Shalini Parfum Jardin Nocturne (Maurice Roucel, 2017)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ — masterpiece
Shalini’s Jardin Nocturne, released in 2017, is composed by perfumer Maurice Roucel, whose vast repertoire includes creations for houses including Gucci, Hermès, Guerlain (L'Instant de Guerlain), Le Labo (Jasmine 17, Labdanum 18), Yves Rocher, and Frederic Malle (Musc Ravageur). He’s worked on all of Shalini’s perfumes thus far including her eponymous Shalini that was released in 2004.
Jardin Nocturne is inspired by the warm night air of Dubai…
Moonlight reflecting upon the water. A night garden filled with night blooming flowers, ponds, waterfalls, fountains, winding paths, discreet garden benches where lovers meet under the stars.
The peace, beauty and the light of the night in full bloom… The soft sounds of the night, the fireflies lighting up the atmosphere…
Jardin Nocturne reflects the nuance and poetry of such a garden…
My fragrance is inspired by the night air of Dubai. Driving during the night in the city with the stars above, the warm desert air scented with the Oud that ceremoniously burns, caresses your skin. Jardin Nocturne captures the essence of the fragrant night… earthy, sensual and inviting.
Mingling lightness with darkness - femininity with masculinity.
… but it might as well have been inspired by the not-so-warm early morning air of Bangalore, where I lived for a few years. There ancient trees form canopies over the streets of Indiranagar, and a languid energy pervades, a generous pause between the dusty, chaotic air of the night before and the horizon of another day of frenzy.
My travel-sized 7.5ml Shalini Jardin Nocturne
Notes
Jardin Nocturne is all about the night-blooming jasmine. This description is, though, unfortunately a little vague. Is it in fact referencing Cestrum nocturnum (commonly called night-blooming jasmine), a member of the nightshades family (which includes tomatoes and eggplants), not a jasmine at all? Or could it be Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, or night-flowering jasmine, commonly called Parijat in some parts of India? The genus Nyctanthes is related to, but not the same, as Jasmine (Jasminum). Or perhaps the night-blooming jasmine here is what many of us are most familiar with: Jasminum Sambac (or Arabian Jasmine). Some reviewers mention jasmine sambac on Fragrantica, and they might be right, but for now I have my doubts.
The official notes are specific about the jasmine but not specific enough for us to be sure what varietal is being referenced:
Night blooming jasmine absolute from India, Assam Oud, Saffron, Mysore Sandalwood and Musk
The reason I’m obsessing about this a little is that the night garden evoked here reminds me a lot of the scent of the Nyctanthes arbor-tristis that’s pervasive on quiet streets of Bangalore, and unlike what some others have said, the jasmine here doesn’t feel heady to me at all.
During a sabbatical from work a couple years ago I called Bangalore’s lovely Indiranagar neighborhood home; some mornings I would walk around the quiet, little streets of the neighborhood and collect fallen blossoms before they got swept away or peed on by dogs. These orange-red stemmed blossoms give off a scent that’s like a cross between a honeysuckle and jasmine, still mostly jasmine. If you brought your nose very close, an animalic, indolic quality, typical of many white florals, came through.
Indiranagar, Bangalore, India
The jasmine here has a honeysuckle-like softness that reminds me a lot of those fallen jasmines I’d gather in Bangalore in late spring and early summer. Some people have felt the oud in the fragrance to make the perfume animalic, but I find that the oud here, perhaps paired with the musk, simply adds depth to the overall construction, accentuating the jasmine, which along with the saffron stand out in the opening. On my skin, Jardin Nocturne opens with a blast of sweet jasmine, alongside slightly medicinal saffron, which brings about a spiciness and a muted earthiness. You’d think a heavy dose of jasmine would mean a linear blast of florals, but instead you are transported to a truly evocative Jardin Nocturne: the jasmine is still centrestage, but it’s softened and enveloped by the scent of the night earth. This is where Maurice Roucel’s genius lies: the restraint in proportions and deeply considered balance of ingredients betrays the perfume’s apparently simple construction.
Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, or night flowering jasmine, Bangalore, India
On my skin Jardin Nocturne is fairly linear, but the jasmine and saffron seem to play a day-long game of hide-and-seek, but maybe it’s better understood as a dance – sometimes I find the jasmine more pronounced, but other times I sense the saffron even more, but maybe it’s just that my nose is alternatingly turning more or less anosmic to one or the other scent.
There is a fittingly resinous quality to Jardin Nocturne that gives it some heft – like heavy, scented night air – yet it comes across light – it really does mingle lightness with darkness, a brilliant olfactory sleight of hand.
Several hours later, Jasmine Nocturne dries down to a beautiful, creamy base of what seems to me to be real Mysore sandalwood.
When to wear
Jardin Nocturne is a very evocative, nostalgic scent for me. While I have been wearing it quite a lot recently, both on cool and warm days and nights, it’s not a perfume I reach out for casually: I need to be in the mood for it. Nostalgia has its pleasures and also its pains – and the cost of a perfume that’s able to evoke nostalgia is that you ought to be prepared for both.
Projection, Sillage and Longevity
On my skin, with a couple of spritzes, Jardin Nocturne has medium projection and easily lasts upwards of 8 hours.
A note on the bottle
The 50ml decants of Jardin Nocturne come with either a bulb atomizer or in a (very cool looking) bottle with a glass stopper (sealed with gold thread). I find the latter impractical, and I couldn’t care less for what seems to be the glamour associated with the luxuriousness of a bulb atomizer; I’d much rather have a regular atomizer that would make traveling with it easier.
Where to buy
At $500 for 50ml (or yours for only $3,000 for 50ml in a Lalique crystal flacon), Jardin Nocturne doesn’t come cheap at all. Is it worth it? For me, this is a low price for time travel.
You can buy Jardin Nocturne at Beverly Hills Perfumery, Indigo Perfumery, or Bergdorf Goodman.
