Perfume Review: Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia by Estee Lauder
If this dress by Roberto Cavalli (Fall 2007 Ready-To-Wear collection) were a perfume, it’d undoubtedly be Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia by Estee Lauder. (I often turn to fashion when in search for visual equivalents, as you might have noticed, more so than art, simply because fashion has always been my preferred venue, albeit not chosen as career). You might wonder how this seemingly simple attire translates into a seemingly heady white floral with such prominent notes as tuberose and gardenia. The answer is in the overall effect: seamless, chic, and silky-smooth. Tuberose Gardenia flows like silk, clings like silk, and shimmers like silk. It is of pearly color with golden hues. This is as poetic as I can get, and if you asked me for a down-to-earth, judicious opinion, I’d say Tuberose Gardenia is the best new fragrance release in the past several months and is definitely a highlight of my fragrant summer.
The scent is said to be inspired by the 1973 release of Private Collection, an exclusive Estee Lauder perfume created for herself and closest friends. Tuberose Gardenia is an entirely new scent, a sort of modern response to the idea of exclusivity – it’s outstanding, well-developed, and available to the general public, although with limited distribution. It’s an intoxicating bouquet of white flowers – a perfume genre I highly respect, yet often shun (perhaps I’m yet to reach a floral stage, who knows). What I love most about it is its finesse: the notes are blended impeccably. It’s a seemingly straightforward tuberose-gardenia fragrance, with more emphasis on green, stemmy tuberose upon first application, and a lush, creamy gardenia drydown. Yet the bouquet also embraces such notes as neroli, lilac, rosewood, orange blossom, jasmine, white lily, carnation, and bourbon vanilla, and this is where the seamlessness of the composition is almost palpable. It is most decidedly a bouquet, where you can capture all the flowers individually as well as inhale its harmony. Its tenacity is never boring or cumbersome. I simply admire this gorgeous, timeless blend.
P.S. I should also add that I usually don’t click with most Estee Lauder floral scents as they often smell too artificial. White I cannot vouch for how many (if at all) natural ingredients were used in Tuberose Gardenia, I must give kudos to the perfumer for achieving such a credible effect, even if it is 100% synthetic.
Please visit Perfume-Smellin’ Things for Marina’s impressions.
Image source: style.com, neimanmarcus.com
18 comments August 12th, 2007