Chanel Gardenia Les Exclusifs perfume review | Glam Radar

Chanel Gardenia Les Exclusifs  perfume and fragrance  review  : I am a white flora fiend! Give me jasmine, gardenia, tuberose and honeysuckle any day of the week. Fragrances dominated by these notes are often attention-grabbing with their rich, heady opulence. They’re the divas of the fragrance world, overtly feminine and they can be a little ‘in your face’ to the passerby.

I recently tried Chanel Gardenia which is part of the ‘les exclusifs‘ range and is a reformulation of a perfume originally created in 1925. The official notes vary but The Perfumed Court list them as jasmine, gardenia, orange blossom, tuberose, clove, sage, pimiento, musk, patchouli, sandalwood, and vetiver. Tick, tick, tick!

One might think that Gardenia would be a veritable hothouse of cloying white flowers; based on that list. The reality is much, much softer.

Gardenia is a timeless and gentle white floral that is subtly elegant. It’s very jasmine-y to my nose, but pale and sheer in the prettiest way possible. It is this sheerness which makes Gardenia a wonderful choice for warm weather; where other white florals are far too powerful. I actually think Gardenia would come to life most on warmer skin.

The only thing that I see being a problem with Gardenia is that it is so fleeting one would need to re-apply many times throughout the day. This poses two problems; firstly the giant 200ml bottle is far to big to lug around and secondly; if you’re spending so much on a fragrance (upwards of $300 in Australia) you might not want to go through it quite so quickly.

Gardenia is fragile and beautiful but disappointingly flighty; I will be happy to keep a sample in stock for occasional enjoyment but I would never splurge on a bottle for something which is so sorely lacking in longevity.

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