Say $425 dropped into your lap, and you had to spend it on perfume. What would you buy? If you want to smell like a sharply cut ice-white diamond splashing rainbows of light, you might want to consider Ormonde Jayne White Gold Extrait.
Perfumer Geza Schoen developed White Gold, and it’s the third in Ormonde Jayne’s Gold trilogy. Its notes include leaf green molecule, pink pepper, mandarin, bergamot, clary sage, jasmine absolute, carnation absolute, orris butter, orchids, freesia, Madagascan vanilla, ambrette absolute, cashmeran, white musk, amber, moss, tonka, labdanum, opoponax, vetiver and cedar.
White Gold is the kind of grand modern floral I imagine being at home on the stark marble counter of a bathroom in an all-white Los Angeles home in Architectural Digest. It kicks off with an orange-tinted tingle so bright you need sunglasses, then slides into a jasmine-dominated melange of expensive florals complex with spice, wet iris, and a fresh bouquet that a Beverly Hills designer might have plucked straight from the cooler and arranged artfully with Christian Tortu-style leaves wrapping the inside of the clear vase. Now and again a whiff of something fruity rises, then is subsumed by the rest of the bouquet.
White Gold has structure and freshness, and isn’t weighed down by gardenia and tuberose or dragged into more traditional territory with obvious rose. Despite the real-deal materials in its heart, White Gold is angular and assertive. It’s not a stroll-around-the-garden sort of perfume. No, it wants to ride in a Mercedes with white leather seats, gold trim, and music playing a bit too loudly. “Look at me,” it says. “I’m it.” White Gold is Extrait, baby. Nothing EdP about it.
Sure, you can smell White Gold from the Mercedes’ backseat. But what’s the use of a fabulous perfume if it has a mousy sillage? You’ll smell it for hours, too — about six on my skin. It keeps its edge all the way through to its cedar-tinged dry down. No matter how much “oriental” they threw at this perfume, it refuses to soften and give up its modern vibe.
All that modern luxury will cost you. Ormonde Jayne White Gold is $425 for 120 ml of Extrait. For information on where to buy it, see Ormonde Jayne under Perfume Houses.
As for what I’d spend those perfume dollars on, I’d probably buy the bottle of Parfum DelRae Bois de Paradis I keep threatening to get, and blow the rest on Guerlain Vol de Nuit Extrait. What about you?
Note: top image is I Saw the Light [rotated & cropped] by GollyGforce - Living My Worst Nightmare at flickr; some rights reserved.
Fun review, thanks, Angela! I’d spend it on a different OJ: Osmanthus which I find bright, pretty, wearable and wonderful–and not inexpensive, but not outrageous. And I’d have a little left over for something else fun.
Osmanthus is a good one! I already have and love OJ Vanille d’Iris, or I’d be tempted by that one.
I love Osmanthus too, it was my first purchase from OJ 15 years ago. Loved reading this review and I was given two samples of White Gold earlier this year as I am not usually a white floral type, but the perfumer Linda was in the boutique and she insisted sweetly that I would love it! (By the way I think she is the perfumer on this, not Geza). I have to say I don’t love White Gold, although i have worn it twice on two special occasions and it was perfect. But the crazy thing is, my 78 year old macho alpha male father LOVES it and ended up buying a bottle for himself. Previously he was a eau savage/isfarkand kind, but it smells fabulous on him.
Angela, hAve you tried the new OJ exclusive Privé that was just launched? It’s only sold in New York at the moment, but I’m dying to try it!
That’s so funny about your father loving White Gold, and yet I can totally see it. There’s something forceful about it that could be terrific on a man.
No, I haven’t tried the new exclusive, but it’s always worth smelling a new OJ!
Oh, I’d buy a new tooth! ?
That photo is gorgeous!
Sadly, will never try this perfume due to (crazy!) cost, and the fact the notes don’t appeal to me. Thanks for the review, money saved! ??
Teeth aren’t allowed with this money, just perfume! (Although I really do hope you get a tooth if you need one.)
Money saved is kind of a blessing, isn’t it?
Well, that sounds really rather horrid. Sorry OJ.
I’d walk into a Hermes and spend a good long time browsing. I’d probably go for Osmanthe Yunnan, and spend the change on bath products or a travel set. Or I’d squirrel the change away for vintage purchases on eBay. Jolie Madame perhaps.
I’d like to think I’d be this organised and decisive but I’d probably confuse myself and buy something stupid, something pretentious from Le Labo that i know I dislike. And end up hating myself and schlepping home for pizza in front of the tellie.
Truth told, I’d probably be more impulsive than I’ve let on, too! (And the pizza bit sounds pretty good.)
Sounds like an everything AND the kitchen sink kind of perfume. I would absolutely sample this given the chance but then, even if I ended up liking it, why would I need 120 mLs worth of an EXTRAIT? What ever happened to 15 mL extraits or perhaps, at most, 30 mLs a la Chanel Les Exclusifs.
My $425 would go towards a “large sample” of April Aromatics Irisistible.
It looks like there’s a 50 ml bottle available, too, but I couldn’t find one in the U.S. to link to. Although that can still be a lot!
1) $425 is a whollop! This perfume better come with an Mercedes with Idris Elba in the driver’s seat taking us to Gjelina!
2) BUT! The notes are everything that makes my heart flutter. The price is comparable to Strange Invisible Perfumes, for example, for their 100 mL sized bottles ( I only have the 15 mL!)
3) If I had $425 JUST on perfume, I would get another bottle of Lubin Black Jade and a Acqua Di Parma Profumo, with the presentation box.
Oh, I love Profumo! You’ve reminded me to fish out my decant and give it some love.
Just had lunch at Gjelina, unfortunately not with Idris as my companion, but fortunately with a group of great girlfriends. I had a bowl of steamed mussels in a saffron/chorizo broth, with a couple of big toasted baguette slices for dipping! It was yummy.
Oh, that sounds like a great lunch- men come and go, but great girlfriends are gold!
I do like a good bowl of mussels marinière, and that interpretation sounds WONDERFUL.
Anytime I am down in LA I go to Gjelina and splurge with friends. It is so low key, but you slip in with friends or a really great date and have excellent, excellent food in the ridiculous tourist trap that has become Venice.
I’ve sampled this one and it’s eminently (but not imminently at that price) huffable. Gorgeous, and a little cruel. It’s truly fabulous! Your review is spot on.
“Gorgeous, and a little cruel” is a great description!
I love your little pun there!
I swear we have the smartest readers at NST.
Gorgeous and just a little cruel is an aspiration to me.
It’s good to know these things!
If I had $425 that I had to spend on perfume, I would get Aftelier Antique Ambergris solid perfume and a backup rollerball of the Alchemy liquid perfume. I’m probably getting the latter anyway, so if the $425 then dropped into my lap, I would get Antique Ambergris in one of her beautiful antique cases.
Those cases really are special. I bet they feel great in the hand, too.
$425 to spend on anything? Even something hard to get? Quite possibly I would spring for a bottle of OJ’s very-limited-edition Seraphim for 100LTD. It was lovely and I’m almost out!
I’ve never smelled that one! It sounds like a worthy investment.
I’d definitely recommend the Bois de Paradis, instead. I bought myself a bottle, drained it, and am now working on a second bottle that fell into my lap via a kind perfumista pal (I’m looking at you, Sharon C!).
Very nice!!
What’s tempting me right now is Areej le Doré Koh-i-Noor. And I could always find something old that I really need on ebay. But your review has persuaded me to sample this anyway.
I’ve never heard of that fragrance! What a name–so evocative.
It’s my favorite from the brand. I also find Baikal Gris intriguing — and I could have both for the price of one of the Golds!
Okay, now I”m going to have to hunt this brand down!
“the kind of grand modern floral I imagine being at home on the stark marble counter of a bathroom in an all-white Los Angeles home in Architectural Digest.” Wow, that is…so not me. Could you recommend instead a perfume that’s olfactory equivalent of the English cottage in The Holiday?
That would be my perfume, too! (Note to self: queue up The Holiday soon.)