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Post by Robert Herrmann
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NEWSFLASH: Jeffrey Dame has opened shipping for the Dame Perfumery Oils to Australia. FREE SHIPPING!
Hello Fragrant Friends!
This is Robert H. again, writing from my small island home in Washington state, exactly halfway between Seattle and Vancouver B.C. I am an inveterate fragrance lover, occasional writer, full-time business owner, world traveller, ex-Broadway singer, and happily married to an ever-suffering spouse who descends into allergic hell, at the faintest whiff of perfume. Just my luck.
So what’s my SOTD?
Gardenia Soliflore by Dame Perfumery 2015
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives only the note gardenia.
-“What’s the matter? You don’t like Gardenias?”
-“They’re o.k”
-“So?”
-“So you don’t put them on just to…..go to someone’s apartment….for a late-night supper…”
-“So that’s how it is?”
-“That’s how it is.”
Lady Sings The Blues- Warner Brothers 1972
…..and after that first meeting, Billie Holiday wore gardenias for almost every performance for the rest of her life. It became her personal symbol, a flower that like her life blooms for a short while intoxicating everyone who catches the scent, and then once picked droops and dies.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
True gardenia is a scent that has been difficult for perfumers to capture, and I have any number of various bottles to prove that point….but THIS Gardenia by perfumer Jeffrey Dame is honestly the most photo-realistic gardenia it has ever been my pleasure to wear!
This is not your hot house gardenia, nor the one from the florist’s cooler, ubiquitous accoutrement for so many Prom corsages.
This is a flower blooming in a garden, in it’s natural environment, opening cool and green, medicinal, slightly indolic, but quickly settling down to……REAL Gardenia.
Even my spouse an avowed perfume allergen magnet turned to me yesterday and asked “Hey..did someone give us a potted Gardenia? Again? To kill?” (We don’t have the best of luck with gardenia plants…!”)
I stuck my wrist in front of his nose, he inhaled and smiled and just said “Wow!”
Wow indeed!
Photo Stolen WikiMedia
Dame Perfumery has $35/10ml oil
Now available to Australia with FREE SHIPPING!
Have you tried the Dame Gardenia or any others from Dame Perfumery? What was your favorite?
Australian Perfume Junkies 
Hey there Robert,
So glad to have you back in the APJ House, and talking about the lovely Jeffrey Dame’s work. You have me intrigued.
Portia x
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Thanks Portia! So happy to be here! You MUST try this Gardenia!
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As an Aussie, am I able to buy this easily? ( Portia, you would know the answer, being a fellow Australian ) x
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Hey Lou,
Being a Perfume oil it should pose no shipping problems. It’s alcohol based fragrance that is banned from shipping.
Portia xx
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Website does not include Australia as an international shipping destination. I am pouting. A lot. ?
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I have written to Jeffrey, give me some time.
Portia xx
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Jeffrey Dame has just offered the oils for Australia with FREE SHIPPING! See the website.
Portia xx
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Yaay Lou!! Free shipping to Austrailia! A happy Christmas indeed! Thanks Portia for contacting Jeffrey, that’s great! xo
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I love Gardenia so I absolutely must try this. I have tried several fragrances from Dame Perfumery and my favorite so far is Pear, Water Lily, Amber. Thanks for the review and the nudge to try this!
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Hi Kandice! The price for the rollerball is so reasonable, you can hardley go wrong! If you love gardenia, I suspect you’ll love this one.
Happy Holidays!
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I’m a gardenia fanatic and I have them all. I have been hoarding my limited supply of the late lamented Tom Ford Velvet Gardenia, thinking that there would never be another truly photorealistic gardenia, and then along comes this one. Which, for $35, is the real thing. Ecstatic trance dance!
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Hi F.J., it really is photorealistic. I suspect my Chanel Gardenia is next for the chopping block! Happy Holidays to you!
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Hi Robert,
A “real” gardenia fragrance has been my holy grail of perfume for years. I think that Jeffrey Dame’s Gardenia Soliflore is the closest I’ve experienced to the scent of living, blooming, fresh gardenia.
I love absolutely everything from Dame Perfumery. A favorite? Several. Black Flower Vanilla, Dark horse, Musk Man, Leather Man, this new Gardenia Soliflore and Matte, Heliotrope & Patchouli https://australianperfumejunkies.com/2015/03/23/mate-heliotrope-patchouli-dame-perfumery-scottsdale-review/
Azar xx
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Hi Azar, yup this soliflore is the real deal! Hopefully my new rollerball will be in the mailbox today.have a wonderful holiday, we’ll be down in the city for our annual shopping/sushi blowout. xo
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Have a great time in the BIG CITY and watch out for Bertha and those variable speed limits! The other day it was faster to go north through downtown Seattle than to to park on I-5 where 30 mph is interpreted as 5 mph! It might be fun to get together sometime, Robert! When things are really dull and drippy around here it would be great to have some sort of sniff with fragrant friends
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For the last 8 years we’ve stayed at the Hyatt downtown, so we can just park the car, leave it and walk everywhere! My only “must” is to check out the new Matriarch counter at Nordies! Can’t wait!
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I have tried every single scent from Dame Perfumery (including the gardenia soliflore) with the exception of the other new soliflores (mimosa, tuberose, etc). I have two full bottles in my house of Dark Horse and BFMV as well as travel sizes of everything else (in both the men and womens line). I have also gifted at least 7-8 bottles to family and friends for various holidays and birthdays…to say I am a fan of Dame Perfumery would perhaps be an understatement-LOL! I happen to also really like the new Leather Man (it reminds me of what Giorgio for Men SHOULD have been). I am looking forward to all the new and great fragrances Mr. Dame will be making in the near future.
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Hey B. Yup you’ve got it BAD! I love when that happens with perfume, discovering a new house that you love and BOOM! Soon your back-ups have back-ups! Enjoy and Happy Holidays!
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I’ve always loved gardenia flowers since I was a kid. Just tried Gardenia Soliflore last night but didn’t have high hopes since this scent is just so difficult to recreate in perfumery. I was pleasantly surprised. It smelled very much like the gardenias that will adorn the bush in the front yard in May. Well done.
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It really is realistic, and just gets better and better through the drydown! So glad you enjoy it! Happy Holidays!
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I keep saying I need to try something from this line but I have yet to do so. The gardenia might be the one that pushes me over the edge.
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Do it, Poodle! I don’t think you’ll regret it and at that price it’s hard to beat. Honestly the drydown is like burying your face in a gardenia bush in a garden!
btw, your writing is always such a pleasure to read. Happy Holidays!
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That’s sweet of you to say. Thanks!
I’d love to bury my nose in a gardenia bush. I’ve tried growing them but fail miserably every time. I don’t have enough sun or warmth for them. 😦
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Haha! We have killed countless gardenia plants! We had them at our house when I was groing up in Northern California. Mom would float them in a bowl in the kitchen. Heavenly!
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LOVE gardenia all my life – and my sample is just perfect 🙂 But then, all my trial sizes from everything Dame are wonderful!! Are you 110% well?? That`s what yt keeps praying for! 🙂
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Thanks Linda, not there yet. Eye won’t be healed until early spring possibly! (Sigh) BUT I have my perfumes to keep me warm, and this Gardenia is really wonderful, right?
Happy Holidays! xo
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