Il Giardino (2005)
by Michael Storer

I smelled it. I cried. It smells like the packaging suggests. It smells like a garden from melted playmobile with aspartame on top.

Ok mr. Storer, your joke succeded. Can we move on now?

2nd March, 2009.

I do get a sort of garden scent out of this at first—lots of heavy green. As it stays on my skin, it gets heavier and a bit bitter, as others have mentioned — it must be the violet leaf. When the florals enter in, I think that they are too floral for my taste. The drydown is sweet and musky and lasts a long time. Heavy green, bitter, too floral: All in all, I’m not very impressed with this fragrance.

20th November, 2007.

Cute bottle in fun colors. Brilliant, sparkling, sweet, juicy top notes. Then IG quickly turns bitter on my female arm. Maybe "bitters" smell more appealing on a man?

17th June, 2007.

Yuck! I expected something green and fresh, but what I got was plasticky sweet berry-flavoured candy. This would be cheap-smelling even for a children's schampoo! I can't even imagine an adult smelling like this voluntarily, and I normally don't mind gourmany scents.

23rd February, 2007.

Oppressively floral, almost to the point of being assaulted. Rather like the top notes of the Dreamer but without the payoff of the wonderful drydown. Good lasting power though you may wish different.

21st February, 2007.

I am sure this one will greatly divide opinion with many dismissing it with one whiff, but that wouldn't be fair.

I had expected something in the vein of Aramis 900, a true walk in a walled garden on a warm summer's eve, but what I got was something around lunchtime in a park by the sea. Candy floss, suntan lotion, warmed marigolds and perhaps even some bubblegum stuck to my shoe.

This is the second fragrance to actually make me laugh, Bermuda Tonic being the first, and I laughed for the same reason, it is just simply a very happy fragrance.

Personally I will be wearing this on limited occasions, certainly never when an air of gravitas is required. Not one to be used for most funerals.

At first smelling you might dismiss it as childish, but give it time and keep your sense of humour, to me the pleasure to be had from this fragrance is worth it.

1st October, 2006.