Perfume Trends - fall & winter 2014 - PART IV - Gardenias!

According to IFRA UK part of the nostalgia trend is the blooming of floral bouquets with white flowers such as jasmines, tuberoses and gardenias. I have been wanting to dedicate one entire article for gardenias since I started this blog and it never really happened, so now it is the perfect timing.

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog

Gardenias are tropical and subtropical flowers and they bloom beautifully in Brazil for the same reason that we have good coffee and the reason is that gardenias and coffee are in the same family - the Rubiaceae.

I have many gardenia bushes in my garden and they give flowers many times a year, usually on spring and summer when the temperature rises up.

Gardenia perfumes are usually very feminine and rather opulent. It needs a wearer with a strong personality to hold all that together!

Now, don't run to buy a new trendy fragrance before checking this list:

The FRESH:

UN MATIN D'ORAGE EDT BY ANNICK GOUTAL

Photo credit: BRAND

Un Matin d'Orage EDT by Annick Goutal brings a fluid watery gardenia combined with Sicilian lemon, green perilla, ginger,magnolia, jasmine and champaca. Very green-y, very fresh but although it is an EDT it is still a beautiful white blooming bouquet like this trend is asking for.

THE GREEN:

Also by the brand you will find Gardenia Passion EDP, a more voluptuous fragrance combining gardenia with orange blossom, tuberoses, jasmines and vanilla. More classic and perhaps more fitting to this trend that recalls the past.

HOTHOUSE EDP FLOWER BY INEKE

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog

If you would like to try a fresh gardenia leaving French perfumery a little bit  to the side Ineke is your choice. The brand offers also an exquisite blend of gardenias combined with tea, green folliage, cypress, galbanum - enhancing the green and fresh side of it, with fig, frankincense , guaiac wood, musk and corn silk.  Hothouse Flower by Ineke - is a gardenia soliflower fragrance with a delicacy seen in many of the perfumer's compositions.

THE GOURMET:

GARDENIA GRAND SOIR EDT BY PG

Photo credit: Luckyscent

A mix of gardenia and sandalwood notes - different approach to the white flower because it takes distance to white blooming bouquets and it can be enjoyed by men too. Somehow he managed to include a fainted milky creamy gourmandise into Gardenia Grand Soir EDT (seems that PG has a sweet tooth fetich going on in his lab...), so it takes steps a little bit far from the trend white bouquets itself but it nails 2 trends in one - gardenias and kitsch gourmets (!).

THE VINTAGE:

OPARDU PERFUME OIL BY PUREDISTANCE

Photo credit: Brand

The fragrance that fits like a glove to this trend is OPARDU BY PUREDISTANCE - already reviewed here, click on the name to have a complete solo review. Not only it contains the Parisian aura of the 20's (an olfactive version of Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen), but also brings the white killer trio tuberose, jasmine and gardenia!

THE KINKY:

VELVET GARDENIA EDP BY TOM FORD

Photo credit: beautyenconter

Not the expected white blooming bouquet of a trio of white flowers, but when has Mr. TF delivered the expected?  In Velvet Gardenia EDP gardenias are combined with orange, jasmine, rose, muguet, tuberose, honey, plum, incense, labdanum, beeswax. A bit kinky, a bit animalic...not the gardenia perfume for brides, but maybe for the first soirée of the newly weds'... It is different, worth trying..if not to wear, at least to explore a different kick of a gardenia perfume. Hard to find these days...go to ebay or some perfumista in our community may still have one...

THE TROPICAL:

COCCOBELLO BY HEELEY

Photo credit: luckyscent

If you find gardenias + tropical coconut a very repetitive and dull association, think again. When Heeley comes into the picture nothing is dull. Here the tropical becomes hip with gardenias and coconut combined with notes of palm leafs, sea salt, vanilla Bourbon, Virginia cedar, sandalwood and benzoin. 

For more gardenia fragrances:

Black Gardenia by Michelle Bergman

Gardenia by Santa Maria Novella

Perfect Gardenia by Sarah Horowitz

Gardenia Petale by VC & A

Tuberose Gardenia Private Collection Estée Lauder

Vintage Gardenia by Jo Malone

Gardénia by Chanel Les Exclusifs

Cruel Gardenia by Guerlain

And velvety romantic gardenias with the soft voice of Nat King Cole!