Boutonnière N° 7 Arquiste 2012

With white flowers and me, it’s a bit of a thing: I love them, but wearing them, no.
I associate them so strongly with the feminine fragrance spectrum that it is impossible for me as a man to wear, for example, ‘Carnal Flower’ or ‘Eau de Magnolia’. Or let’s say, almost impossible, because sometimes, quite privately, I do spray a little on and enjoy the wonderful floral aromas.
If you look around in the relevant forums, there are always men who claim they wear these scents without any issue - however, I have yet to encounter one, and I am often among people.
Well, that may still come. Here is, in any case, one that I could dare to try: Arquiste’s ‘Boutonnière No 7’.

The gardenia (also known as the boutonnière flower, fr. ‘Boutonnière’, which also includes other flowers such as the camellia or the carnation, hence presumably No 7) is somewhat like the little sister of the much louder, more indolic, and more narcotic tuberose.
Nevertheless, as I said, she is a sister - hence: no all-clear!

In the past, gentlemen would often wear such a flower in their buttonhole on special occasions, as a counterpart to the feminine brooch. Usually, they were made of silk, but presumably not everyone owned such a silk flower. And so, indeed, one or another gardenia must have adorned the lapel of a gentleman in fine attire.
Ah, those days. Today, that might seem a bit too dandyish.
I, for one, do not have a silk flower, but I do have ‘Boutonnière No 7’ now.

The fragrance has been on the market for several years, but apparently without leaving noticeable traces - the desire of the male world for a white flower scent does not seem to be very pronounced.
The reviews were not exactly numerous, but mostly positive, albeit not enthusiastic.
As I said, the world did not seem to be waiting for a masculine gardenia scent.

I was.

Why I didn’t get it back then - no idea. The scents from Arquiste are only sporadically available in this country, and my interest in the fragrance world is not always equally urgent. So sometimes it just takes a while, but now I’ve treated myself to it. And it was worth it: a truly wonderful scent!
However, and this is absolutely crucial: one must really like the narcotic scent of the gardenia, as this floral accord is absolutely at the center of the fragrance. All other notes at best accentuate it, but do not overly come to the fore. But how they accentuate it - magnificent!
A hint of hesperides upfront, followed by green-grassy violet leaf, transitioning to bright vetiver notes, finally fading on a subtly mossy base with faint castoreum undertones. This sequence dances around the central gardenia accord without ever pushing itself to the forefront. In doing so, it consistently emphasizes the unsweetened sides of the floral aroma by creating a sort of classic men’s fragrance framework. If one sets aside the gardenia and reads the sequence bergamot-violet leaf-vetiver-oakmoss-castoreum, one has roughly a basic structure for a rather modern, somewhat dandyish men’s fragrance (see ‘Portayal Man’ or ‘Hommage à l’Homme’).
If only the gardenia weren’t there!
Fortunately, it is present and makes this fragrance something truly special.

Years ago, Neil Morris achieved something similar with ‘Flowers for Men - Gardenia’, and I assume that Rodrigo Flores-Roux studied this scent very well. However, I wouldn’t go so far as to say he copied it. No, the differences (as far as my remaining sample of the Morris scent allows...) especially in the base, are indeed recognizable, but the basic idea and implementation are strikingly similar.
In terms of refinement and blending of the notes, however, Flores-Roux’s scent clearly has the upper hand - if anyone knows their craft, it’s him!

I also find it amusing whenever I see photos of Rodrigo Flores-Roux, in leather pants or even a leather shirt (he loves leather!), with a trimmed beard - a real macho Latino type - and then I think of his many successful floral scents (most recently his extremely floral ‘Latino Lover’ for Carner): what a contrast!
On such a handsome man, I can easily imagine a white flower scent like those he has created himself, but on a Central European summer sprout like me, hmm...

Well, I’ll give it a try.
Fortunately, the scent has above-average longevity, but in terms of projection, it remains within a range that is appealing to me. No scent cloud trailing me for meters, but rather for many hours a very pleasant, fresh, green, almost slightly salty vetiver-flower scent.
At the beginning, the gardenia certainly makes its presence known, and that’s nice, but due to the lack of sweetness, the scent doesn’t cling to the air as much, but rather remains light and floating, which is also contributed to by the green nuances of the violet leaf and vetiver.

Whether ‘Boutonnière No 7’ will perhaps find more male wearers in the future, I dare to doubt - the behavior of most men regarding fragrance is too lemming-like. In the chorus of the few floral scents explicitly dedicated to men, it will surely have a significant say.

The ladies wear it anyway.