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Velvet Gardenia Tom Ford 2007

6.1 / 10 65 Ratings

A perfume by Tom Ford for women and men, released in 2007. The scent is floral-smoky. The longevity is above-average. It was last marketed by Estēe Lauder Companies.
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Main accords

Floral

Smoky

Sweet

Synthetic

Oriental

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Orange

Lily of the valley Jasmine

Jasmine

Heart Notes

Tuberose

Gardenia

Plum

Rose

Base Notes

Beeswax

Frankincense

Labdanum

Honey

Perfumer

David Apel

Ratings

Scent

6.165 Ratings

Longevity

8.454 Ratings

Sillage

7.447 Ratings

Bottle

7.857 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 01/13/2023.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Jasmin Rouge

Une voix noire

Reviews

9 in-depth fragrance descriptions

06/01/2016

8.5Scent 8Longevity 10Sillage

Tinctureall
94 Reviews

Tinctureall

1

No doubting the gardenia

A whopper of a gardenia entrance with a touch of indolic honey. Big resin wafts playing around the sweetie garden. Reminding me of the largesse of Jungle Gardenia Touvach a little. It might be one for a future side by sider trial one day. Gardenia is not an easy flower to render as a perfume and normally I'm not particularly keen on Mr Fords creations. However here, I make an exception because without a real gardenia here to compare it with, This is pretty spot on to a memory of one. It has a slightly skanky side which is not easy to pull off well. One can even get a genuine feel for the pollen in the centre. As it progresses, the gardenia is morphing gently into an indolic and rather plastic nuanced jasmine. Possibly the labdanum pulling. The sweetness is never overwhelming but the perfume is certainly no shy angel. If you are a fan of floral whoppers like Joy, then wear this and light up a nice fag... this will be right up your smelly street. I'm pleasantly surprised by Mr Ford here. This type of perfume really isn't in the slightest way my cup of tea either.... but gardenias are extremely hard to do... and this certainly is a truly skanky one. I am quite shocked to find that I really quite like it.

08/23/2015

8Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

WRoth
154 Reviews

WRoth

1

Velvet Gardenia

Opens with a bitter gardenia accord dominated by green and mushroom-like nuances. The creamy/fruity sweetness I like so much in Chanel's Gardenia and Une Voix Noire seems not to be present in this fragrance. Only when the top notes are gone I start to see it, rising gradually from the background of the composition. Velvet Gardenia is a more realistic gardenia rendition than the Chanel Exclusif, but more realistic does not necessarily mean better. I understand if some people find this fragrance challenging to like or wear. However, I appreciate the artistry and elegance of the composition and give it 7 out of 10 possible points.

03/05/2012

Medusa00
842 Reviews

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Medusa00

19

Diarrhea!

I'm sorry, but I can't write a politically correct comment about this "fragrance" without stepping on toes or offending someone in the slightest. I haven't written a bad review in a long time, but this stench doesn't deserve anything else.
Diarrhea! In German, Durchfall, the runs, or simply loose stools! I expected a gardenia scent, as I like gardenia fragrances. Velvet Gardenia? Velvety Gardenia? Don't make me laugh! Was it standing next to a cesspool? Or was it adorning the windows of the wooden toilet (with hearts on the door and real windows, so you don't get bored while doing your business) that surely still stands somewhere in Hintertupfingen. Wiped with the newspaper!
Instead of velvety gardenias, I smelled as if I had an accident in my pants or somewhere else and was trying to cover it up with some perfume.
Forget the pyramid above. Maybe that's somehow in there. I would gladly give away the sample of this monstrosity. The stuff lasted like a charm and bravely survived several scrubbing attempts. In the end, I was so desperate that I was about to scorch the remnants off with a Bunsen burner, but self-immolation is better left to others.
Please, the sample can leave quickly, very quickly!

03/07/2015

7Scent 7.5Longevity 7.5Sillage

loewenherz
917 Reviews

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loewenherz

Top Review 13

'I shall say to the moment...'

'...linger on! You are so beautiful! Then you may bind me in chains, then I will gladly perish!'

The gardenia - native to the old-world tropics, intoxicatingly fragrant and waxy white, similar to jasmine but botanically unrelated, the eternal boutonniere flower of the dandy and the bon vivant - Tom Ford pays tribute to it with this fragrance. This tribute is an exceedingly weighty, serious, and yes - somewhat challenging scent - one that may require a certain life and fragrance experience to truly appreciate.

Velvet Gardenia - Tom's velvety gardenia - is a heavy, perhaps almost otherworldly fragrance. Those who love jasmine and lily will find here a related and intoxicatingly dark luminous scent accord - and all the grace and beauty of transience, in which one can lose oneself if one wishes. Lily of the valley and jasmine - both not lightweights - accompany the namesake gardenia and bloom with it in silent, porcelain-like, and springless splendor. And what in this white, unblemished heart is initially a vague suggestion, still fleeting like a shadow - materializes and condenses in its worn, endless base. There is something melancholic and sluggish, something of wax and honey and bitter resins, that pushes up from a dark bottomlessness beneath the blooming white like a black, slowly rising tide lifting water lilies without destroying them.

This is a fragrance for Orpheus, who is allowed to lead his beloved back to the light from the realm of Hades but ultimately fails to do so. A fragrance for Hero and Leander, who drowns in the darkness of the sea as the light that ignited their path goes out. A scent like a night of love with someone you know will be killed by the first ray of sunlight. A fragrance like memory, like reading old letters - one that tells of transience and something precious lost long ago. A scent like a Thestral, the lean, black winged horse in the world of the wizarding student Harry Potter - which can only be seen by those who have witnessed death.

Conclusion: in a time when Tom Ford's discontinued Private Blends must be guarded like Fabergé eggs, this dark fragrance - equally clad in black velvet as it is crowned with lily of the valley - is a precious jewel.

10/14/2012

2Scent 10Longevity 5Sillage

FrauDingens
39 Reviews

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FrauDingens

Helpful Review 15

Sleep's Brother

High Mass Sacre Cœur. That's what I always think of when my brother wears this fragrance. And because he likes it so much, he wears it a bit too proudly for my taste at almost every family gathering. Easter, Christmas, birthdays.

This scent not only makes me sleepy, it almost puts me to sleep. Most of the time, I can't manage to follow the conversations when I sit next to him at the table - I go straight to bed afterward. Too much Pope, too Catholic, no oriental fire, no spice.

And above all, so terribly proper. I can't help but tighten the bedspread and fold my arms neatly over it. Drill in the girls' boarding school, thanks to the nuns.

Oh, there's something else, somewhere beneath, behind the incense, a hint of bloom. It could be the gardenia named in the title and perhaps a touch of lily of the valley. I can't say for sure. I'm lying in an incense coma and am very grateful when my husband wakes me with the kiss of true toothpaste the next morning.

My brother is usually already on his way again, and at the breakfast table, there's still a delicate scent of beeswax lingering. Well, that could also be the wood polish.

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