Sana Jardin

The first sentence of Sana Jardin’s ‘Our Story’ section on its website reads: “Our mission is to harness the power of commerce for social good”. I’m not going to repeat everything they present in this section except to say the concept on which the house is based relates to supporting women harvesters in Morocco, to support consistent employment and skills training, as far as I understand it. Plus, the house uses an environmentally sound ‘nose to tail’ practice regarding the ingredients for the perfumes. All good, as far as I’m concerned.

The company is based in France and a friend sent me a 10-sample set in my Xmas box (we send boxes back and forth at various times during the year).

I will say straight up that these are very nicely done. However, the base (the ‘Jardin-ade’?) is rather cool and that’s a bit of an issue for me given my general body temp is low to begin with. I think it means that fragrances that might be ‘warmer’ on another body chemistry are cool on me and thus lack a certain heft.

Berber Blonde: Moroccan orange blossom, North African neroli and musk. Good, solid orange blossom. Clean, easy to detect notes. Really pretty.

Sandalwood Temple: Sandalwood, Moroccan neroli, cedarwood and Haitian vetiver. Smooth and buttery with a citrus tang and a whisper of coffee. Sadly, as time goes on this becomes solidly citrusy cedar. Too bad.

Savage Jasmine: Jasmine, clove, musk and tobacco. On me, the name is a misnomer. This is a very nice straight-forward jasmine. Overall, this is smooth and stylish rather than being an animalic jasmine.

Incense Water: Moroccan May rose and a ‘honeyed bouquet’ (a large number of roses and no incense whatsoever in extended notes list). This was a very cool, light ‘incense’ on me. And it does feel very ‘watery’.

Celestial Patchouli: Patchouli, rose, leather and cedar. I haven’t been good with patchouli-centric perfumes since pregnancy which appears to have changed my body chemistry significantly. Prior to that, patchouli was a love. This is a fine patchouli. Top is rooty. But on me it shifts into a slightly sour phase and that’s really the end of things for me. It’s not a scrubber – I just wish I wasn’t wearing it.

Revolution de la Fleur: Ylang, jasmine, frangipani. For such dense main notes this is surprisingly light on me. Pretty floral ‘water’.

Nubian Musk: Musk, vanilla, vetiver, sandalwood, rose and jasmine. A really nice mid-weight musk with an interesting undercurrent of woodsmoke.

Jaipur Chant: Tuberose, lemon, jasmine, narcissus and musk. Nice lighter tuberose with bright citrus opening. Only grumple is that the animalic, pongy aspect of the flower isn’t handled that well, meaning the fragrance has a slightly garbagy aspect in the middle. That recedes with time and the fragrance becomes a very pretty, pleasant tuberose.

Tiger by her Side: Amber, vanilla, coriander, cinnamon, patchouli and incense. This is the least interesting fragrance, IMHO, of the bunch but it has the best name. Weird patchouli mash-up. On me, it has an unpleasant sweet aspect that definitely shouldn’t be there.

Vanilla Nomad: Vanilla, jasmine, sandalwood, vetiver and patchouli. Nice, gourmandy vanilla where the sandalwood and the vanilla work well together. I would think this would layer very well with a number of the floral fragrances in the line.

The marketing speak makes a point about layering these which makes sense to me.

In any case, 50ml bottles for £95. The bottles are simple and look solid.

I won’t be buying any of these simply because the base runs so cool on my chemistry. But as I state above, they are well made and really in general pleasant (see the patchouli one as the exception). Plus, I am all for pursuing sustainable practices and supporting local communities.

This is very much a ‘something for everyone’ line. That’s not a bad thing – it just seems to me to be the case. I will also say it was sort of exhausting testing 10 perfumes from the same line. I think I’m losing my touch.

So, anyone have any of these or sampled?