The fragrane is more of an 'essence of gardenia' than an actual gardenia scent (because the technology didn't exist in the 1920s when the fragrance was created to extract actual gardenia scent or something like that). I've sampled it a number of time and it's very much a jasmine fragrance on me, which I personally like. I think it's a pretty white floral fragrance, although it doesn't last that long on me.