THE UNUSUAL AND UNEXPECTED INFLUENCE OF THE UNFAIRLY MALIGNED CHANEL GARDENIA + eight more examples of this exquisite, luscious flower

GARDENIA/ CHANEL (1925)

The original Gardénia, available now only very intermittently from vintage, rare perfume web sites, was by all accounts a masterful, creamy floral aldehydic typical of its creator, the genius Ernst Beaux: it was a perfume of its time, now gone forever.  The reformulation and relaunch of the perfume in the late 80’s was apparently an affront to lovers of the original; where Bois Des Isles, Nº 22 and Cuir De Russie retained the essential character and formulae of their original incarnations, the rebooted Gardenia was by far the least faithful to the original formulas of the first four ‘secret’ Chanels. Luca Turin famously hates it (but really; who gives a damn..)

Knowing only the later version myself, I have nothing to compare it to, and in any case fell straight in love with it the moment I smelled it, chiefly because it reminded me of my first love. At primary school the friend who sat next to me had a wonderful smelling cedar-wood pencil case that fused completely in my mind with her: to me this sharp, woody smell is Rebecca.

I can picture the yellowish interior of that pencil case perfectly, can smell that intense, almost sour scent again and can conjure it up my mind upon demand, as I would sit there in lessons when bored, inhaling it deeply and rapturously and dreaming. I was  infatuated; weirdly so for a boy of six. I could hardly sleep at night I was so besotted. We had little romances at six, at nine, and at fourteen, and are still friends (she now lives in the south of France and has no recollection of this pencil box at all….)

But back to the perfume that jolts this memory. Compared to the soft beauty of those other Chanel extraits, Gardénia is quite an  artificial creation, really I suppose, but it is very original in the way it steers away from the standard creamy mushroom. Here,  a fresh, piquant gardenia flower is fused with other florals – tuberose, a sharp orange blossom, and jasmine; a very chic, a classic white floral that might be too heady a scent were it not chastened and freshened with a sharp, spiced note of clove, sage and pimiento, on a subtle, wooded base of cedar and sandalwood. To me, the cedar and pimiento are key, resulting in a perfume that is lovely: crystal sharp, like freshly cut flowers placed on a box of brand new pencils in September.

GARDENIA ROYAL/ IL PROFUMO (2004)

The Chanel gardenia, though much maligned (why?!) is perhaps more influential than we realize, because this beauty by Il Profumo, a company that make very vivid, colourful fragrances, strikes me as smelling very much like the Chanel Gardénia but transported to the jungle; that same, piquant scent, but denser, greener, more lush. It is a gorgeous and potent blend indeed, with notes of tuberose, jasmine and peony over a rich powdered base that according to the creators, ‘renders a woman sure of her fascination.’

GARDENIA/ SANTA MARIA NOVELLA

What I like about the Santa Maria Novella exotic florals (Tuberosa, Gardenia, and the frankly bizarre Frangipane) is the sense that the flowers have simply picked at the height of their erotic power, been forcibly submerged by the Florentines in some scent-releasing liquid, and, the liquid saturated, presented to the public as perfumes. Santa Maria Novella’s gardenia fully captures the strange, medicinal, green and fungal side of gardenia and the milky allure of its flowers on a humid, summer night. Tactile, oleaginous, green-brushed and ‘thick’, it is rounded, cool, wide-eyed and fleshy, and in some ways a quite splendid perfume, if a little torpid. Wear it and wilt.

ESSENCE/ MARC JACOBS (2003)

While in theory I relished a more potent version of the first Marc Jacobs gardenia (which saw me through two summers as my work scent), in reality the potent headiness of this gardenia, in its custard-yellow, beautifully designed bottle, did not appeal in the same way, reminding me more of overdone, toilet-freshener gardenias like the one by Crabtree and Evelyn. However, some like to have both Jacobs gardenias (and the bottles are gorgeous); to use this gardenia perfume as a night scent; its voluptuousness certainly will work for summer garden parties with its strengthened presence.

GARDENIA / ISABEY

Drunk at a giant mansion looking for the powder room (marbled,  orchid-fringed; elaborate) this gardenia is the self- proclaimed leader of the pack, a gorgeous, sluttish gardenia with shampoo sheen, plush, blooming, and unaware that her shoulder strap has fallen down.

A revived classic from the 1920’s (though the formula smells more 1980’s big-haired to me), Isabey’s gardenia is sweet, curvaceous and is unique in containing actual gardenia essential oil, one of perfumery’s rarest essences.

ELLENISIA/ PENHALIGONS (2005)

Ellenisia is yet another reinterpretation of the Chanel gardenia, but done the English way (ie. utterly unthreatening). It is a bright vaseful of perfumed white florals, modern, pretty and very wearable, with a taut shine that shows no thigh. A safe bet.

GARDENIA/ LE GALION (1937)

Le Galion is an old French company whose old-fashioned perfumes I occasionally get to smell when they wash up in Japanese antique stores and fleamarkets. Their jasmine was truly excellent, and I wish I could find another bottle. Gardenia, an extrait, is very much of the old school; the dark, tweed-suited gardenia of Miss Dior with a fearfully potent surge of fur and scent-soaked anthers – an exciting, if difficult, delving into the perfume past (when women presumably smelled like purring, powdery moths). When this initial flower-smog clears, the perfume steadily attains a very interesting beachy note like rock flowers bathed in midday sun and the hot-sand smell of the air.

In summertime as little kids, my brother and I used to crawl into the canopies of broom on the sand dunes of Bournemouth (for a child, like exploring Borneo), and this curious gardenia brought those exciting times flooding back with a vengeance .

GARDENIA/ MOLINARD

An intriguing scent that is not what you might imagine from this semi-venerable institution, this gardenia perfume is more like one of the power florals of the 80’s than the white and trembling French white floral I was expecting; a beautifully made, adult, and very sexy perfume redolent of the fearless Giorgio Beverly Hills. An interesting option if you want something rich, dusky but not overly sweetened; a glamorous gardenia to get dressed up for, douse yourself in, and marry the night.

All clothes by Coco Chanel.

FOR MORE ON GARDENIAS, AND MY JAPANESE ILLEGAL ACTIVITY INVOLVING THE FLOWER, PLEASE SEE MY PUNGENT POST ‘GARDENIA CRIME’.