Creed Fleurs de Gardenia Review

I've always been kind of a sucker for gardenia perfumes ever since I smelled Bath and Body Works Gardenia Lily. After really getting into the world of perfume, I always wondered why they didn't really smell like Gardenia Lily. Then after trying out Fracas, I knew why most gardenia perfumes didn't smell like Gardenia Lily. It's Bath and Body Works, not Chanel or Guerlain. Bath and Body Works has always been relatively inexpensive. And it's the tuberose that gets me every time. Even on the best of times, tuberose is overwhelming for me.

I had gotten a fairly large decant of Creed's Fleurs de Gardenia from Surrender to Chance. This is not the gardenia scent loaded down with tuberose that I pretty much have become accustomed to. It's not really a gardenia themed perfume. I get the watery bit like the Gardenia Lily but I get Vera Wang for her (or is it Sheer Veil?) mostly. Watery normally doesn't bother me too much when it isn't overwhelming and Fleurs de Gardenia isn't overwhelming in the watery bit. Fleurs de Gardenia really isn't about the gardenia. Yes, the gardenia part is somewhat prominent but mostly hides behind the other flowers and peeks out. Maybe in high school all the way up to 5 years ago, this would have been the 2 or 3 perfume bottles on my dresser and I would have loved it. In the 5 years of experimenting, I no longer really crave smelling like a straight up flower bed. I do like it because I'm not constantly slapped in the face with tuberose and it is pleasant enough. But it doesn't fit me like it would have 5 years ago.

Bath and Body Works Gardenia Lily Review

I don't really have a lot of scents that are cheap but Bath and Body Works' Gardenia Lily is one of them. Before I fell down the rabbit hole and branched out, this was and still is, one of my ultimate great loves when it comes to great loves in perfume. When I was in high school (about 10 years ago), Bath and Body Works was very popular with girls and probably the most popular scent was Cucumber Melon. I loved it as well, but when I smelled Gardenia Lily, it was all over for me. Most of us at the time had part time jobs and 10 years ago minimum wage was a little over $5. We did have spending power but didn't have a lot of it. And Bath and Body Works has always been fairly cheap. When I was about to run out of the bath gel and lotion, I was in despair because it had been discontinued. I darted off to Amazon to see if I could find it and at a reasonable price. I was able to find it at a reasonable price and purchased 2 bath gels, 2 lotions and 1 body mist. Now fast forward three years and the prices for even the bath gel, it's $20 , lotion is almost $50 and the mist is almost $50. I just find that too much for products that were never that expensive in the first place.

Now on to the review. This is the first gardenia dominant scent that I fell in love with. First blast is gardenia, gardenia, and nothing but gardenia. After about 15 minutes, the gardenia settles down a little bit and the freesia comes out to play. No matter what freesia perfume I've tried, freesia always gives off a watery vibe. In this case I love the watery vibe because most gardenia dominant perfumes I have tried, I get a massive blast of creamy tuberose. I'm not a big fan of tuberose with a gardenia dominant perfume because tuberose does have the tendency to weigh things down too much and overtakes everything else. The lily does come out after 45 minutes to add and extra lightness without having the whole thing float away into nothingness. For Bath and Body Works, I find that even the staying power of the body mist alone has excellent staying power and manages to cling to skin for 10 hours. If prices were not so outrageous for what this stuff is, I would buy more. But I am going to have to use this stuff once in a great while and voice my displeasure at Bath and Body Works.