Launched in 2015 by Dame Perfumery Scottsdale, the American indie niche fragrance line founded by Jeffrey Dame and his son Cullen, Soliflore Gardenia is a glorious scent that is true to nature.

Gardenias are night-blooming plants, like jasmine, and since pollinators can’t see white flowers, the plants emit huge amounts of indoles so that insects can find them. Combined with their aromatic floralcy, bright green facets and mushroom aspects, gardenias fill the night air with a beautiful, complex, heady smell that is positively narcotic.

Soliflore Gardenia opens with soft, floral, indolic gardenia. As a soliflore, it doesn’t evolve much, but it isn’t linear either – how can it be when the scent of gardenia is so complex and heavily nuanced? Body heat makes it stronger, and over time it blooms, getting fatty, lactonic and bigger until it develops into a fully realized gardenia scent that is true to nature. Every aspect of gardenia is here: it’s green, sweet, and slightly fruity. At times, I smell buttered popcorn, coconut, that fantastic mushroom facet and, every once in a while, a whiff of camphour.

It softens beautifully as it dries down. And, because it’s a perfume oil, it stays anchored to my skin, wafting up and around me for hours. It’s as though I brought the night air from a tropical island paradise home with me.

Notes: gardenia.