Boutonnière No.7
Arquiste (2012)

I remember first smelling this at Pickwick's Mercantile in Portsmouth NH and being immediately floored by the opening that combines a ripe, fleshy, lactonic gardenia with lavender. Oh, my days, this one is rapturous on my skin. A lush, leafy jungle that blooms in the heat, with petitgrain adding this sharp, bright twang, Boutonniere treads between genteel and skank in the most titillating manner. Are you a good boy, or are you a bad boy? The Edwardian popularity of the boutonniere may have been the hanky code of its time, with gardenia meaning....?? This is florid language covering dirty thoughts in olfactory form.

Boutonniere simmers into a grassier, woodier fugue with grace notes of gardenia dappled over its refrain. The grapefruit peel decay of a certain vetiver renders this dry, almost bitter, but still with flickers of light and herbal flourishes. There are even dirty jasmine echoes in the distance. This sings on a hot day and croons on a cool summer night. It has character, but can leave some "normy noses" nonplussed. "What is this supposed to be?" one might ask. Which leads me to this: there is something to be said for letting go of concretizing the existence of something and to just "be" with it. Fragrance can be best appreciated with thinking and feeling in measured doses.

This is first and foremost about gardenia. Initially freshened up with a brightish vetiver and an orangey citrus undertone, it declares its gardenia-dominance in the drydown. This gardenia is quite subdued, less overt than in Creed's Fleurs de Gardenia and less direct and punchy than in Robert Piguet's version

The base adds a light musky element, but otherwise there is always the gardenia that peters out gradually. No carnation or rose despite the name.

The sillage is soft, the projection good and I get six hours of longevity.

A pleasant daytime spring scent, not bad but a tad unexciting and colourless on my skin. 2.75/5.

I really love it! Has almost a hint of licorice and smells true to the flower. It's very masculine because of the green notes, a little sourness brings it down from just straight floral

Genre: Floral

The convincing gardenia top note alone is almost worth the price of admission; I only wish I enjoyed everything that follows half as much. The gardenia is evanescent and subsides within a few minutes on the skin. What remains is a loud, sour vetiver, citrus, and generic green floral accord, anchored by an especially abrasive woody aromachemical. This last is probably included to make the fragrance smell “masculine,” but instead grates on my sensibilities like an ill-tuned violin. Spraying Boutonnière No. 7 on fabric extends the life of the gardenia accord, but perversely accentuates the nasty woody base note as well. I so want to like this fragrance, but instead I find it frustrating and disappointing by turns. I think I'll go light my Frédéric Malle Gardenia la Nuit candle as consolation.

Five minutes of gardenia approximation followed by hours of standard white floral in a transparent and somewhat flat style. Surely not the intended effect of the charming marketing back story.

This starts out as a crisp, green-white floral with a touch of citrus. A few minutes in, a big white floral accord emerges; there's definitely gardenia here, but also a little jasmine. For the first hour or two, it puts me in mind of a softer, more smooth-around-the-edges version of Jardenia or Tawaf, with a projection to rival both. After this, it becomes more of a warm & creamy, but clean gardenia, with none of the blue cheese or mushroom notes. The base is slightly mossy, & here it turns more green again, fading but still present after nine hours.
There's no denying that this is a truly lovely gardenia fragrance. lt appears to be aimed at the masculine end of the market, but l find it absolutely feminine enough for me to wear. lt also reminds me, at a certain point in the drydown, of one of my very favourite spring florals, Un Matin d'Orage. l adore gardenia, & l'm very fussy about gardenia perfumes, having tried quite a few that missed the mark. This is one l would be delighted to find in my collection.