Gardenia

Gardenia by Robert Piguet smells like spicy banana leaves and I mean that as a compliment because this is a gorgeous fragrance! I get a lot of cashmeran in the opening, some spicy ylang-ylang, and a crisp lily that has a fresh cut green vibe to it that slowly mellows to a creamy gardenia. I love wearing this fragrance because it has such a “happy” scent to it; I find it very up-lifting. As someone who is a gardenia lover and having a lot of gardenia fragrances in my collection, this is without a doubt one of the most unique!

Note for self A lovely day time perfume that can transition to night easily. Makes you smell like a fresh garden of flowers on a spring day, despite being so floral it is a scent that is wearable in even the coldest January days. (-30°c) Only thing I don’t like about this perfume is it’s OVERLY powerer-y.

This is perfect for me. I never considered Gardenia to be a "one note" flower, so the subtle inclusion of Lily, Ylang-Ylang & Vanilla hits just the right pitch, smoothed by the leather not toughened. I have the huge "Magnifica" all through the garden & find it a very close match.A delightful find.

First impression: Lovely peppery debut. A sharp and a little bit metallic lily followed by a honeyed ylang. The drydown is a marvel. Such a discrete, intimate beauty. It lingers all day as a skin scent and as a tender olfactory memory. Still peppery but this time also creamy.

Stunning, beautiful, magnificent. An absolutely gorgeous take on gardenia. Pure class. The woods and leather take this gardenia to a dark place, and that's only a good thing.

Gardenia is one of those very pleasant contemporary white florals, solar and fuzzy, rounded out with soft abstract wood and vanilla. The name is quite misleading, however, as this is much more a lily fragrance than a gardenia one, at least to me. It’s so effortlessly pleasant it actually sets off my generic fragrance alert--the floral notes are very nice but there's no hiding they're suspended in a soup of woozy vanilla and Cashmeran, that suspicious-smelling synthetic fuzz, very easy on the nose yet somehow annoying. The scent is too ubiquitously woody-sweet, like almost every other vanilla-based fragrance out there. And yet, whenever I bring my arm back to my nose after taking a short break from smelling it, it strikes me again and again how wonderfully nice this is as a balmy lily-forward woody floral. It reminds me of Lys Carmin--they share a similar, soft and fuzzy, comfort scent quality. I'd say Gardenia is more silky and solar--it has more of that contemporary abstract aura--while Lys Carmin gives off a more classic vibe, as a more typical glamour-oozing sandalwood-anchored hothouse floral. After trying them side by side, I could confirm that they indeed become quite similar somewhere between the heart and not too far drydown. Both smell of fuzzy, sweet and puddingy lily supported by a soft base of vanilla with a hint of wood. I don't like Lys Carmin as much as Gardenia in the early development but this changes in the drydown; Lys Carmin simply smells more engaging, accomplished and expensive next to the synthetic wood-laden Piguet. Overall, Gardenia is very pretty and it would have a superb comfort scent potential for those who do well with contemporary woody synthetics.

Beautiful warm white floral garden. The art of perfumery is not just to copy nature (in which floral scents are largely for attracting bees) but to improve upon it to human taste. By that measure, this scent is a successful gardenia. Intimate enough sillage to wear every day, but also beautiful and refined enough to layer on for a special occasion. Could even work as a bridal scent.

It's been 15 minutes and I'm still waiting for the Juicy Fruit accord to give way to the "real" notes. I don't understand this one, in light of the name and the house. It's a stretch for me to imagine I smell any flowers at all here.

I like this! it's floral but also very sun drenched. it actually reminds me of the "fancy sun cream" scents that are going around right now. idk if I'll spring for a full bottle, but I'll happily use up my sample

A modern bouquet of primarily gardenia but also other white and yellow flowers. A special occasion fragrance. I love that it is so restrained.

Like some have said, there's something very artificial about this. It reminds me of going into a flower shop where the flowers are refrigerated to preserve them, and incidentally curb their fragrance. It's interesting, and i appreciate that it doesn't have the powderiness (is that a word?) that I expected, but I personally prefer when floral scents have a bit more depth.

I tried this along with Fracas, and this is much nicer to my nose. It is similar to Montale Intense Tiare in that it is a very strong white floral, but with the coconut replaced by vanilla & woods so it is sweeter and a bit drier. It does not have the dank, almost fecal aspect I found off-putting in Fracas, in fact it is quite neutral. Gardenia does not project to arms length but it is a strong skin scent and lasts fairly well. I do think it is quite expensive for what you get.

What to say about this one... Cashmeran and synthetic woods really tear through this composition on me. Opening lilly and ylang with hints at gardenia. The florals vanish into a synthetic soup of fuzzy cashmeran woods and vanilla. I get more mid and base notes than the floral so the name Gardenia is perplexing to me. If you get along with the modern synthetics it will work for you. For me, they do not.

A very synthetic lily that has a little pepperiness in there that quickly disappears into a soft powder. I immediately thought of the dental office and the smell of those gloves... I find this to be rather dry, I was hoping for a lush gardenia fragrance. Maybe it's just my skin chemistry but I can't even smell it after 3 minutes?

An elegant fragrance for a classy ... old(er) lady - probably someone twice my age, and I'm 38 ... This would go well with white hair, a string of pearls ... Quite surprised, and frankly, disappointed as I expected it to be a vibrant, sexy white flower fragrance. Also, it gives me a headache.

This is ugly. It's less about gardenia and more about some bandaid mess. It goes on very green with a bit of vanilla, a bit of gardenia and a touch of sweetness. Then it dries down into medical adhesive or antibiotic ointment.

Can’t smell any gardenia at all. Overall, this scent is a mess — an unpleasant experience.

short review ... this smells like sweat.

Such a disappointment ! So wanted this perfume to be about gardenias but no, all I get is a slight floral burst but as it touches the back of my nose it tickles with pepper . Not sure if it’s the leather but it ruins the flowers for me and makes me want to sneeze 😩 Can’t do spicy perfumes

Got this cause I love gardenia and well , nothing like I expected . Peppery and unisex. For a white floral lover this is a disappointment . The name is misleading

Oh my this is lovely! A beautiful summer time tropical gardenia and white flower bouquet. It's been a long winter here in the UK. I am weary of winter. I want to smell the flowers and walk in the warm sunshine and tend to my garden. The floral perfumes of yesteryear have always been my cup of tea but I also look for some magic in today's fragrances. This is one of the more seductive and beautiful white florals in more recent years. Gardenia by Robert Piguet is vintage in it's spirit. This is a more subdued and more soothing smoothie version of both Fracas & Jungle Gardenia. The white flowers, soapy, sweet, tropical and fruity, are front and center. The first spritz is a distinct ylang ylang with a banana flavored scent that reminds me of banana smoothie. There is a fresh aldehyde or aroma chemical blast which softens swiftly into the ylang. Then I detected the gardenia. This is more of a tiare plumeria or frangipani type of gardenia. She is on an island with white petals that emit a vanilla scent. The vanilla is noticeable as it dries down. There is also lily and woodsy notes which give it a soapy kind of air. But the dry down is all about a light musk, cashmere wood and leather or suede. The dry down is a different perfume entirely. The opening and heart is day wear and summer, feminine and floral, the dry down is unisex-masculine with dry notes of evening musk and leather. The leather is glorious. This is a simple and uncomplicated unisex fragrance best worn in the summer at night when you want to smell good without overdoing it. I can't wait to wear it when the spring finally arrives or summer, whichever, as long as I can enjoy the fragrance on myself when I'm at home or out in public. Like so many other Piguet fragrances, the sillage and longevity are incredible. The musk and leather hold up the white florals well and this lasts as long as the day. Superior perfumery by a superior fragrance label.

This is a very pretty, ultra feminine fragrance. It might not satisfy the gardenia purist though. I find that although I really like gardenia, it can often be very indolic, which my skin doesn't wear well. This one is a lot more restrained and puts more focus on the lily and ylang ylang. It's not the soliflore the name would suggest. This is a beautifully creamy floral with enough vanilla to soften the tartness of the white flowers, but not so much as too veer towards gourmand. Someone mentioned bridal perfume, and I completely agree. If you wanted one perfume to sum up what a bridal perfume is like, it would be this one. The only thing I don't like about this is an underlying whiff of burnt butter. But then, I'm not a tuberose fan, which also gives that impression to me, and gardenia and tuberose do share qualities. The spiced woods in the dry down are lovely and very well done. Can't say I get the leather on me at all. This is a great go-to perfume for easy, breezy day wear, weddings and spring. Moderate sillage and I get around 7 hours longevity from two sprays.

Gardenia is beautiful floral. It’s a kind of scent you cannot “not like”. It’s tender, sweet, elegant, sunny... It’s a bridal fragrance... But the main note is not Gardenia, it’s Lily with Ylang-ylang and with touch of vanilla. It doesn’t remind me of other gardenia fragrances I’ve tried, but it recalls from my olfactory memory one perfume that I had 15 years ago – Dolce&Gabbana Feminine, which composition is also built around lily, ylang and woods...Feminine is more musky and aquatic and, Gardenia more creamy, but there is some similarity, otherwise I wouldn’t been able to remember it. So, for conclusion – it’s nice, but not phenomenal. My favorite gardenia is still Isabey Gardenia, favorite lily is Un Lys and favorite ylang is APOM. Longevity 4 hours

I love this house. I love gardenia. The reviews on here are sketchy . I saw a full sized sealed bottle on eBay for only $56.00 (Piguet fragrances normally run from $89.99 to $149.99) . THIS IS AWFUL ! I should have trusted my instincts. You are first greeted with a banana smell -- and mixed in there is a "hair product smell" and a faint "plastic vomit" smell . I am not making this up. Again, I love this house but somebody dropped the test tube when they created this ! I cannot even draw any conclusions or think of anything funny to say. The dry-down is faint. But thankfully - all you get is the "hair product" smell (not the bananas or plastic vomit). Hands down- one of my worst blind buys - ever.

More abstract than expected - there is something in it more truly garden flower than most perfumes provide, but it is not big oily gardenia, lovely as that is in nature (and unobtainable in perfume.) Apparently, the only "leather" note I recognize, as in old Chanel CUIR DE RUSSIE, or old Balmain JOLIE MADAME, has been outlawed by the SCCS, and nothing smells like leather to me anymore. The morning-after traces of GARDENIA on clothes are very good, with no suggestion of department store perfume aisle or laundry products.

This isn’t a gardenia soliflore or anything along these lines. It indeed smells more of lily than of gardenia, from the beginning it has that slightly peppery smell of lily. Then, ylang and vanilla are appearing, giving the perfume a sweet nostalgic aura. It brings to mind facets of Guerlain’s Ylang and Vanille. If one buys it blind hoping for gardenia he/she may be disappointed. But overall it’s nice, romantic and soft. Its name was, to me, not a great choice.

I don't get why people are hating on this. Sure, it's not a gardenia soliflore - the lily is definitely detectable, but I'm not getting the peppery smell others are getting. I actually love this. It's heady. It's creamy. It's also the only gardenia centred fragrance I've tried that doesn't go like insect spray on me. I have gardenias in my front garden and, while slightly synthetic, this perfume still evokes the scent of those gorgeous waxy white flowers.

Salty and too much smelling of dirty feet and salami. Just not working with my skin? I wanted to love this but it makes me sick! So sorry :-( Aurelien Guichard's creations (I looked them up) are not on my olfactory wavelength. I don't like any of his creations. That explains why. Having said that, I appreciate his attempt to create something daringly new. I am sure he has an army of followers and that is great.

Une Gardenia cremeuse, riche en douceur. Ce n'est pas aucune touche vegetale, verte ... c'est une gardenia comme des voiles de cashmire (c'est grace a la vanille). Tres feminine ... Sur ma peau longevite c'est 5-6 heures.

Gardenia? Where? This goes on like pale sambuca, quickly fades to baby powder, then vanishes. What a disappointment! Fracas smells infinitely better and more like a gardenia - the vintage, that is.

A spicy lily - wood - vanilla. It's a gourmand take on the gardenia flower, for those who don't like gardenia or white florals. It's comforting rather than sensual.

The most accurate scent to an Indian Cork tree ( check images to know which flower im talking about ). This is almost absolutely photo realistic.

Wasabi, stale feet, band aids? Where are people getting that?? I get a very pleasant gardenia with a slight lychee fruit smell. Pretty.

Absolutely beautiful fragrance. Rich, lush yet not overpowering floral scent. The gardenia come through and is lovely.

Extremely depressed prostitute