Rosa Gardenia

Wow, this was unexpected. Floral, green, full of innocence, memories, & distinct romantic nostalgia. Very Italian. Very beautiful. It smells like the hair of a brand new Barbie doll (almond blossom), in the best possible way, but only for a moment. May rose is so distinctive, and combined with gardenia is simply brilliant. The fig leaf is also noticeable, and the creator added it with reckless abandon, which is very much appreciated by me. The last note which stands out to me is a sandalwood which works so well, rounding out the composition. This fragrance conjures the image of a tall, gleaming white Roman statue, holding a fig leaf to his unmentionables; draped in wreaths of gardenia & spring roses, wearing a thick, leafy crown of fig tree branch. Elegant, artistic, white, romantic, clean, very European. I love it- and my wish is for every person who truly loves the art of fragrance and are familiar with notes such as May Rose (vs. other roses) and Fig leaf (vs just fig) to experience this on their fragrance journey. ✨

Rosa Gardenia is a fluffy, talcum powdery, rosy sherbet delight. If you like powdery/talc-like perfumes you're going to love it! The first few minutes are not very powdery, it's almost a non-scent, takes ten mins or so for the powder to emerge. We all know now that talc can be carcinogenic, so this is the safe alternative. I actually have a Woods of Windsor box of rose-scented talcum powder that I sniff on very rare ocassions. (I mean it's not nuclear waste, a few sniffs every month or so won't kill me!) I found it at TK Max and bought it for the nostalgia factor, even though I rarely wore talc. It has that air of ritual dressing up, of pampering oneself. Makes me feel I've just had a bath and fluffed and dusted myself, like a silver screen Holywood starlet, and it's so nice on this mild spring day! Santa Maria Novella are nearly always head and shoulders above the rest for me. Big love

This is so pretty. Soft, waxy, floral, a bit sweet, a bit green, slightly powdery. When you first smell Rosa Gardenia you really get a lot of that almond blossom. It is very sweet almost a bit cloying but as that starts to fade into the background just a bit a lovely and soft rose appears followed by a slightly waxy gardenia. You kind of get the sense of candle wax as you smell this perfume but not in a bad way. Almost like flower petals preserved in an expensive scented wax of a very high quality. A slight vanillic quality w/ light woods in the dry down. The whole composition is cocooned in pillowy soft musk's. This is so feminine and so pretty. A very dainty quality throughout. Youthful, innocent, ladylike. Worn by a gentlewoman of good taste, style and refinement but w/ a youthful quality that never fades w/ age.

I tend to like classic floral scents - Guerlain L'Heure Bleue, Penhaligon's Violetta, SMN Fieno/Hay are year round favorites. So I was surprised by how much I liked this new addition to the SMN lineup. It has a sweet, cloying opening that I really do not like. But after a few minutes it settles into a very clean, skin-like, soapy, powdery fragrance. I agree with others that find it waxy and evocative of a dusting powder Marie Antoinette would have worn. It has become my new daily work perfume, so mild I don't feel like a leave a noticeable perfumey wake around the office that others might not enjoy. It's a delicate, private, old-world fragrance.

The union of rose and gardenia is exquisitely romantic. A classically feminine composition, sweet with elegant florals. It evokes images of a summer garden at a country estate, pastel dresses, and the novels of Jane Austen. The subtle sillage quickly settles into a charming, slightly woody, sweet skin scent that wraps the wearer in a refined, understated way. At this stage, it is no longer a garden, but rather dried flowers pressed between the pages of a book. A beautiful composition.