Gardenia

A creamy, milky white-flower accord. Gardenia yields almost no usable extract, so perfumers rebuild it from rose, jasmine, and creamy lactone materials.

A compounded reconstruction of the scent of gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides), an evergreen shrub of the coffee family (Rubiaceae) native to southern China and East Asia. The flower yields so little usable extract that natural gardenia is almost never used, and the note has long been rebuilt by perfumers from other materials. This version, from The Perfumer's Apprentice, has a published formula. About half of it is phenylethyl alcohol, the rose-like alcohol present in many white flowers, supported by citronellyl acetate, benzyl acetate (the signature ester of jasmine), and heliotropin. Methyl Laitone and ethyl vanillin give it a milky, creamy body, while methyl anthranilate and an indole base supply the heady, faintly animalic edge of a living white flower. Highly concentrated and tenacious; a small amount carries a long way.