Gardenia is one of the original creations of Ernest Beaux, and it belongs to the original collection of the Chanel Exclusifs.
I have always had a love affair with gardenias, and I was always very excited when the gardenias are in bloom during spring time. The creamy fruity scent of the flowers often bring to me a feeling of new hope. Its headiness pregnant with expectancy, yet is verdant greenness and its fruity playfulness bring it into another realm altogether, one that is lively and light, like a little dance.
Gardenia by Chanel is a meld of all of this and more. It is meant to reflect Chanel’s personal favorite flower. I had always wondered why, because it is such an emotional fragrance, not elegant and abstract.
In any case, the perfume starts off with a profusion of light floral notes, not so much of the fruity or green notes, which although present, were very well blended into the background in a supporting role. The impression I got, was one of orange flowers (in the Yardley sense), something like the top green note of muguet, brighten slightly with orange citrus notes, elaborated with neroli and dew.
The tonality is very modern, in a way, and gave me a glimpse into how a perfume like that can evolve into the modern and brilliant Beyond Paradise in about 70 years.
And like Beyond Paradise, the swirling light watery atmospheric notes quickly gave way to a very full and sensual jasmine heart. Woven into the jasmine note is a sweet, almost chocolaty sugary sweet note, something like honey and syrup, yet not as sweet. The creamy notes of a typical gardenia are not so evident, no strong lactone notes in sight here, but rather it leads into a kind of sweet fruity jasmine note with lots of benzyl acetate, blended into an ambery, musky, woody and vanillic note that is as smooth as velvet.
I think this is the most beautiful of the lot, the most sultry, passionate and emotional. Compared to this, the rest of the perfumes are quiet elegant pieces, a bit emotionless by comparison, a little like pictures on a wall. But this, this is the flesh blossoming beneath the cool structured Chanel pieces, this fragrance comes alife, like life heralding of the coming spring. In the range, the parfum version is the best of the lot.
I have always had a love affair with gardenias, and I was always very excited when the gardenias are in bloom during spring time. The creamy fruity scent of the flowers often bring to me a feeling of new hope. Its headiness pregnant with expectancy, yet is verdant greenness and its fruity playfulness bring it into another realm altogether, one that is lively and light, like a little dance.
Gardenia by Chanel is a meld of all of this and more. It is meant to reflect Chanel’s personal favorite flower. I had always wondered why, because it is such an emotional fragrance, not elegant and abstract.
In any case, the perfume starts off with a profusion of light floral notes, not so much of the fruity or green notes, which although present, were very well blended into the background in a supporting role. The impression I got, was one of orange flowers (in the Yardley sense), something like the top green note of muguet, brighten slightly with orange citrus notes, elaborated with neroli and dew.
The tonality is very modern, in a way, and gave me a glimpse into how a perfume like that can evolve into the modern and brilliant Beyond Paradise in about 70 years.
And like Beyond Paradise, the swirling light watery atmospheric notes quickly gave way to a very full and sensual jasmine heart. Woven into the jasmine note is a sweet, almost chocolaty sugary sweet note, something like honey and syrup, yet not as sweet. The creamy notes of a typical gardenia are not so evident, no strong lactone notes in sight here, but rather it leads into a kind of sweet fruity jasmine note with lots of benzyl acetate, blended into an ambery, musky, woody and vanillic note that is as smooth as velvet.
I think this is the most beautiful of the lot, the most sultry, passionate and emotional. Compared to this, the rest of the perfumes are quiet elegant pieces, a bit emotionless by comparison, a little like pictures on a wall. But this, this is the flesh blossoming beneath the cool structured Chanel pieces, this fragrance comes alife, like life heralding of the coming spring. In the range, the parfum version is the best of the lot.
