The Perfumed Garden

[puddingirl]

The Perfumed Garden for the Soul’s Recreation. This scent is based on a venerable Tunisian perfume that was used to excite the senses, inspire sensuality and inflame passion. Myrrh and Moroccan jasmine with apple peel, Indian sandalwood, myrtle, quince, citron, and thyme poured over soft musk.

The name put me off a bit as florals turn soapy on me, but I couldn't resist the myrrh, jasmine and sandalwood so here's hoping! In the bottle I can smell my cats wee after I've sprayed the litter tray area with a floral aerosol! Hello jasmine! I'll be brave and put it on myself, sometimes jasmine mellows out on me. Oh gosh, ok, big mistake, this is the worst wee jasmine I've tested so far. Please dry down, please dry down, please dry down! Ok it's drying down a bit and the apple peelis coming out. Maybe the wee smell will curl up and die eventually? It's dry now and I just don't like it I'm afraid Dry cat wee and apple peel.

[MerriAnneStowe]

(2007 version)

 

At first, this smelled more like The Perfumed Greenhouse - a strong, slightly dank floral smell. As it dried, it turned into a more standard floral; the musty effect vanished. As another reviewer noted, my first thought for what flower I was smelling was tuberose, or perhaps gardenia. However, neither of those is on the list of notes, so it must have been the jasmine that was dominating.

 

Overall, it was a reasonably pleasant floral perfume, but it faded quickly. After about three hours, it's almost impossible to detect.

 

 

[ralenth]

2010 Vintage:

 

Bottle: Jasmine! Eek!

 

Wet: Tart green apple.

 

Drydown: The tartness fades and a soft floral background swells up. Soft, pretty and summery.

 

After 30 minutes: This is primarily a jasmine blend, as others have said. It does have a light fruity tinge to it, which I think makes it considerably more wearable for non-jasmine lovers like myself.

[ianastar]

Wow!! In the bottle this smelled sweet and I really thought I would like it. Something about the description reminded me of my beloved Snake Oil, so I had high hopes.

 

Those hopes were quickly dashed to bits on the rocks once this hit my skin. I first got a cat pee scent that quickly morphed into a very offensive jasmine scent.

 

This is pure Jasmine on me, and I'm not liking it one bit.

[cinnamonster]

Wet this was a really really strong poo-y kind of jasmine, but then dried into a sweetish floral that just wasn't me. Thought I'd really love this one. Weirdly I preferred the poo-jasmine phase as it had more balls, so to speak.

[Soniadevi]

I just received my bottle of The Perfumed Garden today, thanks to ebay!! Yaaay!! And after reading the reviews I was expecting an onslaught of Jasmine, but no, instead I got a divine, perfectly blended, subtly acidic fruity blend, wonderfully balanced, smooth and just LOVELY! I am so glad to have a bottle in my possession, not to mention that The Perfumed Garden is the first "naughty" book I read when I was a teenager, so it means something special...

All in all, I would say that the apple and quince give the tartness, whereas the other ingredients just soften and smooth everything out, making it a glowing, subtle and beautiful orchard in which I can happily bask all day long...

 

In fact it reminds me of an Omar Kayam poem:

 

Here beneath the bough, A glass of wine, A book of verse, and Thou

Beside me, Singing in the Wilderness

And Wilderness is paradise 'enow.

[grrrlennyl]

The Perfumed Garden 2010

 

On: An amazingly lush, sweet scent. Lovely. I can really pick out the apple peel, in particular.

3.5 hours in: Just a lovely, sweet, fruity floral.

8.5 hours in: Powdery and a bit soapy.

Overall: This starts out great, but I don't like how it dries on me.

[stellamaris]

2013

Wet to dry I get mostly the apple peel and musk, although I can tell it's grounded by the complexity of the other ingredients. After an hour or so it turns more complex and almost incense-y. Fortunately this is a sharp fruit smell in the apple and other fruits, not the pulpy, cidery, put me in a pot and cook me apples that I can't stand, or the fake appley stuff that I also can't stand.

This one is nice and fresh, definitely more Garden than Perfumed.

[surlygurl]

I have a decant from '07, I think, and couldn't figure out why I never wear it, so I got this years version. Fresh on, it's gorgeous. Pretty, fruity, incensy. Very nice. i don't get the individual notes, but it's really nice. Kinda girly, but that's ok. As it dries, everything simply fades. I'm sure I'll need to test it again, but now I know why I don't wear the old one - it just doesn't stay on my skin. Pretty, though.

[OctoberGwen]

2013

 

I was looking forward to this one, but wow...it does not work on my skin at all. It smells like a shitload of apples steeped in gasoline! It is literally making my eyes water, from just a swipe from the imp wand on each wrist.

 

Not for me, I'm afraid.

[milo]

Musky apples and drugstore perfume. Not for me.

[Anita]

So I just received this bottle in a swap and couldn't wait to try it on.

 

In the bottle: Something smacked my nose. I tend to think it's the musk? Could be the myrrh? then I get the jasmine floral.

 

Wet: Whatever it was that smacked my nose has now come out with boxing gloves on and is beating the jasmine up pretty bad.

 

On the drydown: I smell nothing of the apple, the quince, the citron and haven't since I opened the bottle or put it on. All I have is a tired out version of the musk/myrrh scent, which isn't for me.

 

Boo! I had high hopes for it.

[torikitty]

Sadly, not for me. I think the jasmine is coming through like gardenia, and that overpowers the fruit. It ends up going really floral, and it's not working for me. Going into the swap/sale box.

[Haltija]

This was immediately the ones I had to test first from my decants. Jasmine is a note that is either a huge hit on me or a absolute total fail, no in between.

 

This scent is a total failure and it's because of the jasmine and citron. They're taking over everything and the combo of it and jasmine smells absolutely foul, like bug spray and I have never compared a scent to bug spray. Not working at all.

[whitewhale]

Jasmine is one of my absolute favourite flowers/notes, so I bought this blindly hoping for the best, and it was absolutely a gamble that paid off. This is very heady jasmine with the sweetness of apple peel and a lovely grounding of musk. It's staying pretty much the same on me throughout, and honestly I can't stop smelling my wrists. Lupers have always been my most loved collection, as they tend to have so many fragrances that work for me, and this is yet another.

[Teamama]

This is one of the complex BPAL blends that reveals the individual notes slowly, like an unfolding flower.

 

In the bottle: indolic apples. And I mean "barnsmell" indolic.

 

Wet: something like camphor, sweet jasmine, musk, myrrh, apples & citrus.

 

As it dries, I can pick out thyme. I can't pick out sandalwood yet. The jasmine diffuses, letting the other notes expand. The musk & myrrh take center stage.

 

Powerful throw for the first 10 minutes, then it settles down to a medium throw for a couple of hours. Not long lasting, by the 3 hour mark it's mostly gone. Sweet, complicated, warm. I'm glad I got a bottle.

Edited December 20, 2017 by Teamama

[lwhitesel]

2018 version:

 

I see I'm late to the party on this one! Reading the reviews...well, I didn't notice much jasmine at all! Initially, the apple and sandalwood are prominent, and they stay that way, with myrrh and quince joining them. I'm getting fruit-perfume, maybe better off as a fancypants lotion? The description makes it sound complex/sophisticated, and that's not what I'm getting. Maybe I'll use my decant for a bath bomb.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: Very fruity. I definitely get the apple, and Fragrentica says apple plus pear equals quince, and I'm also getting something quite juicy and pear-like, so that must be the quince. There's a soft fuzz of herbs around the edge, stopping the scent from going straight to Juicy Fruit territory, and I think the "soft musk" mentioned might be white musk?

 

Wet: Ah, there's that jasmine. It's now primarily a lush, sweet jasmine, rounded out a bit by herbs (difficult to pick out any particulars, but I think I might be getting the thyme?), and an occasional incense-y waft of myrrh. The intense fruitiness I got from ITI is still hanging around a bit, but now it's just a facet instead of the main player.

 

Dry: Settles down into an apple(/quince?)/jasmine combo very reminiscent of Desire. However, I apparently go nose-blind to this one INCREDIBLY quickly. After four or five hours, all I can get is maybe some sandalwood and the ghost of fruit, and that's after some damn determined sniffing. According to other people, it's got a low-to-medium throw jasmine and white musk.