I bought a generous decant of Chanel Gardenia a few weeks ago. When I first applied it, I immediately thought, "Oh yes, I definitely need to buy the full bottle of this scent! Beautiful soft gardenia with a hint of green!" About an hour later I sniffed my wrists and...NOTHING! It was gone! And by "gone" I don't mean the notes had morphed into the next stage ~ I mean there was NOTHING left! For the cost of this stuff, I sure would have expected it to hang around quite a bit longer. Maybe it's just me, but the more I try these high end "niche" perfumes (Serge Lutens, Jane Ormonde, the Chanel Rue de Cambon series, L'Artisan, Frederic Malle, etc.), the more surprised I am by how none of them have great staying power. Too bad...

Both the EDT and the Parfum have terrible staying power, at least on me. The EDT only lasts around an hour and the Parfum 2 - 3 hours. Will not repurchase.

Beautiful scent, elegant but soft and fresh. Yes exactly, as if you just plucked a gardenia and put it in your hair. A beautiful description by ruby tea roses.

This is truly a Chanel scent. The white pearl necklace of sophisticated perfumes. continued >>

Chanel Gardenia Parfum is beautiful! Smells like an actual fresh flower. You know how when you're outside and you stoop down and actually pick a flower from the ground and put it up to your nose ... you know that fresh, literally *alive* scent of the flower ... it's fragrance, it's soft and cool petals, it's pollen, sweet but not "perfumey" sweet, fresh and alive but not overly green. Sweet in a natural, vibrant, *living* flower way. This is how Chanel Gardenia smells to me. If I close my eyes and smell my wrist with Gardenia on, I see in my mind a fresh, living flower in a bouquet in a vase filled with cool water on my table. I don't smell artificial "perfume" or perfume-scented-chemicals like most other floral fragrances. What I smell in Chanel Gardenia is a fresh, living flower. Alive and vibrant and singing joyous songs of springtime blue skies. Very lovely! Expensive, but worth it!

A very feminine scent.. It surprised me because it lacked the heavy signature most Chanel fragrances have. A true gardenia comes out in the top notes and it has an impressive staying power for such an airy scent. The "airyness" is difficult to describe because you would normally expect "heady" in a gardenia scent. Not so here. A truly lovely experience for any woman of any age!

Quietly sophisticated, elegant, even a touch nostalgic. I love this exquisite blend of jasmine, green leaves and vanilla. It wears so well and its lightness makes it quite suitable for today's world despite the fact that it was created almost ninety years ago. A fragrant breeze from the past...

this is the gardenia fragrance that i was looking for the past 15 years. my cousin recommended it to me. it is green, fresh, floral and ultra feminine. not cloying, but slightly heady, well balanced and gorgeous on the skin. i will be buying this one forever!!!

This is an elegant creamy floral, easy to wear (easier than other Chanels). Gardenia, rose and jasmin. Very feminine.

Gardenia is Chanels signature creamy floral, light enough for a hot summer day, but feminine enough to get dolled up for. There really is no way they could top this for its distinct tenderness. It's polite, yet witty and prominent. The presence of jasmine is sharp, but not overbearing while a whisper-lite vanilla and watery floral blend unfolds. Images of pearl bracelets and ivory chiffon come to mind and there's a definite kindly airiness that it evokes. Such a shame that the toilette is the only widely available formulation in the US.

I too wanted to love Chanel Gardenia and went through a whole bottle. It smelled nice on me and I smell alot of the gardenia scent (real or not) but was not worth the $75.00 I paid for it. Faded fairly quickly on me. I got another bottle as a present but only use it a night on my elbows and the back of my neck and knees and also on my sheets. It smells better on my bedding and is a soft, soothing smell when I take a shower at night on the weekends. But is smells wonderful on my mother - guess it is just body chemistry.