Hi there APJ Family,
One of my fragrant highlights has been to meet and speak with Joe Garces, ex top man at Robert Piguet. Basically, he’s the guy that resurrected the Robert Piguet line and added a slew of fabulous new fragrances. Many of them instant modern classics like his riff on Fracas, Petit Fracas: where he oversaw the adding of an enormous juicy fruit note at the top and sliding in a dry cacao not into the base creating a super floral gourmand, Bois Noir: the Piguet answer to the deep, dark, woods experience and Alameda: their stunning lily, rose and animal extravaganza only available in very limited outlets worldwide.
Today we have the last of Joe Garces overseen fragrance releases. I wonder if Piguet will now sink back into the shadows or if it can continue creating masterpieces?
Gardenia by Aurelien Guichard for Robert Piguet 2014
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Gardenia, lily, ylang ylang
Heart: Madagascar vanilla
Base: Black leather, cashmeran, spice, woods
I was lucky enough to sample Gardenia at Libertine Parfumerie pre release, Nick was so freaking excited and it was infectious. The sample he gave me leaked in my bag so I still have gorgeous remnants of it still wafting around in there but I never got it on my skin. Shame because I love Gardenia scents and I have a definite favourite, the Gardenia by Skincare & Perfume Co here in Australia.
So, how does Piguet’s Gardenia measure up? My first impressions are creamy, vanilla and ylang. Warm, sensual and inviting. TOTALLY tropical and I’m surprised that there is no coconut note listed. A warm tropical night on some remote island, I love this kind of fragrance, heavy and hefty but filled with the memory of sunshine and maintaining a lovely, vibrant, comfortable heat. What is maintained throughout is a delicate, soft and alluring vanilla that is like fresh skin, or the dreamiest fresh, healthy skin you could ever imagine.
Photo Stolen Pixabay
The woods arrive and basically I get very pretty and completely wearable vanilla woods with the softest and cleanest hint of gardenia till the fragrance fades from my ability to smell anything other than a warm wash at around the 4-5 hour mark.
Lovely. Gardenia is enchanting and lovely. Not really a gardenia on my skin so if the idea of the note scares you then this could be a perfect gateway for you. A lovely sketch of a gardenia perhaps? Also if applied sparingly I think it could be a sensational work scent.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
(Funny but disgusting aside: I went to the toilet while wearing this and suddenly I had the most perfect and beautiful gardenia scent, it was a profoundly extraordinary olfactory moment)
Further reading: Ca Fleure Bon and Fragrantica
Libertine Parfumerie has $239/100ml
Harrods has £150/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $7/ml
This would make a perfect gift buy. The fragrance is lovely but not challenging, bottle is excellent and that black glass will keep the juice fresh for years longer than clear glass.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen manoneileen
Gardenia GIVEAWAY
WHAT CAN YOU WIN?
This week we will have 1 Winner who will get:
1 x 2ml Gardenia by Robert Piguet decant (nearly full remnants from my sample)
P&H to the USA
HOW DO YOU WIN?
Open to everyone WORLDWIDE who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.
You must tell me how you follow APJ
and
Please comment on Gardenia: it’s is a hard one to replicate, what are your favourite gardenia fragranes and why?
Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Gardenia by Robert Piguet GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-3dG #Perfume #Giveaway @LibertineParfum
HOUSEKEEPING
Entries Close Sundayday 28th September 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org or a fun other way
The winners will have till Thursday 2nd October 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.
Australian Perfume Junkies 
The only proper gardenia I’ve tried so far is Penhaligon’s and it’s a tad too sweet for me, so Piguet’s sounds very inviting! I follow by email. 🙂
LikeLike
A giveaway! 😀
I follow by email.
I don’t have any dominant gardenia perfumes in my small collection and I haven’t smelt a lot of gardenia perfumes. But my mum grows gardenia in her garden and in the spring the smell is very rich, heady, and intoxicating. I have sniffed Estee Lauder Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia and I can smell a slight resemblance, so I guess that’s my favourite gardenia so far 😉
LikeLike
I follow by email, and I am obsessive about trying all gardenia scents! Would love to Kay hands on this one. I still think that vintage Fracas parfum is one of the beautiful things of this world.
LikeLike
Lucky you! I didn’t see this at the Myer counter on Wed night and I’ve been DYING to sample it. I was rather fond of Vintage Gardenia by Jo Malone, which has sadly been discontinued. I thought the addition of cardamom and myrrh to the creaminess of gardenia/tuberose was genius. It made it yummy and gourmandy (but not in a sweet kind of way).
Email.
LikeLike
Hi Portia. I love gardenia. I enjoy Chanel gardenia and Andy Tauer’s Sotto la Luna Gardenia is probably one of the most real Gardenia scents I’ve worn. I had a small Gardenia bush that I would smell each morning and his fragrance made me feel like I was actually a Gardenia myself. I follow you via email. Thanks for he draw. I’m in US.
LikeLike
I don’t think I’ve tried many gardenia centered fragrances. The one I am thinking of now is Fracas, which I love, but that is mostly tuberose. I have read that it’s very difficult to capture, but there are a few suggestions I keep coming across that I’m very interested in trying, one of them being Hothouse Flower.
I follow via email (same as above). Thank you for this wonderful chance and I tweeted: https://twitter.com/LeanS12/status/515496441851416576
LikeLike
My tweet: https://twitter.com/LeanS12/status/515496441851416576
LikeLike
Hi Portia! I follow via email. I love gardenia scents and the addition of vanilla to this scent sounds just heavenly. My favorite gardenia for a long time was Gardenia Passion by Annick Goutal. Lately though I’m just not as crazy about it though I don’t know why. Maybe it’s time to find a new one. Thanks for the review and the draw.
LikeLike
Love the review on Gardenia. Sounds like a great vacation perfume (like walking with your lover on a beach in the sunset). My favorite gardenia perfumes are Isabey Gardenia and Tuvache Gardenia. Both lovely and wearable anytime or anywhere. Thank you for this giveaway. Good luck to everyone. I follow via email (just signed up).
LikeLike
Love gardenia and vanilla together. I follow on e-mail and fb and twitter. My favorite gardenia is vintage Jungle Gardenia, the Tuvache from 1960’s. Second choice is Neil Morris’ Intimate Gardenia, gardenia, jasmine sambac, lily of the valley, musk. Most lady-like and very smooth. I have tried other gardenias, and nothing compares to vintage JG for me. Hoping this one will be for me. Thanks for the chance.
LikeLike
It’s true that a lot of gardenias smell nothing of gardenia, a recent example for me was sniffing Roja Dove’s Gardenia Extrait. My favourite gardenia is probably Hothouse Flower by Ineke.
I follow be email, ty
LikeLike
Hi Portia,
TOTALLY tropical is what I need right now. This GARDENIA sounds so lush and humid. I FOLLOW BY E-MAIL and my favorite gardenia fragrance continues to be the vintage JUNGLE GARDENIA. I still have some 1950s perfume strength around and it remains stunning. When that is gone I might take to wearing gardenias in my hair. The gardenia plant in the new greenhouse is loaded with buds. Thank you so much for this draw.
Azar xx
LikeLike
Tropical and vanillic Piguet??? I have to smell it to believe it!
And I have always perceived gardenias as cool and refreshing in my personal white-flower impression chart. The best so far for me is the cheapest I found and own – the sadly discontinued Pur Desir de Gardenia by Yves Rocher. It’s a Polaroid shot of the flowers scent!
I also love Aod by Lostmarc’h (that’s tropical for real), Elizabeth Taylor’s Gardenia (soapy, but close to my favorite YR), 24 Faubourg (class, I know, but I had edt, and gave it away, ’cause I badly want an edp. Or pp…), and finally – Un Matin d’Orage (the strangest gardenia I know (rainy morning and powdered milk blend).
About the disgusting part you mentioned – well, the indoles make wonders sometimes!
I follow by email, and on the FB page. I am in the EU, Bulgaria. Thanks for the chance!
LikeLike
My favourite gardenia is Lutens – Une Voix Noire.
In general it is not a very comfortable note for me, but then again, I do not mind uncomfortable notes at all sometimes… As a second note I love gardenia in Bvlgari Jasmin Noir.
Hm, could this be a ‘black’ route I’m on?…
Following by email.
Thanks for an interesting giveaway!
LikeLike
My favourite gardenia is Lutens – Une Voix Noire.
In general it is not a very comfortable note for me, but then again, I do not mind uncomfortable notes at all, sometimes…
As a second note I love gardenia in Bvlgari Jasmin Noir.
Hm, could this be a ‘black’ route I’m on?…
Following by email.
Thanks for an interesting giveaway!
LikeLike
Please enter me into the draw – I love gardenia perfumes! I don’t think anybody did a great job recreating the scent but my favorite attempts are Guerlain Cruel Gardenia and Ineke Hothouse Flower.
I follow by e-mail and tweeted.
LikeLike
I’m excited about this one! I have a gardenia plant which blooms amazingly every summer, I love it! The most realistic gardenia fragrance I’ve tried was by Kleins Perfumery in Melbourne- Moor Street Gardenia. Apparently made from gardenias that grow in someones garden just down the road. It had that very realistic mushroom note, I didn’t try it on my skin so I don’t know what the longevity was like. I’m loving reading everyone’s favourites and will have to seek them out. I follow by email.
LikeLike
I follow through Bloglovin and email! I don’t know a lot of frags where gardenia is prominent, but I’m loving my sample of Hothouse Flower by Ineke; she does modern florals very well. It’s my favorite floral from her alphabetical collection.
LikeLike
I am ashamed to say I have not tried any gardenia perfumes yet, but I’ve heard about so many of them recently! I have smelled real gardenias in real life exactly ONCE, and they smelled amazing. It is especially interesting to me how all the different gardenia pefumes I have heard of sound so different from each other. I follow by email, thank you!
LikeLike
gardenia frags… hm. well, tauer’s sotto de noche gardenia is comforting and warm… but i can’t think of one i have fallen in love with as of yet.
i’m a fan of Piguet, although i have yet to get my hands on the new stuffs.
i follow by email. cheers!
LikeLike
Follow by Email
I don’t have a fav….yet… am chasing the smell of my grans garden..
Some of the gardenia fragrances I tried had a real harshness to them.. But I will keep trying – I Will find the right one for me.
I have planted a bunch gardenia varieties and their evening perfume is beautiful but not The smell, close but no cigar.
This sounds interesting tho ,mmmmmmmmmm vanilla. 🙂
LikeLike
I follow by bloglovin. I had visions in my head from your description of this incredible scent. Fall is upon us and this evokes such strong and beautiful memories for me. I am so glad to have the opportunity! Thank you for your blog 🙂
LikeLike
Arquiste Boutonniere no.7 from Arquiste Perfumes is a great smelling gardenia recreation. It’s a big floral with a butch vibe. Creamy with a underlying greenness to it. This is definitely one every man should have in his collection.
I follow APJ via email. Thanks for the draw.
LikeLike
I started my gardenia love w/ original Jungle Gardenia/Tuvache; that vanished! So then Crabtree and Evelyn plus Annick Goutal – and AG is still standing! 🙂 🙂 Hope to win a sample of Tauer`s newborn 🙂 Need to explore – maybe Ineke and Isabey! Thanks for the contest!! We follow on FB, e-mail, and blog from the USA!
LikeLike
Pingback: New Release: Gardenia by Robert Piguet | The Scented Hound
Pingback: Sniffapalooza 2014: Breakfast « AustralianPerfumeJunkies
Pingback: Gardenia by Aurelien Guichard for Robert Piguet 2014 « AustralianPerfumeJunkies