Gold Leaves

I'd been curious but wary about Régime des Fleurs for a while; I couldn't tell if they were legit or just another overpriced bougie niche perfumer whose bottles were worth more than the juice inside them. Gold Leaves dispelled my suspicions. It's an ethereal fragrance, difficult to describe. My first impression is of pure, unadulterated springtime: green, growing things brought to bud and blossom by light, air, and water. Then: delicate, sparkling white-green florals, clean and fresh and zesty. The blend is truly outstanding; as soon as I try to isolate any of the listed notes, they slide—seamlessly and ineluctably—back into the overall bouquet. They float together, airy and frolicsome. Later, the amber and cardamom move a bit more to the front, but never really cede to the floral and green notes. This is how I imagine the secret garden would smell in the Francis Hodgson Burnett novel. There is a very beautiful and somewhat rare verb in French, "éclore", which to me captures the essence of springtime. It is related to the archaic verb "clore", which means "to close". The é- is a prefix that negates or indicates displaced motion. So, even though it is often translated as "to bloom" or "to hatch", it literally means "to unclose", which makes sense, for the things that it applies to—buds, eggs, ideas—always start closed until it's their time to shine. I think that an even better name for Gold Leaves may have been the noun form of this verb: "Éclosion"–Blossoming, Unfolding, Unclosing. A bit linear, yes. But it's such a pretty line. And it meanders on and on, keeping you company until the weary sun dies its daily death upon horizon's bower.

How beautiful from start to finish. I fell in love. Thank you Mr. Mathieu Nardin for this beautiful creation. I feel as if this was created specifically to fit my taste (at least for now). If you are, like me, a lover of white flowers, lilies in particular, resins, incense and green notes, most probably you will love golden leaves too. Wonderfully well balanced. Giving you what you might crave of calming cool breaths of green, narcotic headiness of white flowers, rootedness of earthy woods, entwined and in turns, all in balanced doses so that you are never bored or overblown. Balanced elements of Fire, air, and earth. Water is there in a very tiny dose, since the lilies are mature in full bloom, not dewy and young. This perfume evokes the image of a white wolf walking among a bush of white lilies on a night of full moon. The official description fits. It is narcotic and heady, without being loud. It is muted, not sparkly. However there is a transparency to it, I think thanks to the greenness from the woody notes. Not too dewy, not too dry. At first, the woods are dominant, then the lilies bloom. They keep blooming and become darker in character, as one reviewer stated, become more indole, as if they ferment, becoming a tad bit animalic, but the woods balance it and give it transparency. I would wear it everyday, in whichever occasion. It has strong character, but the sillage is moderate. Towards the end, it becomes woody-animalic. update: This has pretty strong lasting power, and smells sweaty towards the end.

This is absolutely gorgeous - I've been looking for a treatment of laurel leaves in a fragrance (because of my name; it seemed like it could be a "signature") and I had yet to find one that wasn't overly masculine, like spicy aftershave, which tends to happen with it. This treatment is verdant, alive with blooming trees. It has a similar effect for me as another favorite, California Reverie, although it's much less sweet or floral, in that it evokes a place at the borders of town, a wild field overtaken by spring verdure and blooming trees. I love the imagery in the choices of notes too: the "fleur de lys" is as much about the iconography as it is about the scent I would think. It's a play between the formal, classical symbolism of the gold laurel wreath or the fleur de lys image, on one side of the equation, and the wildness of notes like pittosporum and the other green woods and flowers, the wildness of nature that escapes human signification.

If you love lilies and iris, you should take a sniff of Gold Leaves. The citron, cedar, and spices seem to somewhat foil the dark edge I usually sense in lilies (both fresh and in fragrance accords-- perhaps these are indoles?), but there is something else in this slightly beyond recognition that has a very faint suggestion of something in the camphor neighborhood. Fortunately, that phase was fleeting. This dried down to one of the most gorgeous florals I have experienced. This is on my want list. Between this and the exquisite Falling Trees, I'll have difficulty choosing which to buy first, but I am very impressed with Regimes des Fleurs.

Reminds me of slightly sweeter orchid soleil minus the corn tortilla note. Orchid soleil is a guilty pleasure that I only wear around the house because the reactions from others range from “wtf” to “ew.” I find it addicting, personally. Anyway, Gold Leaves is a significantly more generally appealing version.

Tears to capture melancholy, Blood Spider Orchids to supposedly capture goth.. to me they'd already achieved both in gold leaves :( I emailed them September last year and they said it may make a return someday.... Pray god this is one of the 3 upcoming releases because my decant is but a dreg

a dying ember going out without a fight. achingly beautiful. melancholy in a bottle. i could weep, and do.

Less powerful and sexy version of Amouge Opus 9...a touch more earthy. Stunning.

In the top notes, I have mostly a pronounced laurel leaf note, on a very slightly creamy/sweet floral base (definitely the Iris + Pittosporum mix). To tell the truth, I don't think the citron is very pronounced: it's mostly a kind of very light amber-aromatic (not sticky at all). As often with them, it is at the same time very particular/aromatic while being a very light juice, very airy, very skin scent. On the dry down, some strange burnt rubber-type notes appear, quite black, and it brings a little more depth to an already interesting accord. It has a hint of grandma's cabinet (with maybe in the background a grandpa coming back from his DIY session in the engines) and overall, it is therefore very comforting and pleasant. For those of you who are still a little scared by the price, I know that they sometimes have 50% off bottles on their US site (they have to produce in very small batches, and get rid of the batches that are no longer at the top of their "freshness" from time to time). I don't know if they send or resell in France, though (but it would be a shame because it's a really nice house, which deserves its place on many of our shelves).

Opens with a note akin to red champaca. I love it. Within 5 minutes, a cold yet spicy note emerges... like the one in fresh green curry leaves. If I hadn't smelled it in this perfumes, I would have immediately dismissed such a pairing of notes/accords. I detect a very mild presence of cardamom. There is also a little bit of smoky feel, I think from the cypriol oil. Overall, I think the fragrance has turned out beautiful in spite of the non-conventional accord-pairing. Certainly a Spring -Fall perfume for me. A BIG like.

Really a perfect representation of pittosporum—not as sweet as jasmine & orange blossom, but similar to lemon blossom without the citrus! It's very clean/green yet indolic/musky, but I wish the initial honey-like burst of photorealistic flower—full of joy—would last longer before transitioning into Death & Decay with the supporting lily 😩

This is almost delicious. But I think the oakmoss takes it to a dank place.

Does anyone remember those dissolving bath beads from the 90s that came in different shapes? This is exactly what they smelled like.

There are trees that bloom with clusters of small white flowers around San Francisco in the spring and I was obsessed with the fragrance of these trees for a long time before I found out they were pittosporum trees. I used to stop any time I walked by one to take a deep smell from the drooping blossoms. Gold Leaves reminds me most of those trees, so I am not surprised to see that note as the top vote. It is a very floral fragrance, an almost lilac-like scent, if you're not familiar with pittosporum. I love the fragrance, but am not a big fan of florals in perfume on myself. Falling Trees is by far my favorite of the Regime Des Fleurs offerings I have sampled, but Gold Leaves is a lovely one as well, for those who enjoy a floral scent.

Gosh where do i start? Being a huge white floral fan myself, i’ve probably smelled and own almost every white floral fragrance in the market right now. And sadly to say they resemble each other very much, it’s repetitive. However i’m so proud to say that RDF has once again released a stand out floral fragrance. Gold leaves is an accurate name for this masterpiece. It smells like walking through jardin des luxemburg in the fall season. Dry leaves, fallen flowers, ashes from burnt cigarettes and that french atmosphere all mushed up together. It’s gorgeously elegant and it’s different (much appreciated!). I agree there’s a “mothball” like note in here which immediately reminded me of TF’s orchid soleil

Wow, super interesting white floral. Opens up with a very familiar lightly indolic lily but on skin the wet soil-esque earthiness comes out very quickly. More and more as it dries it actually does begin to kind of smell like wet rotting leaves (in a good, nostalgic sort of way). Very glad to have found a bottle of this one.

Hawaii in a bottle. Indolic white flowers but like a lei, exactly. Dries down to same with a pleasant sandalwood base that is gentle and dry, like a sandalwood fan or the beads of an Indian prayer string. A bit more indole than I like in the end, but not too much to enjoy, though I won’t wear it again.

Such a nice very white floral perfume with that lovely subtle muskiness of the white cedar, amber and oak moss to balance it out. This was one, for some reason I blind bought and it turned out great. It really feels like that freshness of early spring- this perfume house is the best.

very, very heady, and a bit sour/savory thanks to the citron and spices. it is a bit dank and mothball-esque, as others have noted — i wanted to love this so, so badly, as a fan of both white florals and woods/green notes/resins. it just didn't come together here as i was expecting.

My absolute favourite from this lovely house. A white floral with a beautiful balance of earthy and green and amber. Complex and nuanced, perfectly blended. I reach for this when I want something unique but never overpowering. ghadaalboghdadi has a fitting review below.