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Anonymous – :
Aftelier’s Cuir Gardenia is surprisingly tropical and lush. It opens with the scent of overripe banana – the pithy, starchy strings, the sweet fruit, and the waxy peels. It reminds me of the fruits left out for butterflies in a butterfly house. The banana note transitions naturally into a waxy, indolic white floral, which smells more like ylang ylang and jasmine than the gardenia I’m thinking of. I see that other posters have mentioned that this is actually a tiare gardenia, rather than the common gardenia that is pictured in the notes list. The indole is heavy, and ties into a strong honeyed civet note. I don’t get any leather. After the initial banana pith notes, this scent is linear on me – an animalic, tropical white floral. While this isn’t the gardenia gardenia scent that I was hoping for, I find myself enjoying its naturalness. It’s very animalic and overripe, not for the lovers of clean florals – but that’s what makes it interesting. A beautiful take on tiare. Good projection, ok longevity. Solid like. Maybe even love…it’s growing on me.
wxt338Bessinepome – :
A very unique scent, not your average synthetic white floral. How to describe it? There is a smoky, sweaty smell among floral notes. It feels like a rider took off his leather coat and found a bunch of dried gardenia and a cigar in his pocket.
ddmitrijs – :
Wow, this one is a total animalic beast on my skin. I don’t get any gardenia or leather at all. What I perceive is an aroma reminiscent of grape juice, lilies, and sweaty socks. It’s incredibly interesting and almost addictive because it’s so bizarre-smelling. The sour grapey tartness is mouth-watering and brings to mind fermented sweet liqueur, and the smell of sweaty socks doesn’t even bother me at all–I find it kind of charming and surprising. However fun this was to test, this is not the cuir or the gardenia I was expecting. Still grateful to have experienced it though.
baza72 – :
I so wanted to love this, but it opens with a strong scent of …urine and light jasmine. Is that the civet? Animalic indeed. Within 4 hours it burned off to white floral. It was cool to try a sample but not FB worthy.
la Ventisco – :
When my mother was dieing last year, I brought my sample of this to her bedside and wafted it, as she’d always been a fan of gardenia. Her last word to me was, “sweet.”
I don’t get musk or smoke. To me, this is a tasty, clean scent that makes me think of pear cobbler; a little caramelly around the edges. Yummy!
Edit: the warmer, “carmelly” effect is apparent in the solid, while the EDP spray seems, to me, lighter and cleaner. (I love both.)
Ps. this is tiare gardenia, not Common Gardenia (gardenia jasminoides), which is almost impossible to find in a natural as, among other difficulties, it has to be extracted by a slow enfleurage method.