The Best Gardenia Perfumes ever made are included in this Gardenia Perfume (Billie Holiday Blues) sample set. Gardenia is a note that cannot be distilled into perfume, they have to use other notes to re-create the smell or headspace technology to try and capture it.
I read this crazy article while doing research on gardenia perfumes that said, and I have to quote it because I laughed so hard at how untrue it is! "Gardenia flowers are prized for their light, sweet scents." That writer has apparently never smelled Gardenia in the raw. While it can be dumbed down to a light, sweet scent, at that point, it's NOT a gardenia perfume. It's probably another Victoria's Secret Body Spray that you'll never remember the name of once you're over the age of 17.
The best gardenia perfumes smell like gardenia, something that is not easy to do and is not for everyone. Gardenia smells slightly rotting, earthy; it is a big old indolic white floral that smells a little like Bleu Cheese. Hey, I didn't include all bleu cheese smelling perfumes in this sample set. Many of these are ones that you can get the gardenia from, but you won't be looking for the rest of your Cobb salad, they are a little more refined.
Your sample set will include a 1/4 ml sample (1 ml sample vial filled a quarter full) of each of the following gardenia fragrances:
- Gucci Flora by Gucci Gorgeous Gardenia - Beautiful, classic gardenia.
- Isabey Gardenia - flat-out gorgeous, not bleu cheesy at all, a complete pleasure to wear
- Kai - gardenia and exotic white flowers
- Tom Ford Private Blend Velvet Gardenia - now sadly discontinued, this is closer to JAR Jardenia, all bleu cheesy on the open, luscious gardenia!
- Van Cleef & Arpels Gardenia Petale - refined gardenia, probably lighter on the gardenia than I'd like, but a really beautiful perfume to wear
