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demonvideo – :
I just treated myself to a Christmas bottle of Penhaligon’s Gardenia after enjoying a sample. I agree this is somewhat similar to Annick Goutal’s Gardénia, but this one does actually have a faint whiff of true gardenia among the other florals, while AG’s has none. Hers is a tuberose floral blend. Apparently, AG disliked gardenia, and it is a tricky (synthesized) note to get right. I think she composed Gardénia for her American customers. I believe I read that somewhere, and it makes sense. I’ve tried quite a few gardenia compositions, and many of them are too cloying, or weirdly rubbery, or something goes wonky on my skin. Penhaligon’s Gardenia is more my style, a light and airy, romantic gardenia/floral, and it stays fresh from beginning to end. Very pretty!
Adding: Spring has sprung where I am, and I wore Gardenia to dinner al fresco last night. This is perfect on a balmy evening breeze. ♡
kol0607 – :
At first spray, I got a light breeze of Fracas. This might be called Gardenia but I am getting Tuberose upon application.
Settles down very nicely into a beautiful white fragrance, clean, creamy, floral, pristine.
A very pretty fresh floral with pretty good longevity, which I can’t attribute to all the Penhaligon products.
gurgen-sona – :
What a wonderful fragrance, cannot stop sniffing myself. It’s pure bliss in a bottle. It smells of femininity and cleanliness in a non clinical but very alluring way.
It is innocent and does spring to mind, weddings, youth, innocence, and pureness.
Purchase heaven!!!!
edik3330 – :
White floral to the bone ! Plenty of tuberose ( Fracas style but lighter ) and Gardenia, hints of Jasmine, no fruits, vanilla , greens, or anything else. Slightly indolic, not soapy at all. Perfumey in a good way, opulent in the beginning but it mellows down quite fast. The presentation is gorgeous ,the silage very good for the first hour and then soft, the lasting power decent. Recommended to white floral lovers only ! I love it , there is a classic elegance about it that I find charming. Walk away if you expect sexy , or even the opposite, angelic. It’s neither . Just a beautiful, classy, ladylike perfume . I got it in a swap with a lovely frageantican and it’s a keeper for me !
rotten – :
The lighter little sister of Ellenisia. Very clean, sweet – almost fruity -, but soft gardenia scent. It also reminds me of Tocca Florence. This is not a heavy femme fatale gardenia perfume, it’s an innocent, optimistic, young at heart scent in a classy way.
roman525 – :
Out of the 3 Penhaligon’s samples I got (Artemesia, Peoneve, Gardenia), this one is by far the favourite.
It is pretty much what I expected it to be; light and refreshing. I can imagine this as wedding perfume. The only thing I’m not sure about is the rhubarb, which on me is slightly too sour and cuts through some of the floral notes a bit too much. The search for the perfect spring/summer signature continues.
gio-gia – :
A very lucky blind buy. My bottle was brought from Penhaligon’s main London store.
The opening: really green and thankfully the rhubarb is very pronounced. Quite soon I begin to smell violet and hyacinth.
In the heart: I clearly detect lily-of-the-valley, orange blossom and gardenia itself; one small drop of rose and one even smaller of ylang-ylang; cloves yes, a little bit; no cinnamon definitely. And the rhubarb is still there! Actually it’s there virtually until the end, which is lovely because I adore rhubarb. It’s the first time in my life that I meet such a great combination of rhubarb and white flowers! Shall one be British to invent such nice flowery-green combos?.. Love!
The drydown: very nice musky-vanilla, with that noble benzoin hint.
I truly love it. It’s my perfume of happiness and my most complimented one.
Somehow it reminds me of Fracas which does not come as a surprise since 1/4 of notes are matching; but the latter is more on tuberose and white flowers side, while Gardenia is more fresh and green.
Fantastic blind buy and love at first whiff!!
valerisf – :
After smelling hundreds of scents, I bought Gardenia by Penhaligon’s.
I like soliflores and florals in general, but this scent was love at first sniff.
At first, it is fresh and zesty, later it becomes more creamy and heavenly. I like all states of the scent, it is so well balanced.
This perfume is long lasting on my skin, even though it is an edt.
Gardenia is perfect for every occasion, regardless the age of the wearer. Gardenia is a pretty, mild, refined scent that makes me feel happy when I wear it, which means every single day.
For those who don’t usually prefer florals: most people think this is a weddingy scent: classy, feminine and pretty.
robertbrucekaa3 – :
Unfortunately, on me it smells more like bubblegum than gardenia.
tariel1967 – :
A pretty, restrained, ladylike gardenia that layers exceptionally well. Some notes of warmish tuberose.
I have recently layered this with L’Atelier Cologne’s Orange Sanguine and it pairs beautifully. Not lush and tropical, more like a florist’s gardenia that a rain forest walk.
Very pretty, natural and springlike – smells like a crisp white shirt to me!
sires – :
I love Gardenia, tuberose, white flowers…and this here is my spring/summer hit!!! I like to wear it on the evening in this time of the year and I always receive tons of compliments.
I was in a lovely spring evening in a restaurant in München with husband and friends, and the dame from the table beside us make me write the number of this treasure.
This scent is lovely, romantic, fresh, and full of character…projection is moderate and longevity is more than 4 hours…amazing…Penhaligon´s always make very refined, high quality scents.
Katy31 – :
The first burst of gardenia on this one to me, is very very similar to the gardenia in Gió by Giorgio Armani. I am not saying this is a twin of Gió but definitely reminds of it. Gió is of course darker, heavier, etc, etc. and with a whole load of other notes.
This is a lovely, natural gardenia. Dreamy floral.
The longevity is good, but close to the skin. I think my hair has impregnated from my neck spritzes and I get very soft lovely wafts 4+ hours after I applied it.
Its only a “like” for me because I like my scents to be a little bit more complex. This smells like a soliflore to me.
kruk23 – :
A sheer, almost watercolour painting like impression of a gardenia flower, along the veins of Chanel Gardenia but with more spice. The kind of gardenia fragrance that genteel English ladies would wear to tea in a garden palace. It’s clean and refined, rather than heady.
Personally, I prefer Chanel’s Gardenia because it’s rounder and softer but definitely give Penhaligons a go if you like that clean, refined, English aesthetic.
Dosid – :
Gardenia remembers me from a summer garden Scene in Downton Abbey: extremely elegant women dressed in pastel tons wearing pearls, the Lords talking politics, the Little smiling Girls with Velvet ribbon in their hairs running after the Boys, the patisseries served with the finest tableware surrounded by fresh flowers, just cut from this fairytale garden
Gardenia is the authentic british Noblesse in form of scent. The White flowers here are cristalline, gentle, long Lasting, fresh and soooooo elegant and classy.
I just love this Penhaligon´s creation! a real treasure!
arslan_xac – :
This is my second favourite Gardenia themed fragrance (favourite being Isabey Gardenia). To me it’s a very green and natural mix of fresh gardenia and tuberose. I think it’s actually one of the greenest Gardenias I’ve encountered so far. Only Marc Jacobs Gardenia has an even fresher and greener (but less natural) feel to it. Penhaligons creation is well balanced and not cloying like others, having a subtle sweetness in the dry down, which gives the scent longevity. Definitely a great classic of the house.
windows – :
Having 10 floral notes, this is another tricky one for me. I could be wrong here, but just like with Penhaligon’s Peoneve, the rose note is yet again dominant. But at least Gardenia is less linear than Peoneve! It smells greener and sweeter once it dries down, and after about an hour there’s a hint of vanilla in the background.
I let a female colleague of mine try it out, and she thought it was too “heavy” for summer. She also thought it was a scent for someone older … and this colleague is already 40+ y.o., so … yeah. Maybe it’s just her skin’s reaction. On my skin, I’m not sure what to think. But I know 1 thing: it’s way better than Peoneve (although that’s not saying much).
tariel1967 – :
I am presently shopping and hunting for the ultimate GARDENIA scent…. so far CHANEL was a let down but this one is getting nearer the mark.
Still not a 100% but at least 75% on point I should say.
I guess it’s the ultimate perfumer’s challenge to create a near genuine Gardenia experience.
I used to work as a plant nursery sales person and always sniffed Gardenia endlessly.
I find them addictive. I would describe the true Gardenia scent as indolic, jasmine-tuberose-ylang-lilley of valley-plus honey-suckle and then there is also a Mitsouko/ Salami meaty undertone, some mushroom quality AND the funny close up overbearing quality of a tooth-paste-y-ness that is hard to describe but maybe most likely is present in orange blossom?
7/10
Fleseeammor – :
one sentence to describe, one of a kind.. i smell like a princess and different in a good way from others..love it and my bf love it so much..sensual,romantic and feminine..just hope it last a bit longer..
mrak – :
I am a Gardenia fanatic and currently have a stockpile of over 20 gardenia-themed fragrances from soliflores, through to tropical coconutty tiare potions, to beautiful white floral mixtures such as Penhaligon’s Gardenia. Although I do prefer the headier Gardenia scents, many of those I’ve tried tend to go bitter on my skin and smell like rotting citrus rind! Which is heartbreaking when they smell so beautiful in the bottle… So in short – I must say that Penhaligon’s Gardenia is one of those rare Gardenia-themed scents that manages to smell of Gardenia, but in the freshest, cleanest and somewhat sweetest way. It is not overly sweet – but the touch of sweetness that it does have prevents it of smelling overly sterile and – that awful descriptive – “old ladyish”! This perfume is innocent-smelling, youthful and pure. I love the scent but it is VERY clean. It’s not at all a sexy or heady Gardenia scent…more like something you’d wear on your wedding day!
ivan11021994 – :
A soft and gentle scent, yet also memorable and lasting. Very clean and well behaved all day. Conjures images of teas, cakes, garden parties and proper lovely dresses in my head.
Not really my kind of thing, but a good, well-blended and enjoyable fragrance nonetheless.
max04121984 – :
This is so beautiful and it certainly stands out in the heavy bunch of gardenias out there. At first whiff, I immediately thought “Ellenisia”, which is natural, because it comes from the same house and it shares some notes.
Gardenia, in particular, is vibrant, brilliant and kind of fresh. I think it’s the rhubarb, which gives a touch of bitterness to the whole, but there’s also a relevant touch of green notes to the composition. It’s a fresh, feminine and clean fragrance which is ideal for spring days.
alex_mike – :
A scent that made me feel like a girl. Nice, feminine, the kind that has tea parties and likes to cross-stitch. Loved it. It’s over now, what a pity. Should buy it again. This kind of gardenia I like.
Bonyfacy – :
It is a beautiful Gardenia, smells like a breeze of natural flowers. you get more the top and the beginning of the heart notes of the flower. Without the animal and mushroom notes. Fresh and full of life and beauty.
Beeklymaymnamztp – :
this s a vanilla tuberose with some freshness, but this is not an original scent, or maybe it is the original first good gardenia scent, cause this one is a renewed version of the one of 70’s i think, but there is a lot of gardenia scents there which smells the same of near, the one from Goutal is very near from this one.
this scent is beautiful and fresh very spring flowery tuberose vanille, but it is not really stunning scent, very classy and pure, but i prefer lily notes for pureness
di201i – :
Golly this scent has alot of notes in it!! I smell tuberose the most, which I’m not a huge fan of, but in this it is light and subtle and I quite like the overall effect. Don’t think I’d reach for this often though so wouldn’t buy a fb but so far I’m really liking this line’s offerings. Especially considering im not a huge floral fan, ESP soliflores, but these are nicely done.
OPEN – :
Penhaligon GARDENIA is a somewhat sweet gardenia fragrance, with a significant dose of tuberose. In fact, a better name for this composition might be GARDENIA TUBEROSE. Or better still, since the opening is tuberose-heavy, and the drydown far more gardenia-like, perhaps this should be named TUBEROSE GARDENIA.
Comparing Penhaligon’s GARDENIA side-by-side with Chanel’s, the former is quite a bit sweeter and smoother. The Chanel presentation is greenish, sharp, and bitter to my nose. When I reviewed it a while back, I mentioned that I preferred MARC JACOBS, and comparing the three (believe it or not, I sprayed MJ on one of my ankles and had to contort myself in a pretzel shape in order to conduct this scientific study (-:), I still prefer MJ to both Penhaligon and Chanel. Plus MJ has much better longevity.
My understanding is that all gardenia in perfume is either a composite creation of other flowers or else an entirely synthetic rendition. MJ’s superior longevity suggests that it may be more synthetic than the other two. But I prefer it nonetheless: the nose knows best!