of compliments. I was in a lovely spring evening in a restaurant in München with husband and friends, and the dame from the table beside us make me write the number of this treasure. This scent is lovely, romantic, fresh, and full of character...projection is moderate and longevity is more than 4 hours...amazing...Penhaligon ́s always make very refined, high quality scents.

First I would love to say this bottle suites its liquid perfectly.beautiful white flowers gatherd in a great harmony. Clean,green,crisp and alluring.freshly sweet and feminine.descent presentation.no need to say more.just try it.

one sentence to describe, one of a kind.. i smell like a princess and different in a good way from others..love it and my bf love it so much..sensual,romantic and feminine..just hope it last a bit longer..

A truly beautiful gardenia smell. Feels floral and fresh. It’s such a shame that it’s been discontinued.

I am presently shopping and hunting for the ultimate GARDENIA scent.... so far CHANEL was a let down but this one is getting nearer the mark. Still not a 100% but at least 75% on point I should say. I guess it's the ultimate perfumer's challenge to create a near genuine Gardenia experience. I used to work as a plant nursery sales person and always sniffed Gardenia endlessly. I find them addictive. I would describe the true Gardenia scent as indolic, jasmine-tuberose-ylang-lilley of valley-plus honey-suckle and then there is also a Mitsouko/ Salami meaty undertone, some mushroom quality AND the funny close up overbearing quality of a tooth-paste-y-ness that is hard to describe but maybe most likely is present in orange blossom? 7/10

This is the best white floral I have ever smelled. The first spray is really green, like fresh cut flowers. I can only smell the florals. I can't smell any of the rhubarb, cinnamon, cloves, sandalwood, or vanilla, or anything else listed in the notes that isn't a flower. For me, this is strong magnolia, tuberose and lily-of-the-valley. It's like I've walked into a garden full of white and green. It's so so beautiful. I'm usually a gourmand lover first and foremost, but Penhaligon's always enchants me with it's beautifully blended floral offerings. Longevity is around 3 hours on my skin, double that on clothing. Wearing this makes me feel much more ladylike and fancy than I really am.

The first burst of gardenia on this one to me, is very very similar to the gardenia in Gió by Giorgio Armani. I am not saying this is a twin of Gió but definitely reminds of it. Gió is of course darker, heavier, etc, etc. and with a whole load of other notes. This is a lovely, natural gardenia. Dreamy floral. The longevity is good, but close to the skin. I think my hair has impregnated from my neck spritzes and I get very soft lovely wafts 4+ hours after I applied it. Its only a "like" for me because I like my scents to be a little bit more complex. This smells like a soliflore to me.

This is a really nice tuberose, Jasmin and magnolia scent. Leaning green, fresh and very natural. It does not remind me of natural gardenia—of which I have two varieties among seven bushes in my garden. That said, Penhaligon’s Gardenia is not challenging and easy to wear. And for an EDT I’m getting an hour of projection, which is pretty good. For me it feels a little generic. Maybe that’s a tall order in that it’s trying to smell like a realistic gardenia. There are pros and cons here, but my analysis results in a pass.

this s a vanilla tuberose with some freshness, but this is not an original scent, or maybe it is the original first good gardenia scent, cause this one is a renewed version of the one of 70's i think, but there is a lot of gardenia scents there which smells the same of near, the one from Goutal is very near from this one. this scent is beautiful and fresh very spring flowery tuberose vanille, but it is not really stunning scent, very classy and pure, but i prefer lily notes for pureness

This is so well blended, amazing for spring & summer I really enjoyed this and wasn't expecting it after smelling Jo malones gardenia I was so put off the note but i own gucci flora gorgeous gardenia and I tried this & it's like the base before gucci sweetens with brown sugar. I will be buying a 30 ml of this.

Wore this today in the heat of summer and boy does it come alive! In the spring time I barely got more than an hour of longevity before it disappeared But the heat and humidity made it come alive. The orange blossom & musk carry this scent’s longevity.

A scent that made me feel like a girl. Nice, feminine, the kind that has tea parties and likes to cross-stitch. Loved it. It's over now, what a pity. Should buy it again. This kind of gardenia I like.

I love Gardenia, always will. But this one is a weird one for me. It changes on my skin to something sharp like sheep smell and dries down back as a flower. So weird. Probably not for my skin or because tuberose sometimes clashes with me.

This fragrance opens as a lovely fresh, magnolia. Followed by a bouquet of florals, particularly lily-of-the-valley and jasmine rounded by creamy vanilla and musk. This is a lovey soapy, floral perfume. Mmmmm! Solid LIKE. -

Reminds me of a less sweet and creamy Love Tuberose by Amouage. Can barely smell the scent yet it gives me a headache...

Unfortunately, on me it smells more like bubblegum than gardenia.

Like many fragrances labeled as gardenia, Penhaligon's Gardenia comes across as tuberose dominant. Not that I am complaining. I grew up in east Texas where the soil pH is acidic and gardenia plants (and camellias) grow huge and bloom prolifically. Meaning I have smelled natural full bloom almost choking gardenia blossoms so much that I will never be satisfied with any gardenia simulacrum. Can't please me when it comes to gardenia. So bearing in mind nothing in a bottle is ever going to smell like gardenias to me, Penhaligon's Gardenia is an excellent light green tuberose. It showcases the green fresh side of tuberose (unlike, say, Carnal Flower which is waxy and fleshy). This is due to the LOVELY hyacinth note. The hyacinth brings this out and adds a gossamer freshness to prevent this feeling like a heavy choking white floral. I love heavy choking white florals, but not everyone else does. PG is a white floral you can wear anywhere. It's not loud or scratchy. The longer I wear this, the more it changes into hyacinth + neroli. After about an hour the neroli just leaps up. I caught a whiff without thinking and wondered whether I had sprayed on Elie Saab EDT & Anais Anais. I am loving the hyacinth + neroli. This is just beautiful.

Penhaligon GARDENIA is a somewhat sweet gardenia fragrance, with a significant dose of tuberose. In fact, a better name for this composition might be GARDENIA TUBEROSE. Or better still, since the opening is tuberose-heavy, and the drydown far more gardenia-like, perhaps this should be named TUBEROSE GARDENIA. Comparing Penhaligon's GARDENIA side-by-side with Chanel's, the former is quite a bit sweeter and smoother. The Chanel presentation is greenish, sharp, and bitter to my nose. When I reviewed it a while back, I mentioned that I preferred MARC JACOBS, and comparing the three (believe it or not, I sprayed MJ on one of my ankles and had to contort myself in a pretzel shape in order to conduct this scientific study (-:), I still prefer MJ to both Penhaligon and Chanel. Plus MJ has much better longevity. My understanding is that all gardenia in perfume is either a composite creation of other flowers or else an entirely synthetic rendition. MJ's superior longevity suggests that it may be more synthetic than the other two. But I prefer it nonetheless: the nose knows best!