Gardez-Moi
Jovoy (2013)

To my nose, opens with a juicy woody berry smell...somewhat nostalgic with a nod to earlier eras...has a gassy green vibe mixed in there...quickly gets flowery but with that candied/bubble gum effect...nice projection...dries down with a musky vanilla...nice , but this ones for my wife , not me...

The opening is exuberant, very diffusive, green & wet in feel, with a fruity jasmine & a touch of tuberose. After around twenty minutes, the fruitiness fades & a soft gardenia peeks through, along with a subtly peppery lily & a herbal undercurrent. From here it all settles close to the skin, with just a hint of woody-vanilla sweetness in the base.
l really enjoyed the heart phase of this one, but the opening was just a little too fruity for me, & the base did not provide enough strength & support to keep it all going beyond five hours, when there was not a trace of it left on my skin. At this price point l expect far better longevity, & so in the end l'm relieved not to love it.

Gardez-Moi is a deep vanillic-floral which attacks you by soon by a balsamic indolic absolute jasmine which appears in a while musky/green, pungent and aldehydic before to morph towards a more vanillic and spicy direction with a spicy ylang-ylang twist and a more creamy-vanillic floral and musky "basement". I detect by soon under nose an indolic ripe dirtiness (a sort of deep and vaguely fecal floral miasm almost dissonant and ripe as the flowerpots stale water) and an earthy-green undertone (like for a rooty patchouli-herbs structural accord). A minimal touch of civet? After a while the floral wave becomes vivid, creamy, luxurious and undiscerned (I mean the jasmine starts to be flanked by further floral patterns breaking inside the floral agreement in a concert of nondescript floral nuances). I catch the spicy ylang-ylang for sure but not in particular gardenia or cyclamen while I can easily understand the listed lily-raspberry effect since a deep intense berrish-like floral blow takes finally the scene (as flanked by diverse floral levels of intensities) over a musky vanillic base. Un-original but well made for sure. A straightforward floral-vanillic performing an absessive flowery symphony. A must try for the deep realistically floral concoctions fanatic.
Update: Well, Bertrand Duchaufour is in general guarantee of extreme quality and most of all misured refinement in my humble olfactory "vocabulary". Jovoy Gardez-Moi does not confirm at all this rule under my unreliable (and by now atrophied ) nose. Too much gassy (truffly-aldehydic)-candied floral syrup in the air guys, too much obsessive floral presence (compromising class and subtleness) on skin. The initial feeling is not so distant from the one I tend to "undergo" by experiencing Tom Ford Black Orchid on skin (in a more floral and less "chocolatey" way of course). A sort of deep (red-berrish) floral syrup, immediately aldehydic (in a kind of gassy way), tends to merge its substance with a notable ylang-ylang's twist and with a final soapy musk. Soapiness is evident (by soon) as well as floral resin, final vanillic balminess and ylang-ylang. The aroma does not evolve, just tends to slightly restrain its resinous "exuberance". Floral nectar is overly resinous and candied (in a berrish way) to me while I miss a notable articulation and a "full bodied structure". I feel on skin also a sort of acid crudeness and floral "sweaty sultriness" frankly too much candied for my full pleasure. Tomato leaves? Well, I can't say to recognize it, just I get initially a sort of fleeting aromatic greenness which tends to disappear in the middle of a berrish syrup. Gardenia and cyclamen are heady to me (providing also a touch of green earthiness) while it seems to ostensibly catch a touch of exotic orchid in the blend. Finally balminess and ylang-ylang tend to embody a sort of lipstick's vibe.

A pleasant, refined opening centered on a floral-green accord, with dense aromatic flowers (I spotted gardenia and ylang, but there's more), and a slightly bitter, angular green note, which may also be due to cyclamen, which is a flower I really don't know. Classic chypre base of oak moss, vanilla, woods, with a delicate powdery side of white musks. The only thing that differentiates this from other similar scent is a nondescript, but pleasant metallic "sharpness", somehow also aerial and contemporary. Pretty much it, not that original but still with its own personality. A well-executed, elegant, dense floral scent.

7/10

(Floral) Head: Cyclamen, Gardenia, Vanilla. I doubt seriously if, given these three things, most perfumers could come up with this! Wow, there are just no words. Okay, let me try. You died and went to heaven. The wreath of gardenias they put on your casket magically appeared there, too, transformed into the kind of flowers angels use to make wings. A reasonable person might think I'm exaggerating and maybe I am, but now I'm scared to smell the rest for fear of having no money at all left in 2013.

Gardenia Avenuea beautiful take on Gardenia nice candy opening and a rather linear evolution. Just another scor from one of my favourite housesPros: huge Sillage and DurationCons: none"