New Perfume Review Gucci Flora Gorgeous Gardenia Eau de Parfum- Finding the Same Page

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Gucci has become one of the most interesting brands because over the last four years the creative director of the brand Alessandro Michele has taken an active hand. This is not the normal way among designer perfumes. It is one reason the brand has drawn my undivided attention. It also does not guarantee a uniform quality. Over the past four years Sig. Michele has had hits and misses. Which makes every new release something to anticipate. Gucci Flora Gorgeous Gardenia Eau de Parfum (EdP) is the latest.

Alessandro Michele

Flora Gorgeous Gardenia EdP is the fourth flanker of 2012’s original. Most of them were before Sig. Michele’s tenure at the brand. They were typical fruity florals with nothing to recommend them. Last year Sig. Michele and original perfumer Honorine Blanc-Hattab made an attempt under the new aesthetic. It was better but was still lacking. There has been a lushness to the recent releases that I was hoping for. This year’s version gives me that.

Honorine Blanc-Hattab

Pear has been a part of the formula from the start. This time it is fuller. The reason is mandarin is used to complement instead of the berries used in past iterations. It makes the pear juicier. There also seems to be a change in the source of gardenia. In the new version it is creamier, but it also retains a more noticeable green along with it. The jasmine creates a floral accord which harmonizes with the pear. This forms the liveliest version of this accord of any of the family.

One of the things which intruded on previous versions was the use of brown sugar to make pseudo-gourmand base accords. It never fit in the previous ones. It remains but it is used as a hint of extra sweetness to the florals instead of a clashing candy crush.

Flora Gorgeous Gardenia EdP has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

This time it feels as if Sig. Michele and Mme Blanc-Hattab are finally on the same page. Which leads to the best of the Flora Gorgeous Gardenias.

Disclosure: this review is based on a sample provided by Sephora.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Gucci Bloom Profumo di Fiori- Adding Flesh to the Floral

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If there is anywhere where the resurrection of the Gucci fragrance fortunes can be found it is in Gucci Bloom and its flankers. Ever since overall creative director at Gucci, Alessandro Michele, has taken a hand in the fragrance side things have noticeably improved. Gucci Bloom in 2017 was the first marker that things were going to be different under Sig. Michele. The fifth flanker Gucci Bloom Profumo di Fiori continues the ascending trajectory.

Alessandro Michele

Since Sig. Michele has taken over perfumer Alberto Morillas has become his exclusive creative partner. There is a wonderful new Gucci aesthetic which is coming from this. One thing about it which sets it apart is it isn’t going along with the transparent trend so many other brands are following. When Bloom debuted it decided to go with a substantial floral core of tuberose and jasmine. That has been the starting point for every successive version as M. Morillas finds a new partner for his keynote florals. For Bloom Profumo di Fiori it is ylang ylang.

Alberto Morillas

I adore the version of that floral M. Morillas uses here. There is a fresher ylang ylang fraction which gets used a lot by those fragrances seeking opacity. The one here is that fleshy sensual version which finds a couple of willing partners in tuberose and jasmine.

The jasmine and tuberose come to life immediately along with the green vegetal Rangoon creeper adding a bit of contrast. This is the essential DNA of Bloom from past to present. One of the things I admire about this line is they don’t scrub the indoles away. They are kept to a more modest effect, but they add a lot of character to these perfumes. This is where the full spectrum ylang ylang finds harmony as the carnal floral dances a pas de deux with the indolic parts of tuberose and jasmine. If you like sexy florals this is your accord. M. Morillas adds a bit of rooty orris to connect to a sandalwood, benzoin, and musk base.

Bloom Profumo di Fiori has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

Even though this review is coming out in midsummer Bloom Profumo di Fiori is a post-Labor Day fall floral. It is one of the best new releases for the upcoming season. Once again Sig. Michele and M. Morillas have added to their winning record. It all comes down to adding a fleshy floral to everything.

Disclosure: this review is based on a sample provided by Gucci.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Gucci Guilty Pour Homme Eau de Parfum- Rose on Fire

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There is no other mass-market perfume brand which interests me more than Gucci. The reason is back in 2002 when Tom Ford was the creative director for all things Gucci he took charge of fragrance, too. The perfumes that were generated at that time were brilliant envelope pushing fragrance for any market sector. At the mall they were top of the class. The perfume which made me take notice was 2003’s Gucci Pour Homme. Mr. Ford and Michel Almairac pushed back against the prevailing fresh and clean trends of that day. It is one of my favorites still.

Alessandro Michele

Those were the greatest times of Gucci’s fragrance history. I would suggest it was because the brand creative director was also interested in perfume. It took almost fifteen years until another Gucci creative director wanted to take charge of the fragrance piece. Alessandro Michele has reinvigorated Gucci fragrance from stagnant drift to something to be paid attention to again. Sig. Michele has worked almost exclusively with perfumer Alberto Morillas since he took an interest in 2017. It hasn’t been a flawless rebirth. There have been some stumbles here and there. Gucci Guilty Pour Homme Eau de Parfum is not one of them.

Alberto Morillas

Guilty Pour Homme Eau de Parfum follows last year’s Guilty Pour Homme Cologne. That was one of those stumbles I mentioned. The Cologne version was lacking anything different. The Guilty Pour Homme Eau de Parfum returns to what I like so much about the partnership between Sig. Michele and M. Morillas.

What has been so refreshing about Sig. Michele’s vision for fragrance is he isn’t looking to follow trends but set them. That has meant the recent Gucci releases aren’t part of the transparent wave of fragrance. The other thing is M. Morillas is encouraged to use ingredients outside of the typical mass-market palette. When it succeeds it is one of the reasons I am excited about perfume with Gucci on the bottle again. For Guilty Pour Homme Eau de Parfum the different ingredient choice is chili pepper.

It is right out front paired with a full-spectrum rose. The heat of the pepper ignites the spicier facets of rose. Bringing them to the foreground. This is a kind of rose I can get behind. It heads towards more typical fougere country with a heart of lavender and neroli. They turn the overall profile towards that, but the rose continues to burn freely above it all. Patchouli and cedar comprise the base accord which just provide a solid foundation for the fiery rose fougere.

Guilty Pour Homme Eau de Parfum has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

I like the way Sig. Michele is providing consumers a vivid counterpoint to most of the current releases. It will become another perfume collection where the Gucci name means something again. Guilty Pour Homme Eau de Parfum sets a rose on fire to get your attention.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Gucci.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Gucci Bloom Ambrosia di Fiori- One Flower Too Many

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One of the things which makes perfume composition difficult is you can have too much of a good thing. It is easy to think a floral fragrance should have many of those included. The real effort is to choose the right two or three; striking a balance. A precise balance. It was what made Gucci Bloom stand out three years ago. A near-perfect recipe of four florals which stands for what seems to be the reinvigoration of the fragrance side of Gucci.

Alessandro Michele

Creative director Alessandro Michele and perfumer Alberto Morillas managed to follow that up with two excellent flankers; Bloom Acqua di Fiori and Bloom Nettare di Fiori. They did this by adding in something which created new compelling fragrances. A year ago they released Bloom Gocce di Fiore where they changed the concentrations of the original ingredients. It was terrible except as an example that they made the right decision in the choices made in the original. For the end of 2019 the most recent flanker, Gucci Bloom Ambrosia di Fiori, split the difference.

Alberto Morillas

M. Morillas is again behind the wheel as the original four florals; Rangoon creeper, jasmine, tuberose, and orris take their places. For this version the tuberose concentration is increased a lot. The extra flower added is Damask rose. There are lots of floral perfumes which feature Damask rose and tuberose. They are a classic floral pairing. They are also two of the strongest ingredients in perfumery. In the case of Bloom Ambrosia di Fiori they nearly overwhelm everything else. The only one of the other florals which gets a tiny foothold is jasmine. This is all there is on my skin, rose and tuberose.

Bloom Ambrosia di Fiori has 12-14 hour longevity and above average sillage.

This is not the train wreck last year’s Bloom Gocce di Fiore was. Instead it is an example of what happens when you add one flower too many to something that is great on its own.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Gucci.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Gucci Memoire d’une Odeur- A Commercial Risk

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Ever since creative director at Gucci, Alessandro Michele, has taken a hand in the fragrance side of the brand it has been, mostly, a good thing. Outside of a couple of missteps I have believed Gucci perfumes have been on an upward trajectory because of Sig. Michele’s involvement. For the most part that success has come through giving typical fragrance styles clever twists through ingredient choice. What I have been hoping for is for Sig. Michele to make a fragrance which is different than those typical mass-market styles. It was what set Gucci apart when Tom Ford was the last overall creative director to get involved with the perfume side. It seems like Gucci Memoire d’une Odeur is an attempt to do that.

Alessandro Michele

Sig. Michele has been working almost exclusively with perfumer Alberto Morillas since he got to Gucci. That partnership remains for Memoire d’une Odeur. I have to comment that the press release is a touch irritating because it claims that this is the first perfume to feature chamomile as a keynote. Any quick search of any perfume database will show that is a bit of exaggeration. They are making a point, though. Chamomile has a different scent profile than most things featured in mass-market perfumes. It carries a strong green herbal-like foundation which also carries a fruity component. For Memoire d’une Odeur they are using Roman chamomile which has a granny smith apple to match with the green herbal-ness. This is a challenging ingredient to put on top of a new commercial release.

Alberto Morillas

Yet when you spray on Memoire d’une Odeur that is what you first notice. M. Morillas adds a bit of soft lift with a white musk, or two, but it doesn’t blunt the sharper edges of the chamomile. This is a vegetal green given some texture though the apple quality within. This is the kind of opening which is often seen in a niche perfume. not so often at the mall. With all of that in play for the top accord the remainder of the development spools out in a more recognizable fashion. Jasmine holds the heart with a more traditional floral scent. The base is even more recognizable as a series of white musks wrap around a clean cedar.

Memoire d’une Odeur has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

I am really looking to my next field trip to the local mall to observe how consumers are reacting to Memoire d’une Odeur. I think it is going to be a tiny step too far as the top accord provides a prickly character that will be difficult to embrace. Although if you are a more experienced perfume fan that prickliness is what might get you to take a second sniff. I am happy that Sig. Michele is willing to take some commercial risks as he continues to breathe life back into Gucci perfumes.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Gucci.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Gucci Flora Emerald Gardenia- Back on Track?

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When I feel like a brand has taken a wrong turn, I find it difficult to give them the benefit of the doubt. After being so impressed with the fragrance side of Gucci since creative director Alessandro Michele had played a hand; the last six months gave the opposite reaction. Gucci went from a brand of new vision to a brand of cynical marketing with the 13-release The Alchemist’s Garden which I think was meant to draw you in with a pretty bottle so you’d forget the banal juice inside. Then this spring’s release of Gucci Bloom Gocce di Fiore which still ranks as one of the worst perfumes of 2019 for me. It felt like Gucci had not only made a wrong turn but driven off a cliff. You can bet there wasn’t a lot of anticipation when I received my sample of Gucci Flora Emerald Gardenia. I had every reason to expect little.

Alessandro Michele

The Gucci Flora line is the latest to have Sig. Michele re-examine it. The Gucci Flora line has been around since 2009 when the brand released a yearly version most of the time. This was emblematic of the drift at Gucci prior to Sig. Michele becoming involved. All the Gucci Flora releases were nice and safe seemingly meant to put seasonal product on the shelf. What had me excited about the tenure of Sig. Michele is he has been giving each of the older collections new life. If it hadn’t been for the last six months, I would have been very excited. Instead I worried the days of playing it nice and safe had returned.

Alberto Morillas

For Emerald Gardenia Sig. Michele continues to work exclusively with perfumer Alberto Morillas. It seems like there is good understanding between the two at what they want to achieve. The most recent Gucci Flora annual releases had been versions of Gorgeous Gardenia in 2017 and 2018. Done by the previous creative team they were not stand-outs in any way. Thankfully Emerald Gardnia does seem to signify a change for the better.

My first memory of gardenia is at my grandmother’s home in South Florida. The house was filled with bowls of water with a gardenia floating on top. Those were the Glade Plug-Ins of the day. What Emerald Gardenia does is to bring back that scent of gardenia on water.

Emerald Gardenia opens with a beautiful lemon bracketed by two other fruits; watermelon and pear. The watermelon sets up this watery undercurrent that will carry into the heart while the pear finds a crispness which explodes the lemon into a sparkling firework. This leads to the heart where gardenia is balanced with lotus and frangipani. The lotus again provides a unique wateriness while the frangipani adds fullness to the gardenia. It finishes on a woody accord of sandalwood and cedar.

Emerald Gardenia has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

Emerald Gardenia is what was happening at Gucci prior to the previous six months. Smart mainstream perfume making with clever twists. I can only hope that the rest of 2019, and beyond, has more like Emerald Gardenia on the way.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Gucci.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Gucci Bloom Gocce di Fiore- Pothole Season

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If you live anyplace which gets significant snow, then you are familiar with pothole season. This happens as winter wanes and spring is coming in. The alternating freezing and thawing open up cracks in the pavement which become bigger and bigger potholes. They can crop up incredibly quickly. One day a smooth ride, the next giant axle-breaking craters you can’t avoid. I’ve never thought about a perfume brand having pothole season but the last six months from Gucci finishing with the recent release Gucci Bloom Gocce di Fiore sure feels like the axles have taken a beating.

Alessandro Michele

Ever since the creative director at Gucci, Alessandro Michele, took a hand in the fragrance side of the brand it felt like Gucci was getting its groove back. Gucci Bloom in the spring of 2017 laid down the first marker that Gucci was serious about perfume again. For the next year that impression was reinforced as a new aesthetic was seemingly being forged. Sig. Michele was working exclusively with perfumer Alberto Morillas; this seemed like a dream team in the making. The road ahead was smooth. Then the cracks began showing up.

Alberto Morillas

It started when I received a package heading into the Holidays containing the thirteen (!) perfumes in the Gucci: The Alchemist’s Garden. The press material mentioned this was meant to be a collection of accords which you could layer to grow your own garden. This is as much of a cynical kind of release as I can imagine. When I received a follow-up package with the fourteenth addition. I just looked at the entire mess as a speed bump. A giant fourteen bottle speed bump. Instead it was a warning shot because the pothole was coming.

The Present

I thought if there was anything which was going to get Gucci back on track it was a return to the Gucci Bloom Collection. The previous two flankers were part of what I saw as this creative resurgence. When I sprayed Gocce di Fiore I knew the pothole had opened wide beneath me.

The two previous flankers had taken the core ingredients of Bloom; honeysuckle, tuberose, jasmine, and iris and enhanced them with new ingredients added in. Gocce di Fiore doesn’t do that it instead tries to recalibrate the concentrations of the core four ingredients. What ends up in the bottle seems like a discarded version on the way to the original. It is a screeching white floral which overwhelms anything approaching subtlety. It made me want to go get the iris Alchemist’s Garden sample and see if I could make it better. When I thought things couldn’t have reached a lower level than The Alchemist’s Garden, Gocce di Fiore turns the cracks into a pothole.

Bloom Gocce di Fiore has at least two hours longevity. I don’t know how much more because I scrubbed it off. Sillage seemed average.

The Future?

Pothole season eventually gives way to paving season when the potholes are filled in and smoothed over as if they were never there. I hope Sig. Michele and M. Morillas do some roadwork and put Gucci back on the path it was on before the last six months because that was seeming like something worth looking forward to.

Disclosure: This review is based on samples provided by Gucci.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Gucci Bloom Nettare di Fiori- Better and Better

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If Gucci is going to regain a prominence in designer fragrances it is going to require first and foremost, consistency. Ever since Tom Ford left the brand the fragrance aspect drifted in search of a new aesthetic. For a decade Gucci became an afterthought when it came to perfume. The naming of Alessandro Michele as creative director has, once again, provided someone who believes fragrance is an important piece of the Gucci aesthetic.

Alessandro Michele

A year ago, with the release of Gucci Bloom the first perfume overseen by Sig. Michele showed a change. Even though Bloom was an extremely simple construct it found a way of combining jasmine and tuberose while providing a transparency with the substance of Kevlar. Over the past year the Gucci fragrance releases have made me look forward to each one as the consistency I was looking for was being built release by release. I was particularly impressed with the spring flanker Bloom Acqua di Fiori which took the simplicity of Bloom and covered it in green. By starting simple it meant that the flanker could be drastically changed with an overt choice to supply something different than the white flowers. This was why when receiving Bloom Nettare di Fiori, which is the fall flanker, I was curious to see what was next.

Alberto Morillas

So far in this mini revival of the Gucci perfume fortunes Sig. Michele has been working exclusively with perfumer Alberto Morillas. There are few who are as good as M. Morillas at creating pillars and flankers which are not cynical replays. If Bloom Acqua di Fiori was the greening of Bloom then Bloom Nettare di Fiori is the spicing up of Bloom. It is accomplished by adding in three key ingredients; ginger, osmanthus, and patchouli.

Just as the Bloom Acqua di Fiori opened with the green; Bloom Nettare di Fiore opens with the ginger. M. Morillas leads with a healthy dose of it. It is laid out to provide a spicy entry way to the floral Bloom DNA of jasmine and tuberose. Rose comes and provides an introduction before allowing the ginger, tuberose, and jasmine to mingle. M. Morillas finds a balance where the zing of ginger meshes with the lightly indolic white flowers. I am impressed anew with how M. Morilas manages to make a transparency which also projects strength. The base comes with a leathery osmanthus paired with an earthy patchouli. It provides a bit more heft than the previous two editions of Bloom but that’s what makes it a fall-style perfume.

Bloom Nettare di Fiore has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

I don’t know what’s next for Gucci but through the six releases since Bloom, last year, they have become a designer brand which has returned to relevance. They are doing it by getting better and better with each release. Bloom Nettare di Fiore is another along that line.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Gucci.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Gucci Guilty Oud- Absolute pour Homme Take Two

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When I really started expanding my perfume horizons one of the brands which thrilled me was Gucci. This was during the time Tom Ford was in charge of Gucci as creative director for everything. Mr. Ford showed the power of cohesive creative control. When he left Gucci to form his own eponymous brand those principles have created one of the great success stories in fashion retail. What he left behind at Gucci descended into soulless corporate fragrance with few exceptions. There is a new creative director for all things Gucci again, Alessandro Michele, and he actually cares about the fragrances which carry the Gucci imprint. The proof of that has been the releases over the last eighteen months. The latest addition to the new era at the brand is Gucci Guilty Oud.

Alessandro Michele

Sig. Michele has again turned the brand into a forward-thinking fragrance one. An aspect of the early phase is he has chosen to work almost exclusively with perfumer Alberto Morillas. As I remark upon frequently this kind of creative director-perfumer partnership has a positive effect; especially when trying to design a brand aesthetic. Just a few perfumes into this collaboration there are the outlines of what that might be for Gucci 2018 and beyond.

Alberto Morillas

One thing I have been enjoying is Sig. Michele is not signing on to the “lighter and transparent is better” bandwagon. He is defining something which has much more presence than the other masstige brands he is competing with. It is too early to see if consumers share his vision. I am hoping that there is room for something beyond lighter and transparent in the current landscape. Guilty Oud will be one which helps let us know if there is.

Guilty Oud is really a flanker of Gucci Guilty Absolute pour Homme.  I was not a fan of that perfume. Guilty Oud is almost take two on that perfume. It uses some of what I really liked about the earlier release this year of Guilty Absolute pour Femme; the blackberry. That perfume was an effusive fruity floral. Guilty Oud is not that but the blackberry along with some other similar ingredients improves greatly on Guilty Absolute pour Homme.

It is that blackberry which opens Guilty Oud. In this perfume it is a quick fleeting bit of fruit. I like it for that kind of effect; here then gone. It moves into a patchouli and rose heart which has been the Guilty DNA. Here it is made to stand out without too much support. The oud comes from using a small amount of natural oud within a larger oud accord. One thing which I found to be a nice touch was using a cypress extract called Goldenwood to provide a blonde wood counterweight to the oud accord. It smooths out the entire fragrance providing an overall sophistication.

Guilty Oud has 10-12 hour longevity and moderate sillage.

These are exciting times at Gucci perfume. Guilty Oud gives me more reason to believe we are at the beginning of something great again.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Gucci.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Gucci Bloom Acqua di Fiori- Smell Your Greens!

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When I was child I heard one phrase a lot at dinner, “Eat your greens!” I found a way to nibble around the edges of what ever was on my plate while eating the other things. It is far from an uncommon experience. Green in perfume is also a difficult sell to most consumers. If there is one significant difference between niche and mainstream it that niche is happy to go green. There are plenty of examples of well executed green mainstream releases which failed. It’s like at the mall the sales associates are trying to get people to “smell your greens!”. Which makes me interested when a brand takes another attempt at trying to break through. Gucci Bloom Acqua di Fiori is the latest to step up.

Alessandro Michele

If there were “glory days” for the Gucci fragrance line it was probably between 1997-2004. Tom Ford was hands-on with creative direction in all aspects of the brand during that time. Once he left the creative direction was mostly left up to the corporate team at P&G. That resulted in what you would expect, safe crowd-pleasing releases. What has me excited about Gucci again is the new creative director Alessandro Michele also seems to share Mr. Ford’s ethic of being involved in the fragrance as well as the fashion. In Sig. Michele’s early days both Gucci Bloom and Gucci Guilty Absolute pour Femme show a new intriguing creative direction in fragrance. When I received the press materials for Bloom Acqua di Fiori I noticed that two of the more prominent green ingredients, galbanum and blackcurrant buds, were top of the ingredient list. Perfumer Alberto Morillas was going to have his hands full adding those into a transparent white flower original.

Alberto Morillas

The green is right there from the beginning. Sr. Morillas pushes them to a moderate level. The overall effect is a slightly bitter sap accord. There is more strength to it overall which makes Bloom Acqua di Fiori a slightly less transparent perfume than the original. Sr. Morillas then reprises the tuberose and jasmine from the original which are similarly opaque. The new addition is lily of the valley to provide a floral with a significant green quality to connect to the top accord. It ends with a lightly woody base accord of sandalwood and white musks.

Bloom Acqua di Fiori has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

I am looking forward to my next visit to my local mall so I can watch first reactions to this perfume. Sig. Michele is trying to see if a new perfume generation will “smell their greens!”. The verdict will take a year to find out. In the meantime, Sig. Michele has again signaled the corporate thought process has been removed from Gucci fragrance. He has a hold of the wheel and is going off-road; Gucci Bloom Acqua di Fiori continues that journey.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Gucci.

–Mark Behnke