Best Gardenia by Penhaligon's Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

I was inspired while visiting Kew Gardens in London in May. Every May there are hundreds of blooming magnolia trees in different sorts, sizes, scents and colours. Usually it is a very rainy season and my inspiration was to create a scent of the water and rain on magnolia trees.  

The symbol of this modern perfume is an American modern dance pioneer Ruth St. Denis. She is not only a very talented performer, but also very feminine. 

Divine Dancer is an ethereal, watercoloured, light, fresh, feminine floral perfume. It is modern and vivacious fruity floral scent .

The Divine Dancer perfume is dedicated to one of the first American modern dance and ballet performers Ruth St. Denis.

Her vibrant and spirited art of dance, influenced by the East and South Asia, her divine body move and incredible costumes made Ruth St. Denis a worldwide well known star. Her body projects as Temple of femininity. 

When the dancer emerged from the darkness of the stage, her presence was immediately captivating, the air suddenly fragrant with her appearance. Adorned in jewels from head to toe, radiant in a special gold sari, her hair crowned in jasmine, she is an embodiment of divine feminine, mirroring the images of goddesses of Lakshmi and Saraswati but with the talented Ruth St. Denis touch of modern dance and ballet movement.

A pretty honeyed floral with some ambery background. Magnolias, violets, jasmine, ylang-ylang are all in the bouquet thrown on satin blanket of white musk and Siam benzoin.

The Sniff on Latin Lover by Carner:

"The [opening] florals recede into a pretty, flowery fug in the base of the scent, still heady, still very flowery, sweet and powerful, but the notes become less discernible from one another. The warmth remains and, at times, this perfume just really smells like sunshine on naked skin. On a cold, drizzly Yorkshire day this is indeed a joyous thing!"

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An iconic classic in its own rite, Quelques Fleurs is a true ingenious scent of its time. The French perfumer, Robert Bienaimé, unveiled Quelques Fleurs the first true multi-floral blend ever created, in 1912.

Since then, his perfectly-balanced, refined bouquet has become modern perfumery’s peerless criterion for pure, meticulously-crafted, multi-floral accords. Prior to his bold invention, floral fragrances had been mainly singular flowers, or florals combined with various nuances of herbs and spices. Bienaimé’s singular triumph is remarkable for its secret, mythical formula. Upwards of 15,000 exemplary flowers and 250 prestigious raw materials are diligently-curated in the creation of a single ounce of perfume.

Matilde Bonaparte, niece of Napoleon I, was known for her breasts (“le plus beau décolleté”) and her talent as a painter. She also hosted a celebrated 19th-century Parisian salon attended by the greatest artists and writers of her time. This namesake perfume is an olfactory salon of provocative white florals (ylang-ylang, narcissus, jasmine) given tropical succulence with passion fruit and papaya. Mathilde’s heady brightness is softened by iris and sandalwood.

White is a bright and lively fragrance built around the friction between hot spices and suave florals. The cinnamon, clove and cardamom opening suggests candied red hots, which makes it all the more surprising when the melange of rose de Mai and lily of the valley softly asserts itself. The undertone of tagete, with its bitter herbalness, keeps White from getting too “pretty-pretty”.

Delirium is a voluptuous bouquet of tropical abandon: decadent gardenia, heady jasmine, honeyed champaca, ripe narcissus, creamy frangipani and delicate white lotus. Blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, every breath is an addictive journey into the blissful unknown. With Delirium, the wearer becomes the dreamer and the dream, lost in a world where anything is possible.

The rose in Italian is “la rosa”. Reverse the perspective, come at it from a different angle, go right to left, and you get “Asoral”. This extrait burrows into the very essence of a young, dewy-petalled rose, taking you on a journey from the outside world to the inner you. This is achieved with a union of Turkish rose and Rosa Lani, a complex rose with vibrations of liquorice, tea and hay. Creamy magnolia, rosy-esque peony and soft musks add even more plushness, elevating Asoral to a radiant smile-bringer.

Perfumer: Cristiano Canali

Japan has a rainy season from June to July, called “tsuyu.” Embodying tsuyu is hydrangea, blooming in the gentle rain. Here, hyacinth and violet entwine with the fresh floral scent of jasmine and iris, with an undertone of humidity and the smell of soil.

The soft, gentle, enveloping fragrance of Teint de Neige in its most concentrated version. Recalling images and atmosphere of the belle-époque, with sweet and powdery notes of jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang on a base of musk, tonka beans and heliotrope.

This “divine flower” is a luminous, untamed floral that captures the serenity of nature in motion. It starts bright and light: lemongrass and passion fruit, opening up to peony and lily of the valley. Watery, ethereal cyclamen drenches the richness of jasmine, ylang-ylang and narcissus like dew over a meadow. The drydown is green, a mingling of eucalyptus and sage with peppermint, juniper and pine, grounded by 
Mysore sandalwood and a hint of vanilla bourbon.