Perfect Gardenia: Teo Cabanel's Lace Garden

by: Miguel Matos

I had a revelation during the days at Esxence in the Teo Cabanelbooth—Lace Garden. The newest fragrance from this French brand is delicious and refined, joyful and luxurious. Caroline Ilacqua, the owner of the brand, had shown me the first trial version of this perfume a year ago and I was immediately attracted to it, but the final formula was perfected and finally the perfume is launched in the market. This fragrance is different from all the others in the Teo Cabanel line but it follows the signature style of the brand—classic, timeless and elegant blends of the best materials available. The brand has compositions that range from the orientals and ambers to some fresh citruses and aromatics and also florals, but this one, Lace Garden, stands out for its sheer beauty and its creamy gardenia facets with green touches, which come from the magnolia leaves.

Miguel Matos with Caroline Ilacqua at Esxence 2015

While working with Teo Cabanel's in-house perfumer Jean-François Latty, Caroline finally found what she wanted. “The idea was to do something for spring, something that could really target all markets because we are quite successful in the Middle East but also in Europe, so sometimes it's hard to do fragrances that can appeal to all our customers,” explained Caroline Ilacqua. “We did the job with Barkhane which is a bestseller in all our markets. This time I wanted to go for gardenia, it was something I had in mind so I talked with Jean-François Latty, our perfumer, and he thought it would be a good idea if we added tuberose and magnolia leaves for the green touches. The inspiration comes from the place where I live, Fontainebleau, where the company is also based, 60 km from Paris. I was born there and it's the fifth generation of my family. I think it's a beautiful environment, we have a castle, the forest, the richness of nature ... I wanted to go back to the roots of Fontainebleau with the chateau and the French gardens I love so much.”

Château de Fontainebleau

As for the image, this is the first time that Teo Cabanel meets the influence of fashion and couture. “I met someone incredible, Guillaume Michel, an emerging french fashion designer. He found the concept interesting and he works with very high-end materials, just like we do, for his brand Iris Cantabri. He works with embroidery and everything is handmade. That's his dress that you can find on the picture (below). We did a very beautiful partnership with him for the movie and the picture. He loved the fragrance because it is in the spirit of his brand, too.”

Lace Garden is a fragrance that comes as another classic gardenia theme made in a very contemporary style. This is gardenia in its most glorious scent. The perfume is respectful to the nature of the flower and even the addition of tuberose is not sufficient to turn this into a Fracas kind of thing. The creaminess of the fragrance is what caused most impact to my nose. Almost impossibly elegant, this careful balance of white floral, green and cream is comfortable, refined and uplifting. I guess it reminds me of a softened and perfected Michael Kors Michael (another love of mine) where the tuberose is silent and gardenia is the star. There is a watery effect which comes from the transparent green notes and also a smell of hot skin in the background which may come from the combination of vanilla, powdery notes and woods. Somehow this mixture that starts slightly citric/ylang, going into the tuberose/gardenia/green leaves and later on powder/vanilla can be opulent but airy, romantic but also sexy, sweet but fresh ... I guess that everything depends on the balance of contrasts but the result is not a battle of ingredients. It's more like a happy sunny spring afternoon in a lush garden. Take it as just a personal opinion, but I think this may the best gardenia fragrance I have ever smelled.

Images from the event: Miguel Matos