Jardin Blanc (1988)
by Maître Parfumeur et Gantier

cacophony of white florals and jasmine fighting for which one overpowers the other. This struggle doesn´t make it a pleasant smell, it never settles down. It´s loud and messy. I think it would need something to balance this out and ground the two scents that overpower so you can wear it comfortably, the honeysuckle or orange blossom that I thought I noticed isn´t strong enough to do it.

I have had a hard time finding my HG of floral white fragrances, but Jardin Blanc may be it! I know lilacs since they grow in monstrous quantities in our area and I smell not a note of lilac in this.

To me it is a glorious accord of jasmine, tuberose, ylang-ylang and some honeysuckle. The sillage is good yet couldn't offend anyone and on my scent eating skin it actually lasts for hours.

I love Goutal's Gardenia Passion and so have spent many dollars and lots of hours looking for something similar. I followed all the usual suspects, Fracas, Estee Lauder Private Collection, and many other recommended florals and been very unimpressed with them all.

Then I finally found Jardin Blanc and shouted Bingo! This is a beautiful white floral, it isn't cloying, strongly indolic or headache inducing, it is just sheer perfection to my olfactory senses!

O.K. QUARRY & FOETIDUS, Three's a charm...I couldn't agree with you more!

Quarry’s review is spot on. There is a burst of pleasantness (lilac she says—I can’t disagree) which quickly dissipates into some chaotic mélange that features jasmine with a relatively long-lasting indole ambiance: Close to the skin, I get a noticeable fecal odor from the indole for a couple of minutes, but the fragrance’s sillage, which is quite strong, doesn’t seem to display that particular uninviting aroma. Neither the white florals in the top notes nor the jasmine and ylang-ylang (I don’t smell the ylang-ylang) in the middle form accords that can compete with several of the better white floral fragrances from several fragrance houses. Jardin Blanc doesn’t seem either feminine or masculine—or even unisex for that matter. It just seems characterless and irrelevant. It won’t be difficult to find much better white florals than this one.

Lilacs tease as the top notes blossom, but just as lilac bouquets are short-lived in a vase, so was this hopeful opening. The bouquet morphs into one with gardenias and tuberoses (although honeysuckle, not gardenia, is an official note). For an instant I thought JB could rival La Chasse aux Papillons, but there's something a mite peculiar and cheap here, I might even say stinky. The middle smells mostly of jasmine, but having recently sampled Montale Jamin Full, I'm spoiled and find this one lacking. A few years ago I might have been impressed by JB; now I'm a down-turned thumb snob.