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ura – :
this is a fruity gardenia with something else that i can’t place. the fruits are perhaps berries or plum. the other note smells like freshly washed hair/shampoo/hairspray but i have no idea what it is. maybe some sort of light musk? i wasn’t sure what to expect from this, but it’s pretty inoffensive and soft, just not for me, unfortunately.
kravecmixail – :
Opens like fizzy Watermelon chewing gum. True. Those big green variegate spheres of gum, red inside, for children.
A very exotic multifruits cocktail.
After a few minuts beguin also a sort of coffee/monoi presence which persist beside of the fruity blend all time long.
A little fecal I say.
A weird summer fragrance. Tropical.
Or TropiFecal I should say.
I like a lot especially in the heart. Unfortunately the drydown is a sort of creamy banana vanilla flambe’…
In a remote remote way it recall me Belle Bete by Liquide Imaginaires
asusen – :
very good parfum but too feminine for me.
not as dark as I expected.but very elegant and classy scent.
Жу4ара – :
A daiquiri-like strawberry fizzes lively on top of a neon coloured jasmine at the cocaine filled heart of the Cotton Club as a jazzy mirage of a hazy and dopey gardenia lays naked and half drowned across an overflowing ashtrey amid puddles of spilled honey sweetened booze, rum and cognac.
The concept of “noir” is well thought out here and exquisitely delivered even though the fruity floral aspects are pronounced throughout and there is no debating the dominance of the mostly unblemished white floral nature. But whilst Une Voix Noire looks impeccable amid the stage lighting there are subtle suggestions that all is not entirely well hinting at a mildly seedy underbelly; once backstage in the dressing room, underneath the diva’s flaking make up, there are hints of excesses and emotional upheaval, tales of narcotics abuse and profound loneliness. But I’d expect that from a master of suggestions like Lutens.
The Show Must Go On
464sergei464 – :
Not a very realistic gardenia (I don’t think it was intended to be anyway), syrupy (intensely sweet boozy-fruity) and smoky-tobacco-y; it lives up to its name and inspiration.. Very sultry and slightly melancholy
par2009Valik – :
I am in love with Gardenias and have been on a Gardenia quest for quite some time. After numerous samples and multiple decants, I am on solid Gardenia ground with 2 standout favorites: Estee Lauder Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia for true and pretty gardenia; Tom Ford Velvet Gardenia for a realistic gardenia with the infamous mushroom note. Now we arrive to Serge’s Une Voix Noire. I revisited it recently and realized that is in the universe of VG, but with perhaps reversed evolution. Velvet Gardenia opens with the most realistic gardenia I’ve ever smelled and within a short, few minutes transcends into the mushroom note and stays there. Une Voix seems to start with the mushroom accord and slowly evolves into the gardenia. Either way, it is similar to Velvet Gardenia and excellent on its own merits. This also being fortuitous since Tom Ford has discontinued Velvet Gardenia, and it is expensive and difficult (or impossible) to find. I wish now that I had spent more time with Une Voix, and I think it’s going to be advanced up with top 2. I am so happy that I have rediscovered it. Final note: my favorite Gardenia perfume that doesn’t really smell like Gardenia is Isabey Gardenia. This is a beautiful luscious perfume, but I smell more ylang ylang than Gardenia; however, I love it enough that I bought a FB.
ALEX553975 – :
A strawberry at first, turning into Lush strawberry soap by the minute. I didn’t get much smoke or incense, a salty smoked salami at best. Not unpleasant by any means. Sadly, the sillage is practically non-existent.
karkushaAA – :
Une Voix Noir is a stretched take on the gardenia flower, as if taking its heady white purity then twisting it with an unfamiliar comfort unusual for this style.
This is a rich gardenia scent, untempered and unaffected by notions of typical soft femininity. What Fracas does to intoxicating tuberose flower is what Une Voix Noir does to the equally intoxicating white and grey tones of gardenia.
Dulcet tones move to and from a Björk-like technical and robust array of belches, roars, and grumbles (Big Time Sensuality). Une Voix Noire is a take on olfactory volume rolled in butter and cream. The gardenia note is a subject, that when it is indeed made the focal subject, it lends itself effortlessly to different directions. It has a sublime greenness that is hidden underneath the quirky, earthy grey musk of raw mushrooms. In my mind, the mushroom note bares resemblance to hot steam irons, the industrial, and wet concrete subjected to rain. A warmth, yes, but done unusually and pleasantly.
Une Voix Noire’s immense gardenia headiness is not tamed, but enriched with a wealth of other riches – together working at once, revealing itself slowly and slowly. Une Voix Noire is the patient person’s gardenia. One that if worn carefully the layers begin to unfold.
On opening, Une Voix Noire bares a mild metallic salinity, with the contradictory freshness found deeply within rich white florals. For instance, I smell Fracas and it plunges straight into the base notes of tuberose, but one realises that tuberose itself is a perfume (not a singular scent, a clear distinction), and it has movements. A paradoxically fresh, blushingly verdant flourish on opening, moving swooningly into areas of depth and warmth rather than the initial freshness. This too is a paradigm that occurs with gardenia, and in my opinion, it is a treat.
An immensely creamy scent, Une Voix Noir travels to and from white floral richness to white floral freshness. Greenery is imparted too by indolic jasmine, a welcome additional and typical note associated with the illusionary gardenia accord, but what’s most intriguing is the note of stewed, jammy berries, that Boisdejasmin identifies as strawberries. This is the beginning of the tropical thread throughout Une Voix Noire, which is akin to an intimate evening spent at an indoor tiki bar.
As this movement progresses, one now receives creaminess of another sort: an earthy, almost dusty and dry cocoa-like note. Brisk purple colours swirled around our concrete and grey gardenia, nuttiness, and emblematic Serge incense: floating and clean. The additions are muted in this fragrance, as it delivers a graceful and fulfilling flatness: clean moves trepidatiously into soapy, fresh green moves onto harmonising bitter. Cigar smoke, soil, a new creaminess: vanilla, and difficultly defined musks move our fragrance into the oriental territory – and the gardenia takes it very well.
Look through this wall of smoke and the animalic civet undulations and find a concoction of pineapple and coconut. With gardenia’s innately humid tropicality and the prior fruity vibrations of strawberry, Une Voix Noir gives us a picturesque view of what is tiki and tropical, a glamorised and romanticised Hollywood take on the exotic: vintage movie stars in white double breasted suits with their mouths chomped onto a cigar.
Present throughout the life of the scent is honey too, and the manner in which it blends imperceptibly throughout the body of the fragrance lifts the sweetness in charming, caramelised and blonde directions, flambéed with a boozy, (dried) fruity brown spirit – Cognac perhaps? Rum? Perhaps even the warm gingerbread spice of Angostura bitters.
Une Voix Noir is complex, and the long form is a testament to that fact, but I subjectively smell closely and find elements of decay, minute movement towards acridity, and a vanilla note I associate with the tropical vanilla of Havana Vanille (Vanille Absolument) from L’Artisan, I perfume I completely detest. The complexity cradles, the smoke warms, but the final result? Warm and salty tainted skin.
Emorsesok – :
Boozy & a bit sharp fruitiness at first, then an ‘almost turned brown’ version of gardenia, I couldn’t wear this one.
Lesnikkk – :
This fragrance was not at all what I had pictured it (beautiful white flowers). In the opening I get a lot of smoke, incense and spices. Hardly any flowers at all. When the drydown begins it is still very spicy and smoky but I also get a slight metallic note. At this point I also detect a whisper of, oddly enough, the the same tuberose I know from Fracas. Only turned down a lot.
This fragrance is to me Fracas toned down ten times, with dry incense and smoke amped up ten times and a slight metal note.
anatolik – :
Red fruits(close to strawberry jam)-smoky-balasamic-gardenia…
Fima – :
This is an interesting modern interpretation of gardenia. It starts out a softly muted and demure gardenia that begins to develop about 10 minutes later by blooming into a spicy gardenia. Another 10 minutes later, a heavy metallic smell arises and joins gardenia, but they sit side by side not really blending together. Another few minutes pass and the smell of rum comes along and tries to bond with the metallic scent, and that’s when spicy gardenia goes into full swing as all of these notes begin to compete for center attention. In the end, they all concede and finally mesh together into a lush, sweet and spicy gardenia with a boozy, metal edge. Its not traditional at all, but Une Voix Noire has a lot going on for so few notes, and you get drawn into its dark hypnotic aroma.
konstatinov – :
A boozy-fruity-floral. This is what it smells like to me, and I like it. Not my favouite among SL fragrances, but quite interesting and pleasant. I am not sure it really smells like gardenia since I cannot define its scent. But this is clearly a white floral fragrance which has elements of boozy-ness and a touch of being fruity as well. It is not very sweet to me though, which is good!
Since it is neither too sweet nor too fruity, it works well on men too, in my opinion. Rather long lasting with medium projection. And it does not change much throughout its life on the skin.
kolun_221 – :
To set the record straight. I personally contacted Serge Lutens and was informed directly that ALL SL perfumes are unisex and meant to be shared by men and women alike, so anytime you see them being sold for men or women that is only half right. As a gardenia and tuberose lover, I grow gardenia in my greenhouse and tuberose in my garden and when critiquing any tuberose or gardenia perfume I always use the living flower as a reference point. Well, with this one I did not have to even go out to the greenhouse because I know right away that it did not smell much like the blossom of the gardenia jasmoides at all, but then again neither does Fleurs de Gardenia from Creed. Yet, Lutens” Tubereuse Criminelle is dead on for smelling like the real live flower once the top notes have burned off. I am thinking that maybe this is a different species of gardenia, or maybe it’s a perfumer’s “concept” of gardenia. But in any case, it does not at all smell like the gardenia in my greenhouse. I am a huge fan of Serge Lutens’ perfumes but I’m not exactly in love with this one but I do like it and maybe I will come to love it. It is not like most in that it does not change much throughout its life on the skin. Once it’s on the skin for 10 minutes that is what it smells like and that is how it’s going to stay which is just fine because it is definitely pretty enough. It is a sweet sort of syrupy floral that is not quite like any flower I have ever smelled. I have to say that if I didn’t know it was gardenia I would imagine it to be some sort of sugary, browned convection that was dripping with syrup, because envisioning that creates the mental picture of that is smells like to me. It seemed to have good sillage since I did smell it frequently as I was wearing it and it lasted a good 6-7 hours, which is all I expect to get out of a floral eau de parfum. So I feel that it’s a typical high quality Serge Lutens perfume that I’m happy to have in my collection. I have yet to fall in love with it, but I would not be surprised if I did.
Kuzmi4 – :
The black, or perhaps dark, voice that named this perfume must belong to Billy Holiday.
The white gardenia was her signature flower.
And I think that this scent would have been to her taste. It has smoky notes as a memory from the nightclubs where Lady Day was the star and it has flowery tones from her favourite blossom.
Yes, this is truly something that the greatest jazz singer ever would have appreciated.
kingarthyr1 – :
I layer it with Amouage Memoir for women, they go together so well, white flowers and smoke…
gzt034Unlogrere – :
A very heady, creamy Gardenia.
I have not experienced the tobacco, booze, civet, or tuberose as other reviewers had.
I have noticed other notes, a sweet fruity note, faint, underlying. Pineapple.
Floral note other than the Gardenia – Jasmine.
The Jasmine is not overly indolent.
I find it lovely. Nice for summer or winter.
A well blended concoction.
Lovely enough for me to love, favorite, or purchase?
No. IMO.
I might seem cheap, or even classless, for a full out predominant Gardenia I would purchase Jovan Island Gardenia for a Gardenia craving.
tdusernamef9 – :
Sweet, boozy, smoky, creamy gardenia. For a moment, I felt like I was at some artsy dive bar hanging out with bohemians and other creatures of the night. The boozy notes are fairly strong and almost made me sick so I had to scrub it off.
игорь84 – :
To me Un Voix Noire has a slightly purple feel, and in the opening the scent of powdery sweets/candy – a bit like grape-juice and sherbet, slightly violet-like
But there’s also immediately the scent of a rich white floral with a hint of damp soil, or even (oddly enough) damp cloth. Similar to tuberose (I think this has tuberose in it maybe) but not so heavily animalic
It has a slightly old fashioned air. It recalls photos I have of glamorous female relatives from the 1950s on a beach in Florida – the photos are in colour so slightly faded and blue/green now. Is this because I see that kind of retro southern glamorous backdrop when I think of Billy Holiday? I’m not sure, but if I were now to discover a wooden chest owned by one of those glamorous relatives and sniffed one of their sun dresses or gloves, I think it might smell something like this, though I hasten to add it’s not musty in the usual sense, just slightly damp in feel.
It feels slightly woody, and with the hint of damp soil or cloth it’s like the lightest touch of bitter mildew, or I suppose light tobacco.
I can absolutely see a glamorous black lady wearing this, I can picture her with white sundress, hat and gloves, strolling in the sun, lady-like but langorous in the heat – but many decades ago in the American deep south, when the beginnings of freedom began to emerge on the horizon, this is the scent of a woman who makes her own destiny
Oddly enough, it also reminds me of a friend of mine from Nigeria who I haven’t seen for years, we used to go dancing, and she always wore one of those rich floral, slightly tuberose sort of scents, which really suited her. (It was similar to Parfums de Nicolai Number One)
I’ve really enjoyed the associations this perfume has for me, retro, yet with a contemporary sweet powder, sunny, yet sultry with its subtle earthy/musky tones. Very feminine, womanly, a bit of a coquette maybe, but not innocent
It doesn’t have the heavily ‘bluesy’ element of Billie’s voice, it’s not exactly dark in that sense, though there’s an enderlying sense of shade. But then Billie was young once, and full of romance – then thwarted by later disappointments as romantics often are
I’d maybe wear this on a warm, sultry day with a 50s style dress, I suppose it’s not entirely me, I don’t walk around langorously enough (I’m in Scotland, you don’t do anything langorously in this weather!)
Soft sillage, good longevity.
Deroxneubo – :
Wow. I’ve never smelled a perfume like this one: smoky at the beginning, then kind of raisin-y, then a little sticky & metallic, and now a tiny bit spicy/boozy and wholly lovely. And gardenia, gardenia, gardenia all the way through. Sillage is soft to moderate, and I can’t speak to longevity, as I’ve only been wearing it an hour. Unless it takes a really terrible turn in the next few hours, I’m turning my sample in for a gallon of this stuff, post-haste.
Update: it did not take a terrible turn, and having dabbed it on in the evening, I woke up the next morning and could still smell a ghost of gardenia on my arm. I do want a gallon, but I said that before I realized how expensive this stuff is. I’m working really hard to convince myself to get it, though, and I think I’m winning!
horsagreeks – :
1st tried from a wax solid;
Oh wow, interesting. It is- immediately- a cigarette smoke-laced gardenia petal in full richness of bloom, just as the edges of the flower brown in the summer heat. It is beautiful and dark. I was not expecting the smoky facet to be as powerful as it is (as the only note listed here is gardenia…) but lo and behold, they are equal to my nose. Reminds me of a (smoother, less sharp) gardenia version of Jasmin et Cigarette a bit. I am not a smoker but so help me this smells legit! I kind of crave that scent from time to time for the sultry aura w/o the damage, the bad girl vibe without the nicotine.
I’m not sure if it’s my cup o’ tea, especially being so rare and pricey, but this is quality no doubt and a fascinating concept. Oddly it seems to put a knot in my throat when I sniff up close, &/or make my nose itch? I don’t understand that reaction, am I allergic to it or hitting some repressed sad memory trigger? Never happened before or since with a scent. (Managed to squeeze 2 wearings out of my wax solid sample + traded for a 1ml liquid sample that I’m wearing as I update this.) It keeps luring me in only to *POW* punch me right in the sinuses =(
P.S. This is also quite indolic, but is somehow kept from being unbearably raunchy by the very realistic cigarette smoke. Indole levels on par w/ Sarrasins & Noix de Tubereuse (right in between the two). Also burns a bit up close, as does smoke to my sensitive nose.
P.P.S. It seems from reviews some people think indoles are what civet smells like 😉
[updated 11.29.14]
lutvun-art – :
At first, I was confused because it didn’t resemble my impression of beloved Lady Day at all — her difficult, tragic life, and painful death. So I put on some of her music to inspire me as I kept inhaling the fragrance, and then I realized that the perfume does really resemble, perhaps not her life and history, but her voice, and therefore, her soul.
Une Voix Noire… Sweet, powerful, tender, but also melancholy and sorrowful too. I find an underlying sense of hope and longing in her voice, and I find it in the perfume also. This is the darkest and most mysterious, but at the same time most luminous gardenia I have ever experienced.
I also love the dry-down, which lasts well into the next morning after an evening spritz. It’s boozier than ever at the end-stage on me, and the fallen gardenia has fused with the rum left inside the glass the night before.
girinis7 – :
This is the fragrance I return to, again and again. I find it almost haunting – a wilting gardenia smothered in cigarette smoke and rum. It is not a happy fragrance but a strangely comforting one. And almost unbearably sensual.
On me it fades softly; from an initial, near shocking sweetness to a soft, melancholy symphony tinged with a sour touch. It is not the easiest of perfumes to love. It teases with a whiff of the cleanest white floral only to instantaneously cover it with something akin to the sweet scent of decay: the flower is dead or dying.
At the drydown Une Voix Noir grows almost discreet, almost demure – but with a slight darkness that speaks of sleepless nights and carnal lust.
garikkoldun – :
I love it. the first 5 minutes it’s very similar to tubereuse criminelle without the menthol, then it turnes into a gardenia coffee, 10 minutes later the coffee gives place to tobacco and rum , 30 minutes later they give place to plum and spice and the whole concoction turns metallic, after that the metallic note fades and all the others reapper, turning this perfume into a soft and creamy gardenia delight.
Jerichon – :
I get tobacco, civet and dirt. Instant headache for me!
FuseretaPer – :
Oh Gosh!! I hate this! I tested a solid sample just now, but all I can smell is civet! It’s plain nasty! Yuk…
holem77 – :
Gardenia and tobacco! But not in a bad way. Rickyrebarco hit the nail on the head…like a woman smoking and the smoke mingling with her perfume. I like it, a lot, but it’s so unique that I’ll not wear it often. To me, a very serious scent.
ravilka74 – :
I actually get very little gardenia in this, some tuberose, and fruity-boozy notes. All of which are muted. It reminds me very much of Fracas in that it has that same plasticy, soapy, band-aid smell to it, a smell which overshadows what could have been lush, white flowers. While in Fracas I blame a miss-mash of floral notes that don’t really blend well with heady, tropical white flowers, here I blame the smoky note. However, I will say that The description Serge Lutens gives is on the ball, as with all of their descriptions, which are scarily accurate despite being pretty short and sometimes non-specific. Here is the description off of the Lutens website, “Une voix noire : jazz, drinks and the night, and, beyond all that, a troubling line of white, gardenia-scented smoke.” And that’s exactly what it is, a gardenia flower lost amongst the smoke and liquor of a jazz club. If you came into the club smelling of soft, lush, gardenias, you’d come out smelling like Une Voix Noire. Only a whisper of your perfume would be left, covered by the soft, lingering stench of cigarettes and scotch. This is a perfect example of a perfume I don’t like, but can very much appreciate.
damirkamaliev – :
If I would have to choose between Beyond Love by Kilian et Une Voix Noire, as they are not unlike each other, the choice is easy:
Une Voix Noire.
UVN is more profound in its darkness and in its light tones and has better projection. Although being a rather subdued kind of perfume, it stands out, proud of its own character.
In comparison BL stays quite muffled, which I consider very inconsistent with its name, besides being an unwanted quality in any perfume.
UVN, to me, leaves “Beyond Love” behind and enters the stage to act a more vibrant part: “Because of Love”.
pneurryunmart – :
چگونه مسیر مورد طی شده این رایحه باید لذت برد در انتهای باغ گل و با یاد بود ساحره عشق
bigsemenovich – :
Une Voix Noire opens with a bright almost soliflore gardenia note, with some tuberose added in as well. The opening is not girly or sweet by any means but provocative and voluptuous. You feel the whiteness of the blooms and the fragrance wafting off them, scattered on the ground where they fell off a blooming gardenia bush. It smells as if a woman has picked up the fallen blooms and rubbed them over her bare skin.
This sort of animalic background, musky and woody, creates a floor, a depth under the topotes but it is very difficult to pick out any individual notes at first. After a couple of hours the smell of tobacco is recognizable, faintly, like a woman smoking out of doors, not wanting to be seen or smelled smoking, the smoke mingling with her sweet perfume.
I smell a bit of leather, too, maybe a car seat in a long white Cadillac or Edsel and something green and dark, impossible to say what except that there are dark green leaves and definitely woods as well. The woods waft up to your nose and smell divine. I think there is some high quality sandalwood there, a bit of vetiver and a spice or two. Beautifully done and just gorgeous. This is one strong gardenia that I proudly wear. It is not screechy, it has warmth and depth.
I bought a bell bottle of this gorgeous juice and I highly recommend this beauty. At least try a liquid decant. The drydown is a soft voluptousness that is so fine and comforting. Each time I wear this fragrance again I am struck by its astounding beauty and artistry.
TinityXtor – :
Well, much as I expected, this perfume smells nothing like a gardenia. We poor gardenia lovers always get our hopes up when a perfume is advertised as such. It really is too bad, because I thought that if anyone would have the imagination to do it, it would be this house. Of course I realize that there are other notes in the fragrance, and they definitely do come through. If one wants to smell like wet woods and fruity hard candies, then this is the one for you. It is not an unpleasant scent, but certainly it is not dark or black. And tobacco?- not to my nose anyway. As for gardenia, well, many people are unfamiliar with the true scent of the flower, and are quite ready to accept any thing that reminds them of a generic white flower/fruity smell as gardenia. It seems that the fragrance notes listed above should be a little more extensive – perhaps including some woods and fruit or berry notes. This perfume, although very nice, is not a gardenia soliflore.
Mekchonee – :
Une Voix Noire arrived this morning. Immediate impressions are soft, buttery, velvety and feminine. Something chocolatey about it (best quality black chocolate). Tubereuse Criminelle without the menthol tang. Violet leaf or root in there too – dark and woodsy. Ten minutes in and the sweet rottenness appears. And a tobacco note, more blonde than dark – I expected dark. 45 mins in, becoming more metallic. I hour in, definitely metallic – helione (sucked silver spoon). Four hours in, woody and plummy. More Gardenia du Bois than Gardenia Criminelle. Very nice – I can see me wearing this one a lot.
jaricus – :
Strangely enough, I don`t find Un Voix Noire particularly dark. With an aura of mystery and elegance, yes, but to me it is ethereal and has a brightness to it, from beginning to end. I get zest from berries and fruits . Strawberry in the beginning and as LadyMurasaki already has pointed out; a fruity note, maybe plum or peach later on. Although tobacco is listed, a lovely incense-note is what I get the most, along with a green Gardenia and the sourness of fruits.Lovely! Yesterday, when the owner of a wine-bar recommended me and my friend some new wines for autumn he suddenly said; “You know, I grew up in Singapore and your perfume reminds of the incense my mother used in our living room..” He also added that it was something else to it as well, something green, herbs maybe.
Another favorite from Lutens/Sheldrake for me, but to be honest; it is quite a lot of them already….
I
MELKII – :
What a strange scent! I could not immediately decipher it, is so strong contrasts. As soon as I opened the box, with the bell still sealed, it seemed the smell of Tubereuse Criminelle. A drop on the wrist and understand that it is a composition very intense, that opens immediately with a real Gardenia, palpable, smooth, fleshy, carnal, with a little dreamlike and abstract background, as one of those beautiful professional photos which can be find of this beautiful flower. The sharpness of the image is distorted by the games of light and shadow that the duo Lutens / Sheldrake likes to create. Before the flower is shown in a context of extreme grace, a simpering cleaness but that doesn’t lead in the detergent as some predecessors; after the gardenia is dragged between strong alcoholic and smoked effluvia, a dark tone which also expresses its indole side (elegantly indole, this is the part that I associate with Jardenia of JAR, but UVN is more complex. This alternation goes on and on, and the phases expand more and more how to undo the stitches of a fabric, will pass a lot of time but then Lutens will give us the solution … quoting himself … again. The candied cedar in base, is again a variation on the theme of the Bois, but that is revealed only at the end. A Bois de Violette becomes Bois de Gardenia with even a slight leathery. The color is once again the violet, which is tinged at times of pastel and sometimes obscure velvet.
Sillage, longevity… etc… are excelent.
One certainty: the Gardenia will never leave you, in sickness and health, for richer for poorer, till death separates you. Amen.
anzorik – :
A dark, boozy and naugthty interpretation of the gardenia with a metallic edge. I find a lot of similarities with Isabey Gardenia, Mary Greenwell Plum, Fracas and Jardenia without the blue cheese note. According to Serge Lutens, the main notes are gardenia, tobacco and rum. The tobacco, rum and the metallic notes fade after a few hours, giving way to a lush and fruity floral scent. Not sure what the fruity note is… perhaps plum? Raspberry? It may not smell exactly as a true gardenia flower smells, but a very interesting and noteworthy interpretation of it IMHO.
To me, she sings quietly; like Billie, no exaggerated expressions or emotions, but languid and luscious. That does not mean that she is demure or insignificant. Quite the contrary. She makes her presence known, confidently and a little slyly. Being a huge Lady Day fan, perhaps I’m taking this Lady Day associations thing too seriously, but at any rate, she’s worth the attention.
Has moderate sillage and very good longevity.