First off a bit if news: Last week I wrote about Sarah Horowitz’ new scent Super Bloom and hoped she would add it to her line for keeps. Well, looks like she did! Great news!
Well having tried one of Neela Vermeire’s creations I shuffled off to Surrender to Chance to try more. I only found one, and being loathe to just content myself with a single (and one could argue, having the attention span of a fruit fly) I added a couple more. So it’s Gardenia day here at the Posse. Just call me Joel Cairo..
Neela Vermeire Bombay Bling is much more than just gardenia- as a matter of fact gardenia doesn’t even make an appearance until midway through the development. It opens bright with fruits that are grounded by spices: they list mango, lychee, blackcurrant, cardamom, and cumin and as hard as it is to get one’s mind around that combo it’s even kind of harder to admit how well it works. I’ve been convinced for years that mango = monster and lychee should be left in the syrup (except at dinner at a retro Chinese restaurant) but I have to write that I really liked it. The white flowers come in at the mid with the patchouli base but this never becomes one of those dreaded fruitcholi things that were so pervasive a decade or so ago. Like a Bollywood musical, it’s bright, a little strange, and ultimately a lot of fun. StC is out of samples of this, but LuckyScent sells them for $6. 60ML is $260 also at the NV site.
Flora by Gucci Gorgeous Gardenia is a little bit if a let-down after the technicolor dance of Bombay Bling. It’s also a fruity-floral, opening with pear and red berries, gardenia and frangipani in the middle, and patch in the base. It’s perfectly nice. Completely inoffensive. If you’d told me it was released in 1912 rather than 2012 I would totally believe it. It still wouldn’t make me buy a full bottle, but.. Well, a full bottle this can be had for $50 at Walmart (as of this writing) so you could do a lot worse..
Caswell Massey NYBG Gardenia is, conversely, a lot more in-your-face that the Gucci and even a bit more than Bombay Bling (at least as far as the gardenia.) NYBG is for New York Botanical Garden, which is where the blooms that inspire this scent come from. And this is all-gardenia-all-the-time. Sparkling with bright greens and citrus and slightly woody, it’s a spring garden in a bottle. Joel Cairo would have loved it. I do to. 7.5ML is $30 and 60ML is $125 at Caswell Massey.
Have you tried any of these? Are you a gardenia fan? Recommendations? Let us know in the comments.
Images: My iPhone, Pexels, Wikimedia Commons, and YouTube. My samples are from Surrender to Chance
Oooooh, you’re making that Caswell Massey sound very tempting — love the travel size! I’m trying to grow a gardenia and despite my tender ministrations it’s not happy; the air is just tooooo dry here. Gardenias make me think of my mom. I have both Lady Day and Epic Gardenia from Strange Invisible Perfumes, they’re my go-to gardenia. I’d love to own that super-ripe one from JAR, but that seems unlikely to happen.
I am not sure that JAR is even doing them anymore? I would love to get Fermez Tes Yeux (and even have a zero balance on the old Bergdorf’s card) but oh well.
The Caswell Massey is really lovely. SIP does some wonderful ones- I just never get out to Venice anymore!
You have mentioned JAR several times in the past. I always assumed they were no more but decided to check. It looks like you can only get them in Paris and still have to make an appointment to sniff and maybe buy, so…….
I tried them at Bergdorfs years ago with Gaia, The Non Blonde. They were incredible.
Lucky you! I have always wanted to try them, especially Golconda, the carnation one and Jardenia, the gardenia one. At least we know they are still available. Everyone just has to go to Paris for them.
I wish we could all do a field trip..
I love Bombay Bling and enjoyed my sample thoroughly but a bottle is out of my reach for now. Bombay Bling and The Maltese Falcon, great start to the day.
It’s a little out of mine as well..
I don’t think I’ve tried any of these. I love real gardenias. We had a gardenia bush when my family lived outside of San Antonio, TX in the early 70s. Real ones smell amazing. And knowing that, I find gardenia perfumes either a bit of a let down or cough overwhelming.
I know you’re supposed to be able to grow them here in SoCal but I don’t remember seeing any. I think they need more humid air than we have (except at the coast, where we sometimes don’t get sun for weeks at a time and the air is quite chilly)
I love Bombay Bling. It’s the only NVC that sits well on my skin plus that mango note. To die for. I have a friend who used to wear Caswell Massey cucumber cologne. Sadly, no more. Who knew cucumber could be so sexy. Sigh.
March and I hunted all over the country for that CM, to no avail
We really need to prevail upon one of out perfumer pals to start recreating some of these things. They’d sell..
Normally mango is a hard “no” for me (I am not even a fan of eating it, much) but in this it works.
I remember that cucumber one. Wish they’d bring it back..
These are great gardenias. Big Sleep is great, but Dark Passage is even better
I assume this was meant for me……I’ve tried 2 out of 3 and they didn’t win me over. There is one that might be for me. Voyages Imaginaire Le Grand Jeu. It’s a perfume line by Camille Goutal, perfumer Isabelle Doyen, and all natural. I tried a small sample quite a while ago and seriously liked it but could not find decants anywhere. I recently found that a site I use started carrying them and will be getting a large decant soon.
Thanks. I haven’t seen either of them, but I have seen African Queen and the great Casablanca!
It was meant for you. At least blogger let me post it, unlike last night..
It’s just called me spam again lately too, like just now.
Just did it to me too on the office PC. I had to log in to comment. Yippee.
“In which him darling!” So good.
As you might remember Tom, Bombay Bling is Jin’s NVC. He wears it as one of his signatures and has emptied a couple of bottles. On him it’s all pineapple and ylang heavy tuberose with smoky woods dry down. We often joke that while I am a drag queen, the “She smells, He smells” of the Bombay Bling story could easily capture the essence of drag on him.
Caswell Massey NYBG Gardenia sounds fabulous.
Portia xx
Caswell Massey is lovely in its photorealistic gardenia-ness. BB “glorious technicolor, breathtaking CinemaScope and stereophonic sound”. (To quote another movie)
Bombay Bling is my absolute favorite NVC- such a weird, gorgeous take on gardenia… and the whole Indian Spices Kitchen Sink that oughtn’t work… but does so to perfection
It is weird and gorgeous. I may need a small bottle
I love the smell of gardenias but I have not yet to find a gardenia perfume that does it for me.
You distracted me on this post. First, the belly dancers, then Bogie. I have never seen the Maltese Falcon and always wanted to, so I just went to Prime and bought it. I love Bogie and Peter Lorre, the little Hungarian, too!