Gardénia is the perfume Gabrielle Chanel asked Ernest Beaux for in 1925 to evoke her favorite flower, the white camellia, which has no scent. Reworked by Jacques Polge for the Les Exclusifs de Chanel collection, launched in 2007, it now pairs a gardenia accord of jasmine, tuberose and ylang-ylang with orange blossom.
Elena Vosnaki (Perfume Shrine) finds the Les Exclusifs version thin, transparent and easy to wear, far from the romantic imagery of the gardenia; Jean-Claude Ellena, for his part, prefers this Gardénia, which smells, he writes, of happiness rather than the flower.
What critics say
Perfume Shrine, February 2011
Elena Vosnaki judges the Les Exclusifs version much thinner than the old one, stretched to its limit: a white floral accord with no gardenia note at all, over a light vanilla base. Its transparency, which makes it easy to wear, explains its success in her view.
She finds in it the air of a young ice princess, rather chic in its denial of sensuality, suited to the office. But she regrets that it fulfills neither the romantic promise of the gardenia nor that of daring among white florals.
Journal d’un parfumeur, 2011
Jean-Claude Ellena, Hermès perfumer, writes in his journal that for the scent of gardenia he prefers Chanel’s, because it smells not of the flower but of happiness. Gardenia, he adds, is a drama between jasmine and tuberose.
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