More?Gardenia | Perfume Posse

Posse!  I gotz TWO new eyes! And I’ll talk about that on another post.  For today, I want to discuss … gardenia.  Or the lack thereof.  And how much saltiness there is in mah SOUL! at the notion of this lack.

The saltiness is because of Mrs Meyer’s Basil (and also the Grass one) that you can smell on the MOON! and it stays on your hands for the half-life of plutonium.  Both are really beautiful – but really strong.  And I find that cutting them by 50% helps manage the strength and longevity etc etc.

So.  Imagine my delight when I came upon the Walmart Exclusive (shrug) of GARDENIA!  Nearly wriggling with delight, like a demented Golden Retriever puppy, I seized the bottle, expecting a blast of the bleu cheesiness, sexy tropicalismo of Gardenia, like those beautiful seasonal plants at the big box stores with the paper gardenia affixed and the little buds that, when they open, are narcotic! :: and that’s the last time you will ever get a bud out of that plant!  but (yet another shrug)::  A fresh gardenia can rival a fresh tuberose, imo, it’s that beautiful.  And we all know the  perfumes : my favorite is Jungle Gardenia because it is IN YO’ FACE! gardenia and to my way of thinking, Go Big or Go Home with the tropicals (ymmv and I talk tough but when I Go Big like that I’m usually at home, by myself.  )

So.  I was all quivery when I saw the Mrs Meyer’s Gardenia Hand Soap.  Basil? Grass?  Moon!  So… saddle up, Suzy!  Right?

…. wommmp wommmp wommmp…

It smells persackly like…. soap.  Not gardenia-scented soap, even.  Just… soap.  Ivory comes to mind.  I thought at first it might be allergies/planting season (both are rough on my sinuses)… but I’ve smelled this 4 times now over the last month and (see wommps above).  It’s the most curious thing:  the ones you wouldn’t expect to be over-the-top strong (basil? grass?) are nuclear level.. and gardenia, one of the strongest florals out there?  Eh.

The other mystifying one?  Mint!  Seriously?  MINT?  You open a bottle of Dr Bronner’s in LA and I can probably smell it in the Middle of  IL.  :: to be honest, that one confuses me even more than the gardenia.  I can make a mint liquid soap in my sleep! (and I’m not that good, trust me).  The mint smells like … a lot of soap with maybe 1/3 of a mint leaf just tossed in there (not even muddled).  Weird.

So.  That’s my PSA for the day –  I did it so you don’t have to.  But if you did and you got a different experience from mine, I’d love to hear about it!  Are there any Mrs Meyer’s (or any other cleaner-y brands) that you love, scent-wise?  What’s your favorite gardenia (or do you hate the scent?) – my other favorite is the old Liz Taylor one – another of those IN YO’ FACE! iterations … but what else would you expect from La Liz?

Also (and serious query):  what is your recommendation for soap scum stuff?  New eyes = ick I have never seen before!  I thought I was cleaning!!!!  Apparently I was WRONG!

Related